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Kandahar, Afghanistan – In a little store off a busy street in the centre of Kandahar city, Haji Muhammad Sultan is hectic at work.
It is a morning in March and the very first consumers of the day are flooding into the fete exterior. Inside the store, the fragile chip of Sultan’s sculpt versus soft plaster inside a brass, palm-sized mould is hardly audible. Sultan nestles the mould carefully in his old and wrinkly hands, trying what lies within: a brand-new set of teeth.
Once the plaster has actually been gotten rid of, Sultan peers down at his work, turning the dentures over gradually in between his fingers. “They should be best,” he states with a little smile.
Sultan’s household’s denture service was developed 80 years earlier by his grandpa, Haji Gul Muhammad, in Afghanistan’s second-largest city. Sultan declares it was the very first of its kind in the nation, the only store making handcrafted dentures, something that is tough to confirm although locals of Kandahar will inform you as much.
Sultan’s dad, Haji Nazar Muhammad, took over from his dad whose craft he gained from a young age. A 1998 photo of Sultan’s daddy by the American professional photographer Steve McCurry – who photographed Afghanistan’s individuals and landscapes for 35 years – reveals the grey-white bearded teeth maker seated in his easy store in Kandahar. He is immersed in his fragile work, a row of teeth touched in his hands. A black bike stands in front of a table lined with dentures.
Sultan has actually continued the household tradition, taking control of business after his dad passed away in 2008 and making dentures at the wood workbench included in McCurry’s photo.
He understands little of how extensively McCurry’s image had actually been seen outside Afghanistan, however he keeps in mind the professional photographer taking the photo.
With his white turban and long beard, Sultan bears a striking similarity to his daddy. “Sometimes individuals ask me if I am Haji Nazar Muhammad since I appear like my dad,” the 65- year-old laughes. “When my oldest boy ages, he will look similar to me likewise.”