Winner, International Photography Award, 1st Place, Professional: Book, Documentary, 2016

The Afghan people are standing at a crucial crossroads in history. Can their fragile democratic institutions survive the drawdown of US military support? Will Afghan women and girls be stripped of their modest gains in freedom and opportunity as the West loses interest in their plight? While the media have largely moved on from these stories, Paula Bronstein remains passionately committed to bearing witness to the lives of the Afghan people. In this powerful photo essay, she goes beyond war coverage to reveal the full complexity of daily life in what may be the world’s most reported on yet least known country.

Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear presents a photographic portrait of this war-torn country’s people across more than a decade. With empathy born of the challenges of being an American female photojournalist working in a conservative Islamic country, Bronstein gives voice to those Afghans, particularly women and children, rendered silent during the violent Taliban regime. She documents everything from the grave trials facing the country—human rights abuses against women, poverty and the aftermath of war, and heroin addiction, among them—to the stirrings of new hope, including elections, girls’ education, and work and recreation. Fellow award-winning journalist Christina Lamb describes the gains that Afghan women have made since the overthrow of the Taliban, as well as the daunting obstacles they still face. An eloquent portrait of everyday life, Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear is the most complete visual narrative history of the country currently in print.

PAULA BRONSTEIN
Bangkok, Thailand

Bronstein is one of America’s most distinguished female photojournalists and one of the few women internationally who cover war and conflict. Her many honors include the Faber Award of the Overseas Press Club, the National Press Photographer’s Association Photographer of the Year award, and multiple wins of Pictures of the Year International (POY-I). She was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Leica Oskar Barnack Award. Afghanistan: Between Hope and Fear is her first book, and it has already been a finalist for three major photography book awards: the CDS/ Honickman First Book Prize in Photography, the European Publishers Award for Photography, and the FotoEvidence Book Award.

KIM BARKER
New York, New York

Former South Asia bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune and now a reporter for the New York Times, Barker is the author of The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which was adapted into the film Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, starring Tina Fey.

CHRISTINA LAMB

Currently a foreign-affairs correspondent for the (London) Sunday Times, Lamb has been named Foreign Correspondent of the Year five times; she has also been awarded the Prix Bayeux, Europe’s most prestigious prize for war correspondents, and the British OBE. A best-selling author who has been traveling to Afghanistan since 1987, her most recent book is Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World.