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Tajikistan: a Different Perspective
Ivan Sigal: 8/4/00
The few depictions of Tajikistan that have gained notoriety
in the past 10 years usually focus on the civil war and its
social consequences: displaced populations, public health,
military, poverty, and the drug trade. These social issues
are urgent and need attention. However, when taking pictures
I've frequently found myself drawn to scenes on the periphery
of issues and events: not only to the potential environmental
disaster of Lake Sarez, but the cowherd crouching by its shores;
not only the militarized zone along the Afghan border, but
the hot springs where both soldiers and locals bathe; not
only an independence day parade, but its spectators. These
pictures are a record of those inconsequential moments, the
slight, quiet lives that fill out the texture of a place,
and that give it shape.
The following pictures offer a brief glimpse of Tajikistan.
Neither based on events nor organized around a preconceived
idea of the country and its spaces, they are simply peopled
landscapes, compositions encountered throughout the country
during the course of travels in 1999.
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Posted August 4, 2000 © Eurasianet
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