Photography exhibition at Impressions Gallery explores the experiences of Afghan interpreters

“I started my research around six years ago interviewing Afghan interpreters and advocates for their rights and protection in countries involved in the war in Afghanistan,” says de Jong. “This is not the first time in history that Western colonial powers have used interpreters – they have always needed them on missions abroad. They were always indigenous people and those relationships were never equal. The interpreters are indispensable but are then treated as expendable.”

In April 2021, de Jong, with three army veterans who served in Afghanistan, established the Sulha Alliance, a charity which advocates for Afghan interpreters and other local civilians employed by the British Army. “When the Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021, Andy reached out to the charity in that difficult moment,” she says. “We realized that he had a very unique skillset. So, we decided to do this project together. I had done a lot of the interviews already and I knew that the interviewees would trust Andy and be comfortable with his presence.”

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Barnham did two tours of Afghanistan, one as a Farsi military interpreter and another as a mentor to the Afghan national army. He is also the son of a refugee – his mother and her family fled Vietnam in the closing days of the war there. “I have always found it important to build up a relationship with someone before taking their photograph and being present for the interviews was key to that,” he says. “I had originally wanted to photograph the interpreters in British contexts, but it quickly became clear they were still under threat from the Taliban as they all have family in Afghanistan so we had to find a way of protecting their identity.”

Barnham has achieved this through a process whereby each portrait is a composite of up to 12 frames and each frame is then blurred or pixelated so that the subject of the photograph is anonymized. “The finished photographs reflect the way they are feeling,” says Barnham. “I could see flickers of hope for the future as well as despair at having to leave their homes behind; there is a range of emotions in each portrait.”

Alongside each image is a quote extracted from the in-depth interview conducted with that individual. Their testimonies cover the interpreters’ motivations for working with the British Armed Forces, their experiences of being on the frontline during the war and the dangers they faced, their evacuation from Kabul, their early experiences in the UK and their hopes for the future. “The interviews were very intense and were usually two to three hours long,” says de Jong. “The interviewees were revisiting trauma and once they started talking, they often broke down in tears when telling their story.”

Also included in the exhibition are portraits of five veteran activists who have become political advocates for the protection and rights of their former colleagues. In addition, there are photographs of NATO soldiers in Afghanistan taken by Barnham during his military service.

Both de Jong and Barnham hope the exhibition will encourage people to reflect on the extremely challenging experiences of those who are forced to leave their homes and loved ones behind in order to find a place of safety. “These stories are worth telling and should be listened to,” says de Jong. “We wanted to look beyond the headlines and this is something that the British public needs to be educated about.”

Barnham agrees. “Unfortunately, the current political climate is very anti-foreigner,” says Barnham. “I hope that visitors to the exhibition will learn about what people have gone through and that empathy will allow them to view them as friends who helped us and deserve to be helped in return.”

At Impressions Gallery until May 4. A programme of free events includes a talk by Afghan refugee Nahid Hamidi, founder of the Afghan Kitchen helping fellow Afghan refugees in Yorkshire to access work, on April 18 and an In-conversation with Andy Barnham, Sara de Jong and two Afghan interpreters on April 27. impressions-gallery.com