It Can Never Be the Same

Produced between 2019 and 2023 when peace negotiations were taking place between the US government and the Taliban, Lorenzo Tugnoli’s It Can Never Be the Same, follows the disintegration of the Afghan republic and its army, and the subsequent new regime in Kabul.

The images depict a country in upheaval, as experienced by a foreign photographer who has spent over a decade navigating its complexities.

Lorenzo Tugnoli is an Italian photographer based in Barcelona, who covers the Middle East and Central Asia. He lived in Afghanistan for six years from 2009 to 2015 and has since travelled back regularly to continue his coverage of the country. He is a contract photographer for The Washington Post and his work has appeared on The New Yorker, Time Magazine, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He is the 2019 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Feature Photography. His work was awarded three times by the World Press Photo as well as the first prize at the Bayeux Calvados photo trophy.