Time operates curiously in Afghanistan’s remote and inhospitable
Wakhan Corridor. Tucked away in the country’s northeastern
corner, the region’s 12,000 residents live very much the same as
their ancestors did centuries ago. While the pace of change is
slow, life is short, and death is fast. The average life
expectancy is thought to be less than 43 years, and the infant
mortality rate is estimated to be at more than one-third. The
harsh conditions make many of its inhabitants, both Wakhis and
Kyrgyzs, look much older than they are. Yet its remoteness is
not without benefit. Because of the difficulty in reaching this
140-mile long strip of land bordering China, Tajikistan and
Pakistan, the Taliban, and therefore the American military, have
never ventured there. There is no war. When the French
photographers and adventurers Fabrice Nadjari and Cedric Houin
arrived in the first village, they found that even photographs,
which freeze time, worked differently. The portraits they took
with Polaroid cameras developed