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In late winter 2012, following in the footsteps of Eric Newby, French photographer Frédéric Lagrange journeyed to the foothills of the Hindu Kush, on assignment for Port Magazine. With minimal camera equipment, he made his way to the Wakhan Corridor – in the north-eastern Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan – a thin finger of land reaching eastwards to China, and dividing Tajikistan to the north and Pakistan to the south.

In this isolated and somewhat independent region – known by those who live there as the roof of the world – Lagrange spent a month living with and photographing the Wakhi people, whose lifestyle has changed little in hundreds of years.

Due to their remoteness they avoided much of the terror exercised upon the people of Afghanistan by the Taliban, but now there is a growing anxiety as to what the coming years may hold.  With the Nato withdrawal fast approaching, they are recalling the violence that took sway 25 years ago during the two-year Mujahideen presence following the Soviet retreat.

Lagrange will be joining us in a discussion chaired by the The Independent’s defence correspondent, Kim Sengupta and featuring Rory Stewart MP, whose 32-day solo walk across Afghanistan in early 2002 was the basis for his first book, The Places in Between. Lagrange will present his work and they will discuss the fears and concerns he heard from the Wakhi people about the upcoming Nato withdrawal and an uncertain future.

Rory Stewart OBE, the writer and campaigner currently living in Kabul, will be at the club tonight, March 11, to discuss his work with Allan Little. The event is fully booked and if you can’t make it we’ll be streaming the discussion live on the Frontline Club live channel. You’ll also be able to see the event in the video pane above and on the Club Events page. We start at 7pm GMT,

Rory Stewart’s career to date has taken him from the foreign office in London, to Indonesia and Montenegro, to being governor of two states in Southern Iraq, to Kabul and most recently to Harvard. In between he has walked across Iran, through Pakistan and India and on to Afghanistan – arriving just after the Taliban had been toppled. With knowledge of local languages and customs as well as first-hand experience of the people in these countries and a front row seat on the War on Terror, what does Rory think the future holds for Iraq and Afghanistan and is he optimistic about President Obama’s proposed policies for the region? link