Images of war-torn country introduce SE to Afghanistan
Star-Telegram photographer shares experiences with students, public in exhibit
by Brian Shults, se news editor

    A few hours of travel took a local photographer from the comforts of home to a war-torn land.

   Tom Pennington traveled to Afghanistan after the 9-11 attacks on a photography assignment for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

   His photos, Afghanistan: A War-Torn Land, are on exhibit through Oct. 11 on SE Campus.

   “I walked out of the Star-Telegram offices in November before leaving for Afghanistan with $1,500 strapped to my waist in cash. And that didn’t last long enough,” Pennington said.

   He flew to D.C., to London to Islamabad, Pakistan, before arranging for Afghani drug smugglers to drive him across the border.

   Arriving in Afghanistan, he was outfitted with two Kodak VCS digital cameras, a satellite phone that provided an ISDN Internet connection and a portable generator. The equipment allowed any pictures taken to be sent first to Washington, D.C., where they would then be sent to media outlets across the country, Pennington said.

   Pennington set up a base camp in Kandahar, from which he could travel to different southern locales.

   “The second day I was in Kandahar at Mullah Omar’s compound, the number two guy the United States is after, photographing some U.S. forces that didn’t particularly want me to photograph them,” he said.

   “I was inside the hallway of one of the buildings. One of the operators kicked in a double door and came after me, ripping the camera off my neck. I didn’t hang around after that, but I found my fixer (Afghan translator and negotiator) and sent him in to talk to their fixer.

   “The best negotiator known to man, he ended up getting my camera back. They kept two memory cards and the battery, but they did not get any of the pictures I had taken of them. They took two empty cartridges,” he said.

   Fixers are educated Afghan males, who speak eight-10 languages, are well versed in the customs of specific regions and their histories and serve as foreigners’ chief negotiators, Pennington said.

   “When somebody says ‘no,’ it’s their job to get him to change his mind,” he said.

   “I paid my fixer 150 U.S. dollars per day. At times I would run out of money and be $4000 in debt to my fixer. I had him understanding that the longer I stayed there and worked, the bigger his tab was. If we left to go get money, we were not working, not taking pictures and not making money,” he said.

   “Cash is key in Afghanistan … Basically, cash can get you in trouble. It can also get you out of trouble, but you have to have large amounts of it,” he said.

   Gunmen and drivers were hired to protect Pennington. Gunmen were to keep him from being killed for the money he carried, and the drivers provided a vehicle and chauffeur, but Pennington would not let them drive for fear of their disloyalty and ability to maneuver in tense situations.

   “I did my own driving. There was a talk of journalists being ambushed. I wanted to be in control if that ever went down,” he said.

   Out on assignment away from base camp, Pennington caught wind of a large gun battle taking place at Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar.

   “In the second story ward, eight al Qaeda fighters had barricaded themselves and declared that anyone trying to come in there, ‘we would kill them.’

   “After a month, a group of Afghan fighters led by U.S. Special Forces stormed into the hospital ward to kick them out, beginning the big gun battle.

   “We got back to Kandahar the day after the gun battle, went to the hospital and began talking to the allied gunmen there,” he said.

   The gunmen Pennington hired refused to enter the hospital, saying it was too dangerous.

   “My fixer worked with another man who said, ‘let’s go.’ We then went upstairs and made our way to the ward that had been barricaded off with hospital beds. We had to crawl over the furniture to get in. I followed him in. As I was right in the doorway, one of the gunmen began frantically screaming and pointing. I didn’t know why.

   “I turned behind me and asked my fixer what the hell is going on? It was something very serious obviously. My fixer eventually said, ‘don’t move your right hand.’

   “ I had my hands braced on the door frame, and on the backside of it was a grenade wedged inches from my hand, rigged as a booby trap.

   “I hopped into the hallway. He was still going berserk pointing underneath the furniture. He was pointing to a land mine that had also been rigged. Needless to say, things were a bit tense,” he said.

   Pennington and his fixer continued into the room where the al Qaeda fighters had been killed, carefully avoiding booby traps.

   “We came into the most grisly, disgusting room I had seen in my life. Once we were there, I couldn’t get out fast enough,” he said.

   Pennington took a picture of the inside of the room, which shows one wall of the room covered in splatterings of blood and flesh.

   Pennington described the state of the country’s internal battles.

   “Because of all the infighting in Afghanistan, you have neighbors fighting neighbors, and then you have different parts of the government fighting different parts of the government and a different part entirely fighting the West,” he said.

   On his trip, Pennington met numerous Afghan people and learned some of their daily struggles.

   “An issue the Afghan people face is all the unexploded ordnance, which litters the country,” he said.

   One photo displays a large cache of anti-aircraft rounds discovered in the uninhabited desert, Pennington said.

   Worsening the situations where anti-aircraft rounds are left unattended are cluster bombs that never exploded during U.S. bombing raids. Cluster bombs are particularly devastating because they are very unstable for two reasons.

   “Typically, bombs that don’t explode have a white parachute attached to them. The kids either try to light the parachute on fire or pick them up and try to throw them around as toys. Then they go off with catastrophic effects,” he said.

   The civilians pay the price for the live ordnance throughout the country, Pennington said.

   One image is of a young boy and his brother and sister after they had been playing with a cluster bomb, Pennington said.

   “It went off. The boy ended up losing his left hand; his brother lost his right leg, and his sister was quite literally ripped in half and did not make it. The family traveled three days to the hospital and had no idea how they were going to get back. I gave them some money to return home,” he said.

   “In addition to the constant infighting, the Afghan people have been faced with an incendiary drought. It has forced many of them to seek refuge,” he said.

   Pennington then showed a photo of an emaciated boy.

   “This is a 12-year-old boy my fixer and I ran into at a food distribution center. He told us his parents and brother had been killed in a recent U.S. bombing and he and his sisters and grandmother were now living in a vacant building. He was there with his sisters to beg for food. He left the distribution center that day without any food—no rice, no beans, no cooking oil, nothing.

   “In many areas, Afghanistan was once a lush tropical oasis, a paradise. But since the drought, the area has dried up, and now people are gathering twigs together to sell as firewood to buy food,” he said.

   “Throughout the years of devastating drought, the one crop that flourished and is absolutely key is opium. Afghanistan is the largest exporter of opium in the entire world,” he said.

   Pennington and his fixer went to the local bazaar, a frenzied marketplace, to take pictures of the opium. They found a back alley filled with men and scales.

   “Before we know it, these men are producing large bags of raw opium, all wanting us to try it and all declaring that they had the best stuff around,” he said.

   The encounter with the opium dealers led him to a local cemetery cave, called New Quetta Cemetery, where addicts smoke heroin (very refined opium), Pennington said.

   “The junkies congregate at the cemetery and freebase heroin until they’re absolutely out of their minds, yelling and incoherent.

   “During my time in Afghanistan, the new government began to take a Western stance on the local drug trade. They called the journalists to declare their anti-drug policy and burned large amounts of hashish and opium. It was very comical because the United States had been there only a few months and already had influence on the government,” he said.

   Pennington described the Afghani culture and mentality.

   “I saw and met the most remarkable people I have ever met in my life. The Afghan hospitality was unbelievable. It didn’t matter where I was or what I was doing. I would always have a place to sleep. People would always try to help us if they could.

   “After what they’ve been through, what they’re still willing to do for people is remarkable. They helped me even though I was from the West,” he said.

   Exhibition hours are Monday-Friday 7 a.m.-10 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. The free, public exhibition is in Art Corridor II.