Bibin Magazine: Framing a New Vision
"Bibin" is the title of a new magazine dedicated to artistic and contemporary photography in Afghanistan. Launched recently by a group of Afghan photographers, the magazine aims to promote conceptual photography and create a space for dialogue among photographers, writers, and art enthusiasts.
Published quarterly in both Persian and English, each edition of Bibin features 20 photographs selected through an open call, welcoming submissions from both Afghan and international photographers. The magazine is available in both print and digital formats.
With each edition, the editorial team invites a writer or poet to contribute a literary or analytical piece inspired by the selected photographs. In the first and second editions, Abdullah Salahi and Zahed Mustafa took on this role, respectively.
The team behind Bibin, who work on a voluntary basis, explain: “In Afghanistan’s publishing landscape, it’s rare to find a magazine that seriously engages with photography through critical analysis. Most of the writing around photography focuses on documentary and news images, while artistic and non-news photography receives little attention. To deepen the understanding of photography, there’s a real need for interpretive and analytical texts in this field.”
According to the team, the magazine’s main focus is to introduce and promote artistic and contemporary photography in an independent and open space—a space that, in today’s cultural climate, responds to a significant gap in Afghanistan’s artistic landscape.
As the Taliban continue to expand their restrictions on publishing images of living beings, Bibin magazine seeks to offer a new perspective on visual art in Afghanistan—an opportunity for creative, critical, and experimental expression through the lens.
