Visions splendid: Kather with some of his photographs. Photo: Justin McManus
A former refugee captured the sights of his war-torn homeland before leaving.
THE two giant Buddhas of Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley - unique in the world - stood for more than 1400 years before the mad mullahs of the Taliban destroyed them with explosives in 2001. Carved from the cliff face, one stone Buddha was 38 metres tall, the other 55 metres tall, but all that remains today are the two huge cavities that enclosed them.
On the wall of the Sofitel Hotel's 35th floor, you can see a photograph of this forlorn yet beautiful valley courtesy of an Afghan who sought asylum in Melbourne two years ago. Kather, 25, - he uses only his family name - left kith and kin behind, bringing a computer chip of photographs among his few belongings. ''Many of these places are rarely seen by outsiders,'' says Kather, the son of a businessman. Fifteen of his photographs - billed as the ''first solo exhibition of Afghanistan in Australia'' - are on display at the hotel. He titles it: ''Inside Afghanistan's Beauty''.
Kather is not what you might expect as an asylum-seeker from a war-torn nation. ''I need to go home after work to make sure I present myself properly,'' he had told me and indeed, when we met at the Sofitel around 7pm, he was resplendent in a type of showbiz high-couture. Red jacket, white dress shirt, designer-torn pants, pointy black shoes and the largest set of silver finger-rings since Liberace.
''It is my own contemporary style,'' he said. With fluent English, Kather immediately impresses as an unexpectedly calm and outgoing young man but inquire further and you soon find the scars. ''When I arrived, I was very lonely, sick and depressed.'' he said. ''I thought: what am I doing here? I don't know anyone. I went through many therapies and medications. They literally made me numb. I was living in this misery in hostels. In one year I changed homes seven times, from Cranbourne to Brunswick. No conflict, something always seemed to happen.''
Kather says he had bad dreams for a long time after he arrived in Melbourne, echoes of the violence back home. ''I have experienced horrible things,'' he says. ''Mass murders in front of me, I don't want to get into that. It is too distressing. I was 18.''
Kather, as a member of the minority Hazara community, attended a leading Hazara college, studying computer sciences, but turned to art and photography instead. ''I was in love with art and wanted to express myself. These photos are the remnant of my repertoire [in Afghanistan]. It was not easy, taking them. No one had done it before. I went by car, sometimes by foot, sometimes on my own, sometimes with my mates. A lot of trips, years of work. I would study the situation first, minimise the risk. There were times when people objected, especially when I would take a portrait. But they were my own people. Not as confronting as being seized by your enemy.''
Kather carried his camera through far-flung areas such as the Band-e-Amir lakes, Ghazni, Mazar-i-Sharif and Shar-e-Zohak. ''I was fortunate that my uncle knew a photographer who gave me one-on-one tuition,'' he says.
Since arriving in Australia, he has been painting but it is music that has been the catalyst for his photo collection. On the invitation of a friend, he joined the choir With One Voice, a Creativity Australia venture. The same organisation helped stage his exhibition. Meanwhile, an ill-fated love affair with a Melbourne woman has helped and hindered.
''Very thrilling but complicated,'' he says. ''In the end she totally abandoned me, but I am a lot better than before. The relationship changed me in a better way.''
Kather now works at Crown Casino as a bartender. He says his family is in hiding abroad and fears it will be a decade or more before any of them could visit their homeland.
''Coming here is not like a holiday. Why would anyone leave their country, their inheritance and everything unless they had to? I can't go back unless the situation changes and there is peace.''
Kather says he is still on anti-depressants. ''But not as bad as it used to be. The artwork I've done here has calmed me down a lot. Killed my animosity inside.''
source,
Watoday.com
