BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer

STEVE McCURRY Art Petrosemolo, center, with Afghan translator and guide Qais Azminy get a close look from a motorcycle driver on the road in Bamiyan. Petrosemolo took the pictures of the two Afghani children pictured at left and below. Tagging along on a photojournalist's jaunt to Afghanistan wasn't in the plans, but when the opportunity arose, Arthur Petrosemolo jumped at the chance.

Though the U.S. State Department discourages Americans from visiting Afghanistan, that didn't stop this Shrewsbury resident from spending a week in the ravaged country with Steve McCurry, a noted photographer on assignment for National Geographic magazine.

"If you go, you need a visa to enter the country," Petrosemolo said. "I applied for and got a four-week tourist visa from the Afghan consulate in New York City."

What Petrosemolo observed in that war-torn country shocked and dismayed him.

"It was worse than a third-world country, it was more like a fifth-world country," he said, adding that he came away with a sense that Americans have no real understanding of what Afghanistan is like now, after the war to rout the Taliban.

Petrosemolo is associate vice president of communications and marketing at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck. It was because of his connection to the university that he had the chance to accompany photographer McCurry on a trip to Afghanistan.

Petrosemolo explained that one of his duties is to find and recruit the speaker for the university's commencement ceremony. He thought McCurry would make for an interesting speaker and approached the photographer who agreed to speak to the class of 2003.

"We became friends. I became his printing adviser for a limited edition poster of his photo of the Taj Mahal," explained Petrosemolo, who has a background in printing.

"I mentioned to him that Fairleigh Dickinson has a special relationship with the U.N."

Petrosemolo and McCurry went to the U.N. to present the poster to Shashi Tharoor, undersecretary general for communications and public information at the U.N.

Since that introduction, McCurry has been working with the U.N. on an exhibit of photos of Afghanistan children that will open on Oct. 23 and run for eight weeks at one of the U.N. gallery spaces.

McCurry was going to Afghanistan for a photo shoot and needed someone to go with him. Not surprisingly, Petrosemolo jumped at the chance.

"Take me with you," he urged. McCurry agreed and then left on another assignment.

"He called from Brazil the last week in February. He was there for Carnaval. He said, 'Art ... pack your bags, we're going.'

They left two weeks later.

"Our original plan was to go in January, but I'm glad we did not as Kabul gets lots of snow and cold weather and getting to Bamiyan in the mountains would have been difficult and dangerous," Petrosemolo said.

The arrangements changed three times, but he and McCurry finally flew into Dubai and early the next morning left for Afghanistan on one of only two airlines that still fly into that country. The planes they flew in were very old, with backless seats and no seat belts.

The difficulties associated with getting to Afghanistan were a foreshadowing of what he found once there. For one thing, he said, there is no such thing as credit, no ATMs.

"I had to pay for everything in cash, 50 Afghanis to a dollar," he said.

Once in Kabul, they were met by a guide/translator, Qais Azminy, 26, whose job it was to shepherd journalists around the country. Petrosemolo befriended the young man and is now working on getting him admitted to Fairleigh Dickinson.

The group had to travel up into the mountains to Bamiyan where McCurry was assigned to photograph the people in that region.

"This was Steve's first trip on the story focusing on the Afghan people who live in the mountains. He will probably go back two or three more times," Petrosemolo said.

He found that there was no electricity and very little running water available.

"The hotel was minimal at best. I washed with bottled water and there was no place to wash clothes."

Petrosemolo spent 2 1/2 days in the mountains and when it was time to leave, the guide didn't think it was safe for him to travel back to Kabul alone, so a college student was enlisted to become his new guard and guide.

Once back in Kabul, Petrosemolo was able to observe the life of the city. He stayed in a guest house that was guarded by a man with a machine gun.

"The streets were teeming, there were many marketplaces and most of the women wore burqas," he said.

Petrosemolo said he never was made to feel uncomfortable. McCurry, trying to assuage any nervousness about his safety, said, "Art, it will be like a trip to Cleveland."

"I never felt threatened, but," Petrosemolo joked, "it wasn't like Cleveland."

His guide protected him from going where it was dangerous, and his interaction with people was limited.

"I did get a sense of what it is like for them," he said, explaining that the people are disappointed because the funds that are coming into Afghanistan haven't made a difference in the quality of their lives."

Petrosemolo is an accomplished photographer who took many of his own photos during the trip. He is also an active sailor and serves as secretary of the Monmouth Boat Club in Red Bank.

Of the preconceptions he carried with him to Afghanistan, there was one he left behind. "I thought I was going to see a country recovering," he said.