*Please Note: This is a pre-order. This title is due to arrive October 2025. All orders containing this title will ship when it is in stock.*
The photographs in It Can Never Be The Same were made by Lorenzo Tugnoli in Afghanistan between 2019-2023— a pivotal time of transition and upheaval. Rather than traditional reportage, the collection of images in the book form a reflective journey. Tugnoli’s approach aims to question how visual representations can shape external perceptions of a complex country and the distance between those who get to tell the story and those who live it.
‘As I worked in Afghanistan for more than a decade,
my photographs have contributed to its representation: the images that we see, the ones we do not and the way they are framed. With time, I have become more aware of the power and the limits of this representation, I have started reflecting on my role and position in this system and began questioning the depth of my understanding of the facts…. Am I fully grasping the events that unfold in front of me or am just trying to reproduce a certain kind of imagery? Am I looking and properly observing or am I emulating a movie that repeats itself on loop in my
outsider’s head?’
The photographs were made whilst Tugnoli
worked for The Washington Post during the peace
negotiations between the US government and the Taliban, followed by the disintegration of the Afghan Republic and the Taliban’s return to power. For the process of making the book, Tugnoli worked in collaboration with researcher Francesca Recchia to review his archive with fresh eyes and search for images which told a different story from that which appeared in the news.
'There were so many layers—things happening behind the scenes that weren’t visible or easy to understand. And especially for us, as Westerners, it was very easy to
misinterpret what we were seeing.’
Published October 2025
Essays by Habib Zahori and Francesca Recchia
307 x 245 mm
116pp, 79 images
Hardback
ISBN 978-1-80598-002-5