Press

ALBANY, NY – An Albany photojournalist who has traveled extensively throughout Afghanistan, photographing and interviewing its people both there and in the Capital Region, will share her photos and unique perspective on the country’s past and present in a program at the State Museum Saturday, Nov. 3.

Connie Frisbee Houde will present “A Celebration of Afghan Culture: A Community Heritage Day Event” at 1 p.m. in the Carole F. Huxley Theater. Houde views Afghanistan as the “forgotten war” as public attention has shifted to Iraq. She has walked among the Afghan people, in both rural and urban areas, finding what she terms “a tragedy of untold proportions.” Her photographs have appeared in numerous exhibits throughout the Capital District and beyond and have been published in a variety of books and magazines.

She first traveled to Afghanistan in 2003 to document a country working to recover from more than 25 years of war. In 2004 and 2005 she traveled deep into the heart of Afghanistan photographing the National Organization of Ophthalmic Rehabilitation (NOOR), the country’s singular eye care program. She experienced the daily workings of a country lacking basic amenities and observed the country as it prepared for both the presidential and parliamentary elections.

“While in Afghanistan I quickly fell in love with the people I met – the noble faces of the men, the strength of the women and the poignant beauty of the children whose eyes were windows to their souls,” says Houde. “I am not simply looking at the Afghans through my lens, I am capturing them looking back at us.”

Houde was awarded a 2006 New York State Council on the Arts grant to photograph and record the harrowing and untold stories of some of the more than 3,000 Afghans who have escaped their country and resettled in the Capital District. She began recording, photographing and exhibiting this material in 2005 and says the project has had a healing effect on the storytellers and on their American audience, bringing together two groups who have both experienced the horrors of war. Many have stayed in touch with relatives in Afghanistan and have an intimate knowledge of the country’s present day political and economic conditions.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Started in 1836, the Museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the United States. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the Museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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