Anastasia Taylor-Lind (UK): Women of the Cossack Resurgence

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Documenting the Cossack resurrection in Caucasus Russia and Crimean Ukraine

Throughout the steppes and valleys of autonomous Crimea and Caucasus Southern Russia the Cossack people are relearning their warrior traditions and cultural heritage, which were aggressively suppressed by the communists during their 74 years in power. The Cossack revival began in 1991 with the collapse of the USSR, as small groups of men and women began to resurrect their historic role as defenders of Russia’s Southern borders and the Orthodox Church. Today the movement has gained considerable numbers, particularly in Russia with backing from the government, as more and more Cossacks seek to reclaim their identity along with the respect it earned them in society.

An ethnic minority who have inhabited this part of the world since settling there in the 15th Century, the Cossacks were historically known as fearless warriors; lawless bands of men who fought as hired soldiers on horseback and were skilled in swordsmanship. However, by the end of the 18th Century they had begun to earn legitimacy and formed recognised Hosts (frontier military organisations) that were used to patrol Russia’s ethnic borders. While their modern day ancestors still believe in such traditions and roles they would appear to be more integrated into society than their forefathers ever were. Known for having allegiance to no one it is no wonder the name Cossack derives from Kazakh and means freedom.

Today, the current revival is most evident in Russia where the Don and Kuban clans are disciplined and well organised. Their Cossack units form part of contemporary society and while special Cossack units exist in the Military, they also have a parallel civil administration that carries out quasi-military tasks. Many of the men I met had served in the wars in Chechnya and Afghanistan, and back on home soil they are being integrated into the police force where their traditional horse riding skills are being utilised to patrol the streets. Although the salary they receive is quite small, which means that the men and women have to work in other part time jobs in order to survive, it is still quite significant that they are being recognised and supported by the state.

Perhaps more importantly the government is also investing in nurturing Cossack resurgence through the many Cadet schools that are now operating in the South. Children from the age of 12 to 18 flock to attend these military style schools where they divide their time between normal academic lessons and learning traditional Cossack skills such as horse riding, martial arts, folk dancing and Shashka (Cossack sabre) performance as well as the more contemporary soldering necessities of shooting and parachuting. The respect that the Cossacks are starting to reclaim is evident in the fact the students from these Cadet schools are groomed for government jobs and positions. The director of the Ataman Platov school in Belaya Kalitva, Colonel Yuri Ivanovich, told me that all of his students would go on to serve Russia in their future careers.

Although Cossack units in Ukraine and Russia are made up of both men and women, the school here is the first to accept female cadets as full time boarders, and there are now around 80 girls living at Belaya Kalitva. In fact local legend has it that the steppes of Belaya Katitva here once inhabited by the legendary Amazon women warriors and the modern discovery of an ancient burial mound containing a red haired women who was unearthed surrounded by weapons and a horse stands as proof to the teachers at the Cossack academy, who say they are working to resurrect the Amazon spirit through the teenage girls in their charge.

Historically only the wives of Cossacks were allowed to join the military formation, but as they have adapted to modern life all women are now welcomed, as are men, regardless of ethnic origin or whether they have a Cossack heritage. This is apparent not only in Cadet schools but also in small units across the Caucasus steppes.

In stark contrast to the regimented and state recognised groups in Russia the Cossacks of Ukraine are doing it all by themselves. Men and women form irregular units and can meet only at the weekends or evenings outside of their full-time jobs. In some cases the local police force give them token rights to police public parks, protected lakes and beaches but more often than not they are left to their own devices, attempting to reassert themselves as Cossacks in a country that appears not to want to encourage a full re-emergence. Despite a lack of state support the movement is still strong and instead of being envious of the rights and recognition that their Russian counterparts are earning, some of the Cossacks in Ukraine remain sceptical about governmental support, that also brings with it control and which goes against everything they believe in. For Cossacks throughout the former USSR, most important is to uphold the tradition that gave them their name and not swear allegiance to anyone.

© Anastasia Taylor-Lind

• Anastacia Taylor-Lind’s Web Site

Olivia Arthur Featured on Firecracker

Jeddah Diary is the first book published by IM Award recipient Olivia Arthur, and is an exploration into the complicated and contradictory world of Saudi Arabian women as they balance between tradition and modernity.

Go to: Firecracker

See also: Review of Jeddah Diary

The deadline for submissions in 2012 is April 30th. Please look HERE for the full guidelines.

The Magnum Foundation and the Inge Morath Foundation announce the 11th annual Inge Morath Award. The annual award of $5,000 is awarded by the Magnum Foundation to a female photographer under the age of 30, to support the completion of a long-term documentary project. One award winner and up to two finalists are selected by a jury composed of Magnum photographers and the director of the Inge Morath Foundation.

Elsie Haddad (Lebanon): Entr’actes

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A couple of years back, a huge wave of construction plans emerged in Beirut, and it’s happening intensely and at a very high pace, sometimes the new buildings are built on the ruins of old ones and sometimes they’re built on the few empty spaces left in the city. This wave of constructions and modernism is bringing with it malls and lofts and modern apartments, wiping a certain urban lifestyle that was integral in the social structure of Beirut and its identity, leaving many questions on the shape of things to come, human contact and humans themselves.

In this happening, my interest drifted towards the old shops in Beirut… shops dating from the pre-war era (1975-1990), their owners, and their stories. These shops were essentials in every neighborhood, and their owners’ popular personas made them a place for diverse social encounters. They knew each of their customers by name and they treated them accordingly. They represent a part of a now gone way of life and social dynamics. With this shift to a more industrialized city, these old and iconic small shops, like their owners are becoming a shadow or merely a ghost of what they used to be, waiting for there closure or demolition.

These places push me to reflect on a very interesting era of our modern history, and all those stories that evolved around the lives of so many individuals and communities who shared the same or close neighborhoods. When I started the project, I found myself in between documenting these places or portraying their owners. On a further stage, both approaches merged and I started elaborating on the relation between the space, the person and time. Every element in these shops became a reflection of fragmented memories, all still hanging together by a certain natural balance knowing that their disappearance is inevitable.

I wanted my photos to reflect aspects of these people’s lives and times, their current being, and to grasp this complex sense of urban change, time passage…or maybe simply the weigh of life, on men and their environments.

Elsie Haddad

• Elsie Haddad’s Web Site

The Inge Morath Award: Olivia Arthur, Lurdes R. Basoli, Zhe Chen, and Emily Schiffer

An exhibition of new work by past recipients of the Inge Morath Award to celebrate the opening of the new Fotohof, on Inge Morath Platz in Salzburg! Please join us at the reception for this exciting program!

OPENING: Thursday, April 19, 7 pm, by Vice Governor David Brenner

DISCUSSION: Friday, April 20, 10-12 am, with Olivia Arthur, Lurdes R. Basoli and Emily Schiffer, as well as John Jacob (Director of the Inge Morath Foundation, New York).

In the Fotohof Library: Inge Morath – Guerre à la tristesse (1955).

FOTOHOF.
Inge-Morath-Platz 1-3, 5020 Salzburg/Austria
Tel +43 662 849296, Fax +43 662 849296-4, fotohof@fotohof.at

Elizabeth Moreno (Mexico): Close to Earth

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This project documents a slice of the culture and life of the Baja California peninsula rancheros (in Mexico), focusing on the particular fusion between past and present that they experience today—a fragile equilibrium that is about to be broken by the forces of globalization.

The rancheros and their families live mainly of the land, sometimes hours away from the closest town or paved road. Descendants of Spanish settlers who were brought to the peninsula by the Jesuits in the late 1700s and the native inhabitants of the peninsula, these families have maintained their unique heritage and customs, which have been shaped by adapting to life in a rarely abundant and often inhospitable land, over centuries.

Today the rancheros and their singular sense of identity are quickly disappearing in the face of “development.” Responding to investors in a growing tourist industry or to private offers, many succumb to the pressure to sell their land on the cheap. Those that still own their land generate very low incomes for very hard work. Their efforts to give their families a better life force them to move to the city. There, they lose their modest but sustainable way of living to become part of the poor labor force that suffers from unemployment and harsh living conditions. The few who are lucky enough to study rarely return home to apply their aquired knowledge to improve their communities and to uphold their traditions.

This project was supported by Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA), Mexico.

• Elizabeth Moreno’s Web Site

The Magnum Foundation and the Inge Morath Foundation announce the 11th annual Inge Morath Award. The annual award of $5,000 is awarded by the Magnum Foundation to a female photographer under the age of 30, to support the completion of a long-term documentary project. One award winner and up to two finalists are selected by a jury composed of Magnum photographers and the director of the Inge Morath Foundation.

Inge Morath was an Austrian-born photographer who was associated with Magnum Photos for nearly fifty years. After her death in 2002, the Inge Morath Foundation was established to manage Morath’s estate and facilitate the study and appreciation of her contribution to photography. Because Morath devoted much of her enthusiasm to encouraging women photographers, her colleagues at Magnum Photos established the Inge Morath Award in her honor. The Award is now given by the Magnum Foundation as part of its mission of supporting new generations of socially-conscious documentary photographers, and is administered by the Magnum Foundation in collaboration with the Inge Morath Foundation.

Past winners of the Inge Morath Award include: Zhe Chen (China, ’11) for Bees; Lurdes R. Basolí (Spain, ’10) for Caracas, The City of Lost Bullets and Claire Martin (Australia, ’10) for Selections from The Downtown East Side and Slab City; Emily Schiffer (US, ’09) for Cheyenne River; Kathryn Cook (US, ’08) for Memory Denied: Turkey and the Armenian Genocide; Olivia Arthur (UK, ’07) for The Middle Distance; Jessica Dimmock (US, ’06) for The Ninth Floor; Mimi Chakarova (US, ’06) for Sex Trafficking in Eastern Europe; Claudia Guadarrama (MX, ’05) for Before the Limit; and Ami Vitale (US, ’02), for Kashmir.

Deadline:

All submissions must be postmarked or delivered by April 30th, 2012.

Form of Submission:

- Images should be sent as a PDF document ONLY (no Quicktime, Powerpoint, or HTML files will be accepted).
- The first image of your PDF should show your name and the title of your project.
- Please do NOT format your document as a slideshow; we’ll do that for you. Also, please do not password-protect your file.
- A folder with the individual image files (JPEGs) must accompany the PDF file.
- All submissions must consist of work done solely by the submitting photographer.
- Photographers represented by Magnum Photos and their immediate relatives are not eligible.

Required Support Material:

- Project description. This should describe the project and how the Award will be used to complete work on the project.
- Curriculum Vitae (maximum three pages) including name, email address, telephone number, and mailing address.
- Photocopy or scan of ID clearly showing date of birth. All applicants must be under the age of 30 on April 30th, 2012.

Image File Specifications:

- 40 – 60 images (1200 pixels on the longest side @ 150 DPI saved as a JPEG compression at 8 minimum).
- In the folder containing individual images, please use numbered filenames indicating the image sequence, with the number coming first in the file name and then last name; for example: 01_Smith, 02_Smith, 03_Smith etc. (use only two digit numbers; 01, 02, 03, etc.).
- Please label your CD with your name and contact information before sending it, and please test the CD to ensure that both it and your PDF are functional.

Digital Submission:

- If you wish to submit your files digitally, please compress your complete submission into ONE FILE before sending.
- Digital files may be submitted to this address: https://dropbox.yousendit.com/ingemorath
- It is highly recommended that anyone submitting digitally contact the Inge Morath Foundation to directly confirm that your submission has been received. (Please do NOT contact Magnum.)

Submissions By Mail:

- Submissions may be sent on CD by mail to the address below:

Inge Morath Award
c/o Magnum Photos
151 West 25th Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10001 USA

Return of Submissions:

Submissions that are not accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope will not be returned. Applicants waive any claims for loss of or damage to their submissions.

Announcement of Winner:

July 2011 on the web sites of the Magnum Foundation and the Inge Morath Foundation.

Fine Print:

IM Award recipients and finalists grant the Magnum Foundation a license to reproduce, display and distribute their submissions solely in connection with the administration and judging of the Inge Morath Award, including on the Magnum Foundation website and the Inge Morath Foundation website.

IM Award recipients agree that any future publication, exhibition or display of the funded project shall credit the Inge Morath Award and the Magnum Foundation.

Upon completion of the funded project, a final (digital) copy must be provided to the Magnum Foundation. The Foundation, in furtherance of its charitable purposes, may, in the future, (1) display the project on its website and make it available for display on the website of the Inge Morath Foundation; and (2) publicly display the project (or excepts from it) in connection with exhibitions or promotional materials related to the Inge Morath Award. The Foundation will credit the artist as the author and copyright holder of her photographs.

IM Award recipients may be required to provide additional identifying information prior to receiving payment.

Further Information:

IM Foundation Contact Info

Francesca Cao (Italy): The Lion of Central Asia

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Kazakhstan is the ninth country in the world for extension. Its history begins with the nomads in the steppe until the Russian invasion in 1890, which persists until the fall of the Soviet Union and the election of president Nazarbayev in 1991, who declares the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The first oil discovery is dated 1979, when Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union, but considered a giant desert for nuclear garbage. In the past twenty-eight years, everything changed for Kazakh people. The fall of the Soviet Union in fact had many hard consequences on the population, result of the country’s total dependence. From 1991 the main export becomes oil and in 2003 they are valuated more than 7 billion dollars, representing 65% of the total.

Isle D is the only example in the world of artificial Isle built to extract gas and oil from Kashagan, a field in the north part of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. Discovered in the year 2000, this field is considered to be one of the major Oil discoveries in the past thirty years and is assumed it will produce nine to sixteen milliard barrels. The weather conditions are extreme since the temperature goes over 40° C in the summer and below -30 in the winter. About 3000 people work on the Isle during the summer, while this number decreases during the winter. The workers have 12 ours shifts and stay on the Island 28 Days to 6 months.

Close to the on shore base of Bautino, there are few villages, where, during the Soviet Union, Stalin used to send the politic opponents. In the village of Atash, there is a lady called Asiya Kesikbaev, who had a very tough life. She doesn’t have a job and has to survive with two kids asking for food to the people who work for the factories in the Bautino area. She doesn’t have a house and her children sleep with the grandmother while Asiya uses the basement. Asiya’s husband repudiated her when their son was six months old, but, as a consequence of cold and malnutrition, the baby dies. Not far from Atash there is Sampe Gulbarshyn’s village. The old name of this village was Karagan, but Sampe doesn’t look too sure when she talks about it. About twenty years ago, her neighbors where farmers and fisherman’s, but then slowly everyone left, leaving her alone in this lunar landscape. Now she lives with her animals and the seldom visits of a relative.

In December 2008 the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe accuses Kazakhstan for lacking of the fundamental human rights concerning freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. The document about human rights in Kazakhstan asserts that there is a climate of quiet repression, which causes silence on certain topics.

According to the Bureau of Consular affairs of the U.S. department of state, the area of Alma-ata, the old capital, in the southeastern side of the country, is ranked on the fourth level (the highest level assigned) of earthquake threat and does not have the sufficient resources to respond to a large-scale disaster.

In the Tekeli Village about three ours drive from the city of Alma-ata, several earthquakes caused many damages to the old houses built during the Soviet times. Apparently the local government, doesn’t give much help to the victims and, since the area is poor and with a high level rank of unemployment, the inhabitants don’t have the resources to fix the houses. In the suburbs of Alma-ata there is the Shanyrak microdistrict, an area of abusive houses. In 2006 the Alma-Ata City authorities wanted to destroy the homes of settlers who have built poor but dignified living quarters on the outskirts of the city. Many of those who live in Shanyrak were driven out of their last homes by the collapse of industry in Kazakhstan, in the early and mid-nineties. In May 2009 a flood destroyed a big part of this district, only 60 families will have new houses. The Kadyrkhan family, for example, had very hard consequences after the flood. One of the house’s wall was demolished and also the floor of the parents room. Since the help from the Akimat was late to come, they had to rebuild on their own.

After the Oil discoveries, president Nazarbiaev, who is still in charge, says, in a famous speech, that Kazakhstan will become “The Lion of Central Asia”, and decides in 1997 to move the Capital from Alma-ata to Astana, at the time a small village in the north western side of the country. A huge amount of money was used to build the new Capital. High profiled architects such as Norman Foster, were called to build a pyramid (The palace of peace and reconciliation), a fake earthly paradise Ak Horda, a giant tent shaped building, with tennis courts, beaches, volleyball courts, where the internal temperature is going to be fixed around 24° C), skyscrapers and buildings of any kind.

The aim of this project is to show the contrasts that the Oil discoveries raised in this country. On a side there is the new generation of young businessman and woman who live a totally westernized life in Astana, on the other one there is the largest part of the population, whose history is still-motion movie.

• Francesca Cao’s Web Site

Chloe Dewe Mathews (UK): Caspian

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Languishing quietly between two great continents, the Caspian is the world’s largest inland sea. In 2010 I travelled to its edge, to the point where Asia dissolves into Europe. For centuries, surrounding powers have laid claim to the region; first the Ottomans, the Persians, the Mongols and most recently Soviet Russia. These Empires have ebbed and flowed, each one leaving its mark on this enigmatic landscape.

In the 10th Century, oil was discovered on the Caspian coast near Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and has been exploited ever since. The boom of the late 90’s brought the current wave of prosperity to the area. However, Caspian crude oil is not only used conventionally as fuel: since long before mechanized extraction it has provided a curious health treatment.

In the “spa town” of Naftalan people gather to bathe in the chocolate-brown goo, which is purported to have therapeutic properties. Here, a substance normally associated with power, wealth and global trade is used for healing and wellbeing. They call it the ‘miracle oil’ and it has been bathed in for centuries.

As the Caspian oil industry continues to grow, the distribution of wealth is increasingly skewed. Migrants trickle toward the port city of Aktau, in Kazakhstan, finding work constructing elaborate mausoleums for the new oil rich middle class. I spent days camping among the workers, watching them saw through blocks of limestone and digging graves. Some of these tombs are engraved with drawings of nodding donkeys: symbols of the oil industry that have even crept onto the monuments to the dead.

After decades of Soviet rule, much discussion arose as to how the newly created countries would find their individual identities. For those on the edge of the Caspian Sea, that search has been coloured by oil, a substance which existed beneath the ground long before the land was inhabited.

This mysterious resource, both lucrative and destructive, pervades the atmosphere of the region. The way I travelled affected my sense of the place too: hitchhiking and camping caused me to think more about the distinct character of the place – the flatness of the land, the colour of the soil, and quality of light. I wanted to capture the relationship between the people and the land, bound up with one another in subtle and often unexpected ways; for every ecological scar left on the land by powers of the past, is a wound to its people.

This body of work stands as the first chapter in a long-term project that will develop into coastal Russia, Turkmenistan and Iran.

• Chloe Dewe Mathews’ Web Site

Support Emily Schiffer’s “See Potential” on Kickstarter

We are excited to announce the launch of Emily Schiffer’s Kickstarter campaign: http://kck.st/tnbSkD

Emily was a Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund photographer in 2011, and a recipient of the Inge Morath Award in 2009. If you haven’t seen it, please take this opportunity to view the slideshow of Emily’s acclaimed Cheyene River.

Emily’s new project, SEE POTENTIAL, addresses the absence of affordable, healthy foods on Chicago’s South Side. Emily will partner with community leaders and collaborate with other photographers to create large-scale, public photography installations that will visualize positive change and mobilize the South Side community. SEE POTENTIAL is an extension of a project begun last summer with support from the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund.

The Kickstarter proposal is a campaign for support and also an open call to all who have produced substantive documentary photographs of the South Side community to contribute to the project.

Please learn more about SEE POTENTIAL here: http://kck.st/tnbSkD, watch the Magnum In Motion produced video. Please contribute, and also and help support Emily’s project by sharing this Kickstarter campaign among your friends.