As Central Asia was transformed under Soviet rule, one man made a remarkable record of life in the fledgling Uzbek S. S. R. before being driven from his career and toward tragedy. A worker's rally in the courtyard of a textile mill in Tashkent.
Anzor Salidjanov conducted an experiment in 2009 that changed his life. In the poky gallery within the ancient city of Bukhara where he sold “monotonous” paintings of “minarets, donkeys, and camel trains” to tourists, Salidjanov decided to hang a couple of his photographs.
After a longtime ban on photographing the Tashkent Metro was lifted this summer, I went underground to reveal the art, architecture, and nuclear-blast protection in Central Asia’s oldest subway system.