The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously described as the world's largest lake or a sea. Over 130 rivers provide inflow to the Caspian, with the Volga River being the largest. The Caspian Sea is becoming a major economic world asset loaded with immense gas and oil resources, which are only beginning to be fully realized. The legal status of the Caspian Sea remains a key problem since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Negotiations related to the demarcation of the Caspian Sea have been going on among the states that border the Caspian: Iran, Russia, and three independent countries that emerged after the Soviet Union fell apart - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.
My work focuses on the relationship between people and the seaside reality. My photographs do not reflect or document any specific issue related to the Caspian Sea but rather focus on providing the viewer with a sense of atmosphere of life along various spots on the sea coast, which is particularly fascinating as thousands of years of history interweave with the current times. People are aware of the geopolitical struggles over energy in the Middle East and Russia, but few are aware that a great game is being played just around the corner in the Caspian basin. This is an incredibly culturally diverse region unknown to most of the western world, as the politics of the past century, as well as today’s, have kept the identities of these people a mystery.
