A Shaded Path by Elliott Verdier

Elliott Verdier is a young french photographer who attracted attention and awards few times for his reports on human condition done in different parts of the world : Indonesia with afghan refugees, Burma with drug addicts in a rehab center or Mongolia in polluted suburbs of Ulanbaataar. He has now decided to dedicate his photography to long term projects, for from hot news, entering into intimacy of the people he takes pictures of, with his 4x5 large format camera.

Four months in Kyrgyzstan, portraying this unknown country with a large format camera, through faces and landscapes. This work highlights the generational disparities between those nostalgic of an abolished USSR order and modern westernized youths born after the fall. It covers the trials of a young, woebegone country struggling to simultaneously form a national identity and keep apace with a global economy. Relics of a past era mingle with the faces of a population frozen in transition.

Photos © Elliott Verdier