Photo and caption by Eleanor Zafra Weber-Ballard

Walking along the road beneath the empty niches that are all that remain of the famous Bamiyan Buddhas, which were destroyed by the Taliban, I met this girl playing in the autumn leaves. Following a short conversation I asked to take her photo, to which she readily agreed. After looking curiously at her own image captured on-screen, she walked with me for a while before finally falling behind and returning home. I was caught by her cropped hair and the directness and concurrent distance of her expression.

Location: Bamiyan, Afghanistan