At the foot of the Caucasus Mountains in Quba, a district in north-east Azerbaijan, Anar runs a small company that collects rocks and gravel for use in concrete. Like him, most of his 16 workers are exiles from Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of south-west Azerbaijan that has been administered by neighbouring Armenia since the two countries fought a brutal war over who should control it from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s.
Anar, now in his mid-thirties, left Nagorno-Karabakh as a child, moving with his father to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. After studying international relations, he briefly lived in Russia, where he married and had a child, before returning to Azerbaijan to take over his father’s gravel-making business. For accommodation, his workers use shipping containers; those who have families see them at most once a month.
The Other Hundred is a not-for-profit photo book by the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT) to provide a counterpoint to the mainstream media consensus about some of today's most important issues. The book introduces readers to the vast majority of people, ideas, places and cultures simply ignored by most major media publications. Through an annual series of books, each focusing on a particular subject, The Other Hundred provides an alternative and refreshing view on everything from people and their homes to performers, chefs and authors.
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