The Kantiwa valley of Nuristan from above: the river, terraced fields and villages between forested slopes

For publishers, broadcasters, museums and educators

Photographs and film of Nuristan to licence

Genuine pictures from the valleys, taken by our own team, their families and friends, licensed per use for editorial and commercial work. The fee goes to the person who took them.

Ask about an image Browse the full gallery

The archive

The pictures the agencies do not have

Almost no photographs of Nuristan exist for licence. The stock agencies that supply the world's publishers hold a handful of landscapes from the province; the news wires have what their Kabul photographers shot on the rare day they reached Parun. When an editor needs a picture of a Nuristani village, a carved house, the Pech road or the people of the valleys, there is usually nothing to buy. The eighty-odd photographs in our gallery, and the many more we have not published, were taken in the province by our own team, their families and their friends, in the places they live.

This page explains how to license them: for news, documentary, books, journals, exhibitions, teaching and, with the consent of the people pictured, for commercial work. Licensing directly from us means the fee goes to the person who took the photograph in Nuristan, not to an agency that keeps half or more of it. It also means you can ask us for something that does not exist yet, and we can go and photograph it.

Archive: More than eighty published photographs, many more unpublished
Where: Waygal, Mandol, Parun, Kantiwa, Du Ab, Nurgaram, Want, Kamdesh, Kunar
Subjects: Villages, houses, rivers, forests, people, craft, food, roads, the 2026 flood
Formats: Photographs at original resolution; phone-shot video on request
Licences: Editorial and commercial, priced per use
People: Consent of anyone recognisable before commercial use
Credit: Nuristani, with the photographer's name
Delivery: Original files and a written licence, usually within two working days

A selection

Twelve from the archive

Villages, houses, rivers, craft and daily life, as the people who live there see it. Select any photo to view it large; the full gallery holds many more, and the unpublished archive more again.

A carved Nuristani chair with a knotwork back, chip-carved arms, a woven seat and a red cushion — A carved Nuristani chair, from our own collection

Two carved Nuristani chair backs with a horned crescent motif, rosettes and meander borders — Chair backs: the horned crescent, rosettes and meander

Pale grey rocks speckled with black crystals, and yellow-green stones, heaped on a slope in the Pashagar valley of Nurgaram, Nuristan — Stones that point to gemstones, Pashagar valley, Nurgaram

Sadiq Amiri, on the right in a white pakol and glasses, and a colleague in a black turban hand out new white clothes in plastic bags from a red table to a crowd of Nuristani boys on a veranda on Eid, one boy trying on his new white cap — Sadiq Amiri handing out new clothes to children on Eid

Yousuf Amiri, in glasses and a white shirt, smiling up at his young son Abdullah Amiri, who sits on his arm in a white T-shirt and blue sandals and puckers his lips for the camera, in a street with a tree and apartment blocks behind — Yousuf Amiri with his son Abdullah Amiri, both from Waygal

Ahmed Bilal, in a white shalwar kameez, with five children of the Sewketra valley in Waygal district: a small child in a floral kameez holding a new pakol, a girl in a brown headscarf under his arm and three boys, a timber house and the forested valley side behind — Ahmed Bilal with children in the Sewketra valley, Waygal

Habib Rahman, in a dark blue shalwar kameez, sitting on the rail of a wooden bridge over the Parun river and looking upstream, white water over boulders, a tree on the bank and cedar forest on the valley side — Habib Rahman on a wooden bridge over the Parun river

Children seated on the floor of a village classroom with school bags — A village classroom

A local fisherman on the stony bank of the Dani Pajagal river in Du Ab, holding up a string of fish — The day's catch on the Dani Pajagal river, Du Ab

A heap of freshly caught river fish on the rocks beside the main river in Waygal, a man's hand lifting one — The catch from the main river, Waygal

Two men beside a blackened pot over an open wood fire, village slopes behind — Cooking over an open fire in Waygal

Men and boys of Waygal gathered on a mat on rocky ground around a large pile of goat meat being divided for a feast, a blackened cooking pot in the foreground — A goat feast for the whole tribe, Waygal

See the whole gallery

What they are used for

Six kinds of licence

News and documentary

Pictures and clips for reporting on Nuristan: the floods, the gemstone auctions, the national park, the languages, daily life. Editorial licence, single use or series, with a credit.

Books and journals

Illustrations for academic and trade publishing on Afghanistan, the Hindu Kush, the Nuristani languages and the Kalash connection, by print run and territory.

Museums and exhibitions

Prints and projections for displays on Nuristani woodcarving, architecture and the former Kafiristan, with the provenance of each image.

Teaching and research

Lecture slides, course packs and theses, often at a nominal fee, and free for schools and community projects in Nuristan itself.

Charities and agencies

Appeal and report imagery for organisations working in the province, with the consent of the people shown and nothing staged.

Commercial and advertising

Possible where no recognisable person appears or where each one has consented in writing. We obtain the consent or we decline the licence.

Terms

Editorial, commercial, and what we will not license

An editorial licence covers use that informs: news, documentary, books, journals, exhibitions, teaching. It is priced by medium, territory, duration and prominence, and it does not need the consent of the people in the picture, though we ask it of them anyway where we can. A commercial licence covers use that sells: advertising, packaging, branding, merchandise. It needs the written consent of everyone recognisable, which we obtain through our team in the valleys or we do not grant the licence. Both are non-exclusive unless you ask for exclusivity, which is priced accordingly and limited in time.

The images on this site are compressed for the web. A licence comes with the original file at full resolution, the date and place it was taken, the photographer's name and the credit line to use. Three things we do not license: the use of our photographs to train artificial intelligence or to generate imagery; any photograph of a person who has asked us not to show them, which we have removed from the site and will not supply; and any use that would misrepresent the province or the people in the picture. Schools, mosques, clinics and community projects in Nuristan may use our photographs free of charge, and we usually say yes to anything else that helps Nuristan.

How to license

Five steps from a request to the files

Choose from the gallery or describe what you need, including subjects we may not have published.
We send a contact sheet of what exists, with dates, places and whether the people in each picture have consented.
A written quote per image or clip, for your medium, territory, duration and run.
Payment by bank transfer against an invoice from the United Kingdom.
The original files, the licence and the credit line, usually within two working days.

Or commission a picture

If the photograph you need does not exist, we can go and take it, within the season and the roads. Our team is in the province and travels to the valleys regularly; a specific village, a craft, a crop, a road or an event can be photographed or filmed to your brief and licensed to you on delivery, exclusively if you want. For anything larger than a day's shoot, including your own crew's visit, our fixer and local production service handles the permits and the ground.

Ask about an image or a shoot Fixer and local production

Questions

Asked by editors, researchers and designers

Can I use a photograph from nuristani.com?

Yes, under licence. Write to us with the image and the use. Editorial, educational and community uses are priced to the use and often nominal; commercial use needs the written consent of anyone recognisable. We do not permit use without a licence, and we do not permit any use for training artificial intelligence.

How much does it cost to license a photo of Nuristan?

Every licence is quoted in writing for its medium, territory, duration and prominence. We publish no price list, because a lecture slide and a book cover are not the same use. The fee goes to the person who took the photograph in Nuristan.

Do you have video footage of Nuristan?

Yes. Our team films on their journeys, mostly on phones, and we tell you the resolution and length of each clip before you license it. For broadcast-quality footage of a specific subject we can film to your brief or arrange your crew's visit through our fixer service.

Who owns the copyright?

The photographers: our team, their families and friends in Nuristan. Nuristani licenses the images on their behalf and passes the fee to them. Credit is to Nuristani with the photographer's name.

Can I use a photo in an advert or on a product?

Where no recognisable person appears, yes, under a commercial licence. Where people appear, only with their written consent, which we obtain through our team in the valleys; if they decline, so do we.

Are there photographs of Nuristan on Getty, Alamy or Shutterstock?

Very few. Alamy carries a handful of landscape images uploaded by an Afghan contributor in 2022; we could not find Nuristan holdings on the other large agencies. The agencies also keep between 40 and 85 per cent of the fee, which is why we license directly.

Can you photograph something specific for me?

Yes, within the season and the roads: a village, a craft, a crop, a road or an event, photographed or filmed to your brief by our team in the province and licensed to you on delivery, exclusively if you wish.

Sources

Where the agency facts come from

Get in touch

Plan your Nuristan journey

Ready to plan a visit, source Nuristani products, or discuss an investment? Your message goes to Obaid, who is from Nuristan, and his team in Afghanistan and the UK. We reply to every message.