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I first went to Afghanistan in the late summer of 2000 to visit the Taliban--controlled regions of the country. The government officials, most of them severe but polite young men in their twenties, kept a tight rein on photo-journalists and what we were allowed to see. I was arrested twice, once for allegedly spying on a military installation – and then released. I returned to Afghanistan last summer, this time to the northeastern reaches, which is the ten percent of the country the rebel Northern Alliance controls.

Few civilians, or even soldiers, think of themselves primarily as Taliban or Northern Alliance; Afghanistan is a collection of ethnic minorities led by more or less powerful warlords. Their goal is not to rule the geopolitical body we call Afghanistan but to control as much land around them as they can in order to feel safe. The land is alternately hard , dry, and in places like the Panjshir Valley, surpassingly beautiful.

The same holds for the people, whose reputation for the generosity is well deserved. When I visited the refugee camp holding more than 70,000 hungry Afghans, my host couldn’t rest until he’d found me a cup of tea. It’s unclear what has happened to him, or to any of the other people that I have met or photographed.

- Jason Florio