For more than a quarter of a century, Afghanistan has been ravaged by war, drought, and famine. In this volume, Zalmai, Afghan-born photographer, returns after twenty-three years in exile to rediscover his homeland at a crucial moment of transition. Working in rich color, and frequently using a panoramic format that embraces the vastness of the sky and sand, Zalmai immerses us in the ravaged landscape and the bustle of reconstruction. My project tries to capture the resilience of a people who have rarely known peace, their optimism in the face of overwhelming odds and the very real worry that the country remains on a knife-edge and could easily slip back into a nightmare from which it is still trying to escape. This work has been supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Afghanistan: Transition and Return features a preface by High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers, and an introduction by Jon Lee Anderson that discusses the undertaking of reconstruction and the psychology of return.