Afghanistan: The End of the US Footprint and the Rise of the Taliban Rule
Afghanistan: The End of the US Footprint and the Rise of the Taliban Rule
Words by Hollie McKay
Images by Jake Simkin
Release: Spring 2023
*Coffee-table style collection of premium photographs and writing*
Overnight, Afghanistan dramatically transformed. One chapter – a twenty-year epoch heralded by the attacks of September 11, the U.S. invasion and propping up an ailing government – shuttered on August 15, 2021. Another entirely new – albeit old – chapter flipped open under the stringent ruling of the Taliban.
Officially termed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, it’s a government that triggers immense fear among the population, having reigned with an iron fist pre-9/11 and waged a brutal insurgency from the mountaintops that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Afghans and foreigners.
Veteran war reporters – writer Hollie McKay and photographer Jake Simkin – walk you through the fall of the U.S. and the rise of the Taliban, drawing you into the minds of the new regime and into the hearts of the Afghanistan people.
“Afghanistan: The End of the U.S. Footprint and the Rise of the Taliban Rule” is a chilling bloody, yet beautiful visual expedition through one of the most magical yet wounded parcels of the planet. It is a place where poppies grow wild and men in the mountains cradle guns like children. It’s a place where kites fly high, and everyone has a war story, even though most never chose to go to war.
Welcome to Afghanistan after the cataclysmic fall. The band-aid over the bullet wound has been ripped off, and “Afghanistan” will guide you into the maze of dust, debris and delicacy the way no journalistic endeavor has done before.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
HOLLIE S. MCKAY is an investigative and international affairs/war journalist with over fourteen years of specialized focus on warfare, terrorism, and crimes against humanity.
Hollie has worked on the frontlines of several major war zones and covered humanitarian and diplomatic crises in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Burma, Russia, Africa, Latin America, and other areas.
Her globally-spanned coverage, in the form of thousands of print articles and essays, has included exclusive and detailed interviews with numerous captured terrorists, as well as high-ranking government, military, and intelligence officials and leaders from all sides.
She has spent considerable time embedded with US and foreign troops, conducted extensive interviews with survivors of torture, sex slavery and forced child jihadist training, refugees, and internally-displaced people to communicate the complexities of such catastrophes and war crimes on local populations.
Hollie’s columns have been featured in the Wall Street Journal and her writings referenced in innumerable mainstream publications and academic journals. Additionally, she has won numerous foreign press and humanitarian awards.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
JAKE SIMKIN is a freelance war photographer who has been covering conflict and humanitarian efforts for the last decade. He was based in Afghanistan for six years
