“Aslon Arfa’s photographs of Afghanistan as it looks now offer us, then, the most realistic and most jarring possible contrast to those lovely views of Afghanistan shot so shortly before the land’s 1978 plunge into moral darkness. Thus, Afghan faces recorded before 1978 usually mirrored a sort of wide-eyed innocence, as it were still ignorant of the modern world’s extremes of possible depravity- much like those similar images of naively posing European peasants captured by the camera before 1914. But Aslon Arfa’ here sees and gives us scrawny children, begging woman, mutilated men, smirking pimps of girls or boys sold by their poverty-stricken parents into prostitution and most especially, the dark haunted anguished eyes of ordinary Afghans who have now beheld all the worst that the modern world can inflict – like the terrified gazes of those same conscripted European peasants when photographed in uniform in the trenches of 1915. Afghanistan, however, has now suffered thirty-six years of uninterrupted war.”

From the foreword of the book, written by Professor Michael Barry, Historian of the greater Middle East and the Islamic World – Princeton University

“It is hard to lie with images, so I hope that people would see the work and try to take steps, even tiny ones, to help make changes. Change is possible, only if we are aware of what needs to be changed.”

      Aslon Arfa’, 2019

Sighs & Cries is a book about the challenging life condition of Afghan children, the children who are usually forgotten amidst other news that comes from country and the region. The book has tried to create a realistic image of the life of these children focusing on the violation of their rights and the injustice Afghan boys and girls experience sometimes on a daily basis. Taken over a period of 12 years starting from 2001, the book consists of nine sections each marked by a quote relating to its theme.

As in many other projects Arfa’ has worked on, Sighs & Cries illustrates stories of sad and vicious cycle some people are trapped in. Narrating such distressing stories in his signature artistic tone, Arfa’ addresses issues affecting Afghan children and expresses his hope for change in this 128-page book published in 2019.

Born in September 1970, Aslon Arfa’ is an independent photojournalist based in Tehran.  Since 2000 he has worked on several projects such as Black Crack in Iran, Women Peshmarga in Northern Iraq, Afghan's life in Northern Afghanistan, and Repatriation of Afghans from Iran and Iran's Martial Arts. His pictures have been published worldwide in several magazines and newspapers such as Newsweek, Time, Paris Match, New York Times, Stern, Der Spiegel, Panaroma, Le Hebdo and Le Figaro. In addition, he was a member of the board of advisors of Punctum Magazine, a magazine show-casing contemporary photography from across Asia.

Black Crack in Iran, a book about drug addicts was published in 2011 by Powerhouse Books in the US.

Arfa’s work has also been exhibited in Iran, France and Italy.