E6 PG EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MAY 15 , 2022Artlike one big muscle, as if he
were a seal, or dolphin, athleti-
cally carving his way through
the city’s thick evening atmos-
phere.
I emailed Murphy last week
to find out more. Losing one of
his legs in a rocket attack “has
never stopped Farhuddin from
doing anything,” he wrote in his
reply.
Murphy, who has received
seven World Press Photo awards,
told me he met the Ba Deli
family in 1994, on his first trip to
Afghanistan. “The mother had
died, one son had been killed
fighting for President Najibul-
lah’s government against the
mujahideen. The second young-
est son, Farhuddin, 15, had lost a
leg in a rocket attack outside
their home the previous year.
Farhad, the youngest boy, was 12
years old.”
“In 1996,” continued Murphy,
“when I met them for the
second time, it was under the
cloud of Taliban rule. The two
older brothers had been killed
fighting against the Taliban in
the south-west of Kabul, com-
pelled to fight to feed their
family.”
In the photo, according to
Murphy, Farhuddin “is returning
home from work where he shares
a flat with his younger brother
Farhad. They are alone, their
father had recently died.”
Murphy has stayed in touch
with the Ba Deli family. He last
saw them in May 2021. Since
then, American forces have with-
drawn from Afghanistan, which
is once again under Taliban rule.
What else does Murphy
remem b er?
“The traffic in 2002 was sparse
— unlike the craziness it became
in the years that quickly fol-
lowed, with all the investment
and money spent on Afghani-
stan, and Afghans returning
home with the promise of a
bright future.”
When he looks at the photo-
graph now, Murphy said, he
thinks of “the suffering Afghans
have endured” and, at the same
time, of “how beautiful Kabul is
at that time of the evening. It’s
just about to be dark, the air is
full of dust from the day’s
movements, people are going
home, resigned to the end of
another day.”GREAT WORKS, IN FOCUSA work that evokes morethan the typical thousand wordsJ. PAUL GETTY MUSEUMSeamus Murphy (b. 1959)Kabul: November 2002, print 2015At the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.A series featuring art critic Sebastian Smee’s favorite works
in permanent collections across the United StatesBY SEBASTIAN SMEEI
have so much respect for
photojournalists. Many of
them spend long periods in
conflict zones. They hope
their work, which is driven by
passion and empathy, will be
published and possibly have a
meaningful effect. Yet at news
organizations, their work is usu-
ally subordinated to the written
word. If they try to have it seen
on its own terms, in museums or
galleries, the art world response
veers between indifference and
bafflement.
Not always, mind you. I saw
this photograph by Seamus Mur-
phy at the Getty Museum in Los
Angeles in late 2019, and it has
stayed with me. It shows a young
man on crutches — he’s a tailor
named Farhuddin Ba Deli —
making his way down a street in
Kabul.
It was odd. Shortly before see-
ing Murphy’s photo, I had been
looking at a painting, also at the
Getty, by Édouard Manet. It
shows a one-legged man on
crutches — probably a veteran
wounded in the Franco-Prussian
War of 1870-1871. He’s walking
down the street in Paris where
Manet had his studio. The street
is lined with French flags, because
it’s June 30, 1878, when France for
the first time was celebrating Fete
de la Paix (Celebration of Peace), a
festival that two years later
b ecame Bastille Day.When I saw Murphy’s photo-
graph, I was struck by the
d ynamic arc of the young man’s
long body. It’s quite the reverse
of the hunched and defeated
body of the man in Manet’s
painting. The angle from which
Murphy has shot Farhuddin
makes his leg and torso seemJ. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM
“ The Rue Mosnier With Flags”
by Édouard Manet, 1878.(240) 335-7017
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