<\/span>In the Ferghana Valley, the most fertile and densely populated part of Central Asia, Bendiksen\u2019s lens turns to religious intolerance and drug abuse. As with elsewhere in this impeccably researched book, he aims, through pictures and words, to provide a context for these societal problems. His gaze is intimate, and his access, especially to the underground mosque in Margilan, privileged.<\/p>\n
Photographically, many of the unforgettable images inhabit the section on Birobidzhan, the Jewish Autonomous Region established by Stalin in 1928. A red Star of David is scrawled on a shattered window pane, still framed by yellowing lace, which in turn frames a bleak snowscape: a communist apartment block across the way. A moment stolen from a snowy night as three locals wend their way home glows with a filmic timelessness. Poignantly, the final scene \u2013 and each image could be a film-still \u2013 sees yet another charter jet carrying a new generation to the new promised land, Israel, one of six such jets that took off during Bendiksen\u2019s month long stay.<\/p>\n
Empires fall. The last section in this extraordinary book is called Spaceship Crash Zones. As Bendiksen says: \u201cWhat goes up must come down.\u201d He travelled to isolated villages north-east of the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan to witness the consequences of living in a cosmic flight path: first and second stages of rocket booster coming crashing down to earth. Space debris provides rich pickings for what Bendiksen calls \u201croaming bands of men\u201d who seek to profit from the precious metals, while at the same time slowly poisoning themselves with remnants of toxic rocket fuel. Bendiksen\u2019s acute eye for the uncanny allows us to witness these strange ghosts from the future becoming relics here on earth.<\/p>\n
Max Houghton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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