Faces Of The Osh Bazaar

The bazaar is the soul of Central Asia. It is an important center of social life in Kyrgyzstan and an apt metaphor for its political life. I grew up next to the Osh Bazaar in Bishkek and was always fascinated by its vibrant, if not hectic, atmosphere. The bazaar is always full of diverse and exotic smells, tastes, and sounds. It sprawls for 17,000 square meters and has everything, from groceries to clothes, appliances, and musical instruments. People from all over the country come to work there, and they are as diverse as the things they sell. I started this project as an exercise in street photography and, with time, discovered that it developed into a collective portrait that captures something essential about my homeland.