caspian dreams

Caspian Dreams is a portrait of Azerbaijan at sixteen as it faces the awkward growing pains of adolescence. The photographs reveal a dreamlike scene as the country seeks to throw off its Soviet past and move forward through the tidal forces of globalization and capitalism. Azerbaijan sits south of Russia and north of Iran, with its eastern side bordering the Caspian Sea. On its western border is the frontline from a brutal war with Armenia. Change has been swift in Azerbaijan. Western companies pump money into the exploration for oil in the Caspian Sea basin. High-end water parks have sprung up around the capital, Baku. However, not everything in Azerbaijan is caviar and champagne. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people live in train cars and slums. The areas surrounding Baku are some of the most polluted in the world. These opposing elements collide to create a surreal setting in which anything is possible. Depicting everyday events and happenstance encounters, the photographs raise larger issues of aging, change and loss.

A high school graduate and friend in Baku, Azerbaijan
   
A man receives hot oil therapy at a clinic in Baku, Azerbaijan. The clinic claims that the oil is helpful in relieving skin disorders and joint problems. Azerbaijan sits by the Caspian Sea oil basin which experts say is one of the last undeveloped oil fields in the world.
   
Soviet-style apartment building in Sumqayit, a former Soviet chemical production town and one of the ten most polluted places on earth.
     
  
Woman in a high school hallway with an inscription reading "You only live once".
   
Children and mosque, Xinaliq, Caucasus Mountains.
   
A traditional roadside restaurant kitchen, Barda.
     
  
Young refugee, Baku
   
Restaurant, Sumqayit beach.
   
A young refugee of the war with Armenia in her run down apartment building in Baku.
     
  
Baku zoo
   
Stuffed animals, Baku boulevard
   
Old wallpaper, Quba.
     
  
fishermen and found flag, Nabran.
   
Women collecting water, Caucasus Mountains.
   
Freshly discovered bones, thought to be from 1918 massacres. Quba, Azerbaijan. The massacres saw thousands of Muslims killed by Armenians.
     
  
Hamlet's grave, Sumqayit.
   
A man sits in a bath of crude oil at an oil therapy clinic in Baku, Azerbaijan.
   
A broken down statue of Lenin in a field in Yevlax. The Azerbaijan government has destroyed most reminders of Soviet rule, but a few have managed to remain.
     
  
A man floats in a mineral bath on the beach near the oil fields of Bibiheybat.
  
A salt farmer at work on the outskirts of Baku.
  
Refugee train car.
     
  
Children peer out of the back of a car on the road towards the front-line, western Azerbaijan.
  
A robot statue marks the entrance to a factory in the former soviet chemical production town of Sumqayit, one of the ten most polluted places on earth.
   
Teashop owner beside the Caspian Sea, Bibiheybat.
     
  
Guard dog near the Bibiheybat boat graveyard.
   
Child and broken doll, Baku.
  
A young boy in his home in the Caucasus Mountains
     
  
A schizophrenic refugee in his home in Saragaya on the Absheron Peninsula.
  
A young handicapped boy peers from his door in the Mahalla district of Baku. Officials are interested in tearing down the run down buildings to make way for modern high rise buildings.
   
A stray horse runs through the Caucasus Mountain village of Xinaliq.