Meet Me in the Middle of the Air

Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. August 2017.

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The day we made our way to the ancient city of Peshawar buses had been bombed, shootings against targeted relligous groups had occurred and terrorists had been shot in hotel rooms while preparing attacks. There was probably more going on; I closed my computer and the news and got ready to catch the bus.

The city and its myriad of charms revealed themselves over the week or so we spent in what is now my favourite city in the world. It is a place where it is easy to feel like you have stepped back in time. Cobbled streets, stone and mudbrick buildings, the Call to Prayer echoing from numerous minarets . Donkeys and goats being lead by traditionaly dressed herdsmen. Streets filled with the smoke of hundreds of bbqs and tandori ovens. Flat bread and mayhem. Paradise and catastrophe.

This picture itself was one where we didn’t have time to stop and talk and I didn’t have time to lift my camera to my eye. I just glimpsed a donkey a and shot from the hip. Later I would see the smile. A Peshawari welcoming smile. This picture perfectly captures Peshawar for me. Dishevelled, dirty, donkeys and dabs of modernity. Im not sure if the gentleman was smiling at the sight of my camera, a guest in his city or just taken by surprise by my eye patch but his welcoming grin while hard at work typifies the spirit of the people of that part of the world. His smile, his mule and the thought of Peshawar always make me smile in return.