A discussion between Belfast Exposed and Simon Norfolk on his wonderful exhibition of photographs, a personal vision of a war-ravaged landscape (2004).

“I was reminded of the story of Schliemann’s discovery of the remains of the classical city of Troy in the 1870s. Digging down, I found nine cities layered upon each other, each one in its turn rebuilt and destroyed. Walking a Kabul street can be like walking through a Museum of the Archaeology of War – different moments of destruction lie like sediment on top of each other. There are places near Bagram Air Base or on the Shomali Plain, where the front line has passed back and forth eight or nine times – each leaving a deadly flotsam of destroyed homes and fields seeded with landmines.”

Simon was staff photographer for Living Marxism from 1990-1994 covering the BNP, the Poll Tax, Northern Ireland and the Gulf War.