DYADIC | MAPJD 2016/17 | Projects

The Afghan Archive

In January 2011, my father – a veteran alpine guide, a photographer, an architect - travelled to Afghanistan to work on the development of winter tourism. He was supposed to stay there three months, but eventually he lived there for most of the following three years. His project expanded from the initial objective, and included avalanche prevention, training the first winter Olympic team, as well as improving the living conditions of mountain populations. This led him to explore some of the most remote regions of the country, bonding strongly with the culture, the stories and the struggles of those that he encountered along the way. He documented everything with photographs and personal diaries that he regularly sent to friends and relatives.

In July 2014, he went missing during a climb on the Mont Blanc and never returned. Alpistan, the NGO that he had founded, stalled. Its headquarters were raided, the staff deserted and no one managed to continue from where he had left it. His writings and archive remained untouched in his personal laptop and external hard-drives for two years, until a friend called me and suggested to put everything together and try to make a book of it.

'The Afghan Archive' analyses in depth the process from collecting the material to the final draft of the book, which will be published in Italy later this year. It explores the process of research, collaboration and the theme of loss.

www.ernestorollando.com

ernestorollando@gmail.com

@ernestorollando

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Ferdinando Rollando, my late father, nicknamed ‘Ski Mullah’ for his beard and pakol, the traditional Afghan hat
© 2017 Ernesto Rollando