Afghanistan: The End of the U.S. Footprint and the Rise of the Taliban Rule

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.

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 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.

"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.