Anzor Salidjanov conducted an experiment in 2009 that changed his life. In the gallery within the ancient city of Bukhara Uzbekistan whe...
Anzor Salidjanov conducted an experiment in 2009 that changed his life.
In the gallery within the ancient city of Bukhara Uzbekistan where he sold “monotonous” paintings of “minarets, donkeys, and camel trains” to tourists, Salidjanov decided to hang a couple of his photographs.
“The experiment inspired me “because on the same day one of the photos was sold,” he said. Since then, he photographs his city and country, capturing the most interesting moments. Here are some of his photos.
Photo: A woman smoking a cigarette in central Bukhara in 2010.
Becoming a photographer in Uzbekistan was far from easy.
Bukharsky explained why there are so few good photographs made of his country’s culture and public life, especially from before 2016 when the country was ruled by the authoritarian former communist, Islam Karimov.
“Photographers were simply afraid to shoot on the street. Any policeman could easily detain the shooter and haul him off to the police station. I’ve had dozens of cases when I had to write explanatory notes for why I shot photos in a square or a market. Then the pictures themselves were deleted after being carefully studied for signs of espionage.”
Photo:
Schoolchildren being served a lunch of sandwiches and deep-fried bread at a school in Bukhara in 2010
Village children with a rooster standing atop a traditional mud oven used for baking flatbread.
A teenage bride appears deep in thought on her wedding day in 2010.
High-school students with a wooden Kalashnikov and real gas masks during a lesson in 2010.
A worker clings to a safety rope as he plasters the roof of a mosque.
A young couple enjoy a summer sunset near the Kalyan Minaret in Bukhara in 2015.
The photographer says Bukharans “love their minaret,” and he is no exception.
"Sometimes my visiting friends raise their eyebrows in surprise, saying: 'It seems we were here yesterday!' To which I reply: 'I am in my apartment every day. But that doesn’t stop me from returning there again and again.'"
A Bukhara hotel lobby in 2010.
Horsemen rush for the headless goat during a game of buzkashi near Bukhara in 2014.
Men carry a carpet into a marketplace in the center of Bukhara that was demolished by the authorities soon after this 2017 photo was taken. The market demolition was part of the controversial “accelerated development” of many historic sites in Uzbekistan.
A girl watches a Soviet-era film in a Romany village near Bukhara.
Children playing in the village in 2010.
A family peers out of a window in the Romany village near Bukhara.
A policeman paints Bukhara’s Chor Minor in 2010.
A waiter emerges from a restaurant with plates of Uzbekistan’s famed plov in 2016.
A lavish wedding in 2016.