Prayer on the steppe: A Kazakh man prays on the steppe near Shympkent in southern Kazakhstan before the beginning of Kokpar, an old equestrian sport popular among people of Central Asia. 2012.
Prayer on the steppe: A Kazakh man prays on the steppe near Shympkent in southern Kazakhstan before the beginning of Kokpar, an old equestrian sport popular among people of Central Asia. 2012.
Artifacts: Photographer Ikuru Kuwajima
After studying photojournalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia, Ikuru Kuwajima lived and photographed in several postcommunist states, including Romania, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Russia. For the past three years, Kuwajima has traveled and covered Central Asia extensively and continues to photograph in the post-Soviet states. He’s currently based in Kazan, Russia, and is working on documentary projects around the region.
Ikuru’s Artifacts
“These are things that I have collected and kept despite moving a number of times in the past six years. I don’t know exactly why I keep them—except, of course, the passport, panoramic camera, and the cigarettes, which are the most essential belongings for me.”—Ikuru Kuwajima
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