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Afghan Portrait by Jacob Sutton
© Jacob Sutton 2008.
Jacob Sutton portrait © Homer Sykes 2008.
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Jacob Sutton is a member of DACS' Creators' Council. One of Britain's leading contemporary painters, he is consultant to the Royal Academy of Arts and Foster & Partners. In 2006-07, he was official artist and photographer to former Prime Minister Tony Blair. He has travelled widely and here he tells us about his experience of Afghanistan.
In 2001, I went to Afghanistan for what was meant to be a short visit. I ended up staying there for three years and, during that time, I discovered a people and way of life so different from anything I knew in Europe.
Life outside Kabul is as it was 200 years ago. In Jalalabad, near the Pakistan border, I drew charcoal portraits of young Afghan men looking for work outside the Springar Hotel. They looked at me in slight wonder as I lay my paper on the grass. What on earth was I up to? One man agreed to sit for me. As I got to work, the crowd looked down watching the journey of a
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portrait emerge. I looked at the man's face, was he 35 or 40 years old? To my shock he was 21! That same day I did another five portraits and each time I was out by 15-20 years. How could I get it so wrong? I discovered very quickly that life is very difficult there and this hardship is expressed in their faces. Over three years I did 350 charcoal portraits across the country of women, men and children.
There were dangerous moments too. At Tora Bora in 2001, al-Qaeda were making a last stand in the mountains to allow Osama Bin Laden his escape. Special Forces would go in at night to flush them out. The next morning we thought the area was clear. We moved forward and then the sound of al-Qaeda bullets came our way. We dived into a hole, sharing the fear. I couldn’t work out if this was better or worse!
Despite the troubles I have never worked in a country so friendly and generous. The one thing the Afghan people like more than anything is for you to spend time with them, sit on the floor and drink lots of green tea. I couldn’t speak the language so I relied on my body language, smiling and laughing, to translate my friendship. The Afghans put a great deal of value in the guest – they are famous for it.
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