We Are Here, Because You Were There: Afghan Interpreters in the UK is a collaborative project by photographer Andy Barnham and researcher Sara de Jong, which documents the experiences of Afghan interpreters who were employed by the British Army in Afghanistan between 2004 and 2021, and resettled to the UK in 2021. This exhibition tells the interpreters’ experiences of employment and resettlement through portraiture and quotes, and photographs from Afghanistan.
We Are Here, Because You Were There centres Afghan interpreters’ own stories and invites viewers to engage with the individuals, their families and the human stories behind the headlines. These stories and images are Barnham and de Jong’s attempt to bring to life the structural and lasting impact of Britain’s foreign policy, military practices, and immigration policies. Starting with the British Empire’s colonial intervention in Afghanistan, the exhibition also shows a timeline of Anglo-Afghan relations, which reflects on the historical and present entanglements between the two countries.
Each portrait in the exhibition is a composite of up to a dozen frames overlaid to present a final portrait, to represent the subject’s changing states of mind. Using strategies of blurring and pixelating, photographer and British Army veteran Andy Barnham has further edited portraits of Afghan interpreters to help anonymise them, as they are still considered at risk and have family in Afghanistan under threat.
Image: Bost Castle Arch, 2008 © Andy Barnham
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