Body Building Club in Kabul

In Summer '95, Kabul was not such a bad place to live. At least, not for bodybuilders, or for fitness-conscious people in general. Several body building clubs were opened in town, and all of them gathered quite a lot of young men, especially during the rush hours. I visited two of them late in the afternoon, and I found both of them more crowded than my pictures can show. Ok, we are used to heavily-chromed machines, soft music, thick carpets and shining weight-bars. Those posters of Stallone (Rocky) or Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk) hanging from the walls, or the weights which are made out of soviet armoured cars gears welded together might make us smile. But the guys you see in my pictures were having a lot of fun.