Rukhshana Media sat down with Dutch photojournalist Joël van Houdt to talk about his work in Afghanistan and upcoming photo book. Van Houdt worked in Afghanistan for over a decade. he has travelled to 26 provinces of Afghanistan and his work has appeared in publications such as FT Weekend Magazine, Der Spiegel, Stern, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, among others.
Q: Joël, you lived and worked in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2022. What first drew you to the country?
Joël van Houdt: Honestly, I didn’t know much about Afghanistan when I first went there in 2010. President Obama had just announced the surge strategy, which meant a significant increase in foreign troops. I was curious—what did that really mean on the ground? I wanted to witness how some of the world’s most powerful countries were occupying one of its poorest. For a moment, it seemed like the world was actually paying attention to what was happening in Afghanistan, and I wanted to be there.
Q: How did you approach photographing a country so often misrepresented in Western media?
Joël: When I first arrived, I had been exposed to nearly a decade of clichéd imagery in Western newspapers—soldiers kicking down doors, drug addicts huddled together, women in burqas. I found myself unconsciously seeking out those same scenes. It took time to step back and realize that I needed to go deeper. I started to ask myself: is it even possible for a white male photographer from the Netherlands to truly understand what is happening here?
Q: Did you feel there were certain limitations to your perspective?
Joël: Definitely. One of the biggest challenges was photographing Afghan women. My female colleagues—both Afghan and foreign—had access that I simply didn’t, and they created powerful, insightful work. I couldn’t ignore that gap. I didn’t want to produce a photobook that only showed men, especially when women were often cited in Western narratives as a justification for the occupation. And yet, when troops withdrew in 2021, the situation of Afghan women was quickly sidelined.
Q: Your wife, journalist Amie Ferris-Rotman, also worked in Afghanistan. Can you tell us about your collaboration there?
Joël: We met in 2011 while she was reporting for Reuters. She was deeply disturbed by how few Afghan women were working for international news outlets. That led her to start Sahar Speaks, a mentoring and publishing program for Afghan female journalists. I ended up teaching photography to some of the participants, and this became one of the most meaningful experiences of my time in Afghanistan. It gave me a glimpse into a world I otherwise couldn’t access. Many of those women remain friends, though sadly, after the Taliban returned, it became very difficult—or impossible—for them to continue reporting from inside the country.
Q: What are you hoping to convey with your upcoming photobook?
Joël: The book is my attempt to wrestle with the complexities of being a foreigner reporting from Afghanistan. I want to situate my work within the longer history of outsiders who have come to Afghanistan over the past few centuries. It’s also about the ethical and practical limitations of that position—what we see, what we miss, and what we choose to show.
Q: When will the book be available, and how can people support it?
Joël: The book will be published this autumn. I’m currently running a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the publication. It’s been a long journey, and I hope the book reflects the layered, nuanced reality of the years I spent in Afghanistan.
LINK TO KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joelvanhoudt/afghanistanism
