Pre-Taliban Afghanistan

The following show an Afghanistan that was happier, friendlier, and immensely attractive. To view 28 more photographs of Afghanistan, please go to http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/victorenglebert, click on Galleries, and then on the Afghanistan picture.

Time is flying so fast that I sometimes forget that I was living before the rise of television and computers. A few days ago I came across my nearly forgotten photographs of stone-age people. Stone-aged people in my life time? Just look at the following photographs.

In 1968, having spent four months among the former head-hunting Dyak of Borneo, some of whom still had skulls hanging in their longhouses, I traveled briefly to Irian Jaya, Indonesia'western half of New Guinea, where I watched real men sharpening and using stone axes.

But then, on Indonesia's more than 17,000 islands, over 900 of which are inhabited, and of which I visited eight over a period of seven months, you can experience the most amazing variety of civilizations, races, cultures, and religions there may be anywhere else over a similar area.

Brief sojourn at the stone age

Some of my Dogs, Past and Present

I love dogs and have owned many. Never less than four while living in Colombia for 23 years because of that country’s insecurity at the time. My dogs have taught me to love and respect all animals, as well as to be awed by their often underestimated intelligence and feelings. I wish I had photographed them all, but I used to be too busy traveling and photographing people. I only started photographing my last three dogs, only one of which, a pit-bull, is still alive.

I wasn’t happy when one of my sons adopted it and, no longer allowed to keep it in a new apartment, he asked me to adopt it myself now. I had heard too many bad things about those dogs. But dogs are like kids. They behave according to their education and amount of love they get. Tango, my pit-bull, is the most loving, intelligent, comical, warm-hearted dog that I ever owned. He warms my heart and makes me laugh all day.

I’m posting a few of the three dogs’ pictures hereafter. To see them, please click on the previous post. To see more, please click on http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/victorenglebert, then on Galleries, and then on the dog photo.

Some of my Dogs, Past and Present

Children of South America

I just uploaded 200 pictures of South American children into six galleries. The first three galleries have the best pictures.
Whether the kids are dirty or clean, you will wish that you could hug them. They will melt your heart. To view them, go to http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/victorenglebert, click on galleries, then on Collections, and finally on Children of South America.
Because the Peru and Colombia galleries have more than 50 pictures, the rest of them are hiding on a second page. Just click on the button at the bottom of the page to see it.
Anyway, hereafter are some sample pictures to titillate your interest.

Other website: http://Victorenglebert.com

Children of South America

Having mentioned my children’s book, I must add that I have half a dozen others with an agent, all on kids of the developing world. The nationalities of American and European kids can be difficult to guess without some help because of the similarity of their cultures, housing, and dress. But children of Africa, Latin America, and Asia have widely differing cultures and ways of life, at least those who live isolated in deserts, forests, and mountains. And that can make them quite surprising.

I’ll post pictures of some of those other children’s books when I find the time. Meanwhile, you might enjoy viewing the three pictures that follow. They are among my most popular children’s pictures, at least among women, and I have large posters of them available.

Ecuador Cowgirls

My latest project is a children’s book I did on speculation. It’s looking for a publisher. It’s the story of two young sisters working on their family’s cattle ranch on Ecuador’s lowlands during A Time for Horses and during A Time for Canoes.

Horses are traded for canoes when the lowlands get flooded by the torrents rushing down from the Andes Mountains during the rainy season. The full photo story, with captions, can be viewed at www.victorenglebert.com/ChildrensBooks (case sensitive).