Dobson employs an excellent depth of field to capture these young Afghan skateboardettes. With a somewhat balanced aperture between very open and closed, she finds the right point to keep these girls in focus but still capture the environment in which they skate. Her use of relatively quick shutter speeds also capture them as they ride their boards. Dobson also strives to make sure her images are of great quality.
The inspiration from this project stems from the social issue of women not being allowed to ride bicycles in Afghanistan as a respect to their religion and social order. However many Afghan girls and woman have taken to riding skateboards as a early outlet to break the barrier of the rule through the program Skateistan. The program aids in reentry back into schools through formal learning and training, hot meals and 1 hour of skate time for mostly low income children. Woman are now the number one skaters in the country.
These photos give me hope. I feel so much that in our capitalist mindset of a system nothing that has not already been introduced into a traditional society hurts so called "third world" countries more than it helps them. However, the joy on these girls faces as they skate says otherwise. I think Dobson captures the essence of such a phenomenon although seemingly rare as a change that could really happen in we use or technologies and innovations for good and not greed.
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