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New York Times
March 4 2011
Rebuilding Lives in Former Soviet Lands
By MATHEW R. WARREN
In 1994, on the last day of a monthlong stay at the only hotel in
Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed region between Armenia and Azerbaijan,
the photographer Bruce Haley took a picture of a woman he had come to
know as `Mama.' Over the course of his visit, Mama brought him
breakfast every day. The two became friends, but she refused to be
photographed. When Mr. Haley visited her to say goodbye, though, she
let him take her picture under one condition: that he permit her to
hold an image of her dead son.
`That particular image spoke a lot to what these people had been
through in the past and what they were trying to rebuild from,' Mr.
Haley said.
Mr. Haley, who is 54 and lives in the San Joaquin Valley in
California, received the 1990 Robert Capa Gold Medal for his coverage
of civil war in Myanmar. He has also covered wars in Afghanistan and
Somalia. But after going along on a British fact-finding mission to
Nagorno-Karabakh, he decided to stay another month on his own. With
that, his `Post-Communist' project and his new book `Sunder' began to
take form.
`Sunder,' which was published by Daylight Books, was released last
week. Fifty-five black-and-white photographs depict a people and a
landscape in flux. The haunting images, which were taken in various
countries throughout the former Soviet Union, show abandoned
industrial sites and decaying towns and villages. Children play in
bombed-out structures; families toil in rural wastelands. A panoramic
photo depicts a young man about to dive into the ocean from the top of
a partially sunken warship. A piece of the broken hull pokes out of
the water.
Though some of the images are bleak, together they evoke a sense of
hope, strength and beauty. There are lush landscapes, circus
performers, young women gossiping and smiling, and proud mothers.
`I was immersed in this whole different type of photography,' Mr.
Haley said. `It's not fighting, blood or bombs. It's people trying to
rebuild their society and return a sense of normalcy to their lives.'
And it's dedicated to Mama.
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/rebuilding-lives-in-former-soviet-lands/?partner=rss&emc=rss
From: A. Papazian
March 4 2011
Rebuilding Lives in Former Soviet Lands
By MATHEW R. WARREN
In 1994, on the last day of a monthlong stay at the only hotel in
Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed region between Armenia and Azerbaijan,
the photographer Bruce Haley took a picture of a woman he had come to
know as `Mama.' Over the course of his visit, Mama brought him
breakfast every day. The two became friends, but she refused to be
photographed. When Mr. Haley visited her to say goodbye, though, she
let him take her picture under one condition: that he permit her to
hold an image of her dead son.
`That particular image spoke a lot to what these people had been
through in the past and what they were trying to rebuild from,' Mr.
Haley said.
Mr. Haley, who is 54 and lives in the San Joaquin Valley in
California, received the 1990 Robert Capa Gold Medal for his coverage
of civil war in Myanmar. He has also covered wars in Afghanistan and
Somalia. But after going along on a British fact-finding mission to
Nagorno-Karabakh, he decided to stay another month on his own. With
that, his `Post-Communist' project and his new book `Sunder' began to
take form.
`Sunder,' which was published by Daylight Books, was released last
week. Fifty-five black-and-white photographs depict a people and a
landscape in flux. The haunting images, which were taken in various
countries throughout the former Soviet Union, show abandoned
industrial sites and decaying towns and villages. Children play in
bombed-out structures; families toil in rural wastelands. A panoramic
photo depicts a young man about to dive into the ocean from the top of
a partially sunken warship. A piece of the broken hull pokes out of
the water.
Though some of the images are bleak, together they evoke a sense of
hope, strength and beauty. There are lush landscapes, circus
performers, young women gossiping and smiling, and proud mothers.
`I was immersed in this whole different type of photography,' Mr.
Haley said. `It's not fighting, blood or bombs. It's people trying to
rebuild their society and return a sense of normalcy to their lives.'
And it's dedicated to Mama.
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/rebuilding-lives-in-former-soviet-lands/?partner=rss&emc=rss
From: A. Papazian