Razistan

Last year, the war in Afghanistan accounted for roughly two percent of the news content published in the United States. Razistan.org aims to help give Afghanistan the attention it demands. Our core project is a website of unique photo essays and short video documentaries that bring into vivid relief not only the war and its participants but also the country and its people. Contributors include both award-winning Kabul-based photojournalists from around the world and local Afghan photographers and videographers. There is much more to the war than the mainstream media has shown. The purpose of Razistan — or "land of secrets" — is to reveal these untold stories. FOUNDERS LUKE MOGELSON (Editor) is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine. Based in Kabul, Afghanistan, Mogelson has also worked for GQ, Harper's, The Nation, and The Washington Monthly. His fiction has appeared in the Hudson Review, Kenyon Review and Missouri Review. He may be reached at [email protected] MARCOS BARBERY (Publisher) is the founder of Thread, Inc, an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit journalism platform based in New York City. Razistan is powered by Thread, which produces and publishes subject-driven outlets, multimedia projects, and documentaries. Barbery's work has been supported by the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute, and syndicated and broadcast nationally. He may be reached at [email protected] Website PIETER TEN HOOPEN (Photo Editor) is a Swedish photographer who has worked for numerous international magazines and published two books. He has received the Memorial Mario Giacomelli Prize and three World Press Photo Awards. Pieter has also taught photojournalism in various Scandinavian schools. Website Photos FOUNDING CONTRIBUTORS SANDRA CALLIGARO is a French photographer who has been working in Afghanistan for five years. In addition to working for various European outlets, she has concentrated on a personal project — "Kabul, 10 Years After" — which has been exhibited at the French Institute of Afghanistan and at Confluences, in Paris. Website Photos MIKHAIL GALUSTOV is a Georgian photographer who came to Kabul in 2009, prior to which he worked for Russia's largest daily newspaper, the Kommersant. His work has appeared in GQ, The New York Times, Fortune, Newsweek, and elsewhere. Website Photos JOEL VAN HOUDT is a Dutch photographer whose work has appeared in Der Spiegel, Stern, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere. Last year, his multi-media project "Entering Europe," about a Moroccan who smuggles himself into Spain, won Best Picture at the Lead Academy. Website Twitter Photos JAVIER MANZANO is a Mexican photographer and videographer who spent a year working on a documentary about war crimes in Afghanistan for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. His previous work chronicling Mexico's drug wars won a World Press Photo Award and an award from the National Press Photographers Association's Best of Photojournalism in 2011. Website Photos JONATHAN SARUK is an American Featured Photographer with Reportage by Getty Images and a graduate of the International Center of Photography in New York, where he was awarded a scholarship from The New York Times. Jonathan’s still images have been published in The New Yorker, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Times (London), and elsewhere. Website Photos JAKE SIMKIN is an Australian photographer who has been working in Afghanistan for over four years. He is also a co-founder of Development Pictures. Website LORENZO TUGNOLI is an Italian photographer whose work has been published by The New York Times, Newsweek, Time Magazine, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere. He is currently working on a long-term project about a village in Nangarhar. Website Photos FARDIN WAEZI has been the senior photographer to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan for the past five years. He has had multiple exhibitions in Kabul at the French, Swiss, and Indian embassies and in the Queen's Palace of the Bagh-e-Babur Gardens. His work has been published in the New York Times, El Mundo, Der Spiegel, and elsewhere. Website JOHN WENDLE is an American journalist who writes and shoots for TIME Magazine. Before coming to Afghanistan in 2009, John reported for TIME in Moscow and covered the war between Russia and Georgia in 2008. Website Twitter Photos

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Thanks to all your support we've been able to launch razistan.org From now on that's the place for our new stories and updates from Afghanistan.

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Screenshot of the new www.razistan.org

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A mentally handicapped girl at a refugee camp in Kabul. Photo: Sandra Calligaro

The war in Afghanistan is not over. Help us tell the story. Fund our Kickstarter.

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A young man prepares his family's field for sowing using an ox-pulled plough in the village of Lagubu, Sorubi district. Photo: Lorenzo Tugnoli

The war in Afghanistan is not over. Help us tell the story. Fund our Kickstarter.

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Villagers joke and laugh on a hill overlooking the village of Toorkhane, Sorubi district. The man in the center has been accused of being a dangerous Taliban. Photo: Lorenzo Tugnoli

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A villager holds freshly harvested opium poppy bulbs in the village of Lagubu, Sorobi district, near the capital, Kabul. Photo: Lorenzo Tugnoli

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Fresh recruits await orders just after entering the Kabul Military Training Center. Though the U.S. and NATO insists the Afghan Army has gone from being "Afghan good enough" to being on par with other developing nations, it faces huge challenges in the coming months as U.S. and NATO troops depart. Photo: John Wendle

The war in Afghanistan is not over. Help us tell the story. Fund our Kickstarter.

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New recruits at the Kabul Military Training Center, the Afghan Army's main boot camp, march back to their barracks after field exercises were canceled because of the rain. The Canadian trainers have a hands off attitude, with the Afghans training on their own timetable by their own rules. It remains to be seen if the Army will be able to hold its own against the insurgency once Western forces pull out. Photo: John Wendle

The war in Afghanistan is not over. Help us tell the story. Fund our Kickstarter.

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An Afghan National Army at an American base in Wardak. Photo: Joel van Houdt

The war in Afghanistan is not over. Help us tell the story. Fund our Kickstarter.

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Afghan National Army soldiers take a last cigarette before heading out on patrol in Wardak Province. The area has seen an uptick in fighting - as have most of the provinces surrounding Kabul - as the ANA, U.S. and NATO forces have fought extend the security bubble. Photo: Joel van Houdt

The war in Afghanistan is not over. Help us tell the story. Fund our Kickstarter.

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The cast and crew of "Khoaf," a film by Salim Shaheen, prepare to shoot a scene on the outskirts of Kabul. The film industry in the capital, once banned under the Taliban, is thriving, but a lack of education and modern equipment has made progress challenging. Photo: Jonathan Saruk

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Contestants and VJs gather on stage before the quarter finals of Afghan Star. Though VJs acting like their American counterparts still seems out of context, the show’s German producer says that soon the production values of Afghan television will be on the same level as Western television. Photo: John Wendle

The war in Afghanistan is not over. Help us tell the story. Fund our Kickstarter.

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Afghan firefighters drive one of their new trucks back to the station after extinguishing a fire at a restaurant in Kabul. The Kabul Fire Department has undergone rapid development since the US led invasion, receiving western training and modern equipment, but the service they provide is hampered by poor infrastructure and a lack of public awareness on fire safety. Photo: Jonathan Saruk

The war in Afghanistan is not over. Help us tell the story. Fund our Kickstarter.

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Members of 3rd Platoon, Comanche Company, conduct a joint patrol with members of the Afghan border police in the Terazayi district of Khost Province. An IED exploded a day earlier in this village prompting International Security Assistance Forces to come into town to question residents to find possible eyewitnesses. Photo: Javier Manzano

The war in Afghanistan is not over. Help us tell the story. Fund our Kickstarter.

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An Afghan de-miner searches for buried mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) on a mountainside in Bamyan Province. Landmines and UXO continue to pose a serious threat to Afghan civilians - killing, wounding and maiming hundreds a year. Photo: Jake Simkin

The war in Afghanistan is not over. Help us tell the story. Fund our Kickstarter.

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A wounded Afghan Army soldier lies fighting for his life in a U.S. military intensive care unit. Though NATO has promoted the fighting ability of the newly trained Afghan army, most observers - and Afghan soldiers themselves - worry over the lack of logistical, medical and financial support they will face once the U.S. withdraws. Photo: Pieter Ten Hoopen

The war in Afghanistan is not over. Help us tell the story. Fund our Kickstarter.

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A Toyota Corolla, a ubiquitous sight in Kabul, rolls past a richly decorated house and one of many armed guards in the Wazir Akbar Khan area of Kabul, a wealthy enclave of NGOs, government offices and embassies. Photo: Mikhail Galustov

The war in Afghanistan is not over. Help us tell the story. Fund our Kickstarter.