'Till the End' photo exhibition at Cambridge Central Asian Forum gallery
Manuel Capurso is an Italian photographer based in London. He won the 2009 Photolucida Critical Mass International Award and participated in the Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50 in addition to winning second prize at the 2008 Thessaloniki Biennale of Photography. For the past few years he has been exhibiting widely in England, Spain, France, Greece and India.
The images will be displayed for the very first time based on his journey to Kazakhstan as early as spring 2009. There are extraordinary 16 photographs reflecting the lifestyle of people living in the remote villages near Aralsk around the dying Aral Sea. Once a large terminal lake in Central Asia, it fed thousands of people in the old Soviet Union, but after the construction of irrigational canal it slowly began its way to the oblivion. Today the Aral Sea is only a ghost of what it was. The land is now desert and dust storms of salt are filling the air. Despite the desperate situation in the region's fishing industry the local population proudly continues the job of their ancestors.
The human catastrophe which caused once flourishing Aral Sea to reach the brink of nearly extinction is clearly observed in the routine daily life tasks of the villagers such as having tea, shaving the sheep, fishing, even smoking.
The photographer managed to catch the glimpses of the real life struggle where Aral Sea plays not only background but stands as live figure, a hopeless bystander forced to watch how its children roam almost empty waters to survive. But is it really so hopeless or maybe after looking closer at pictures we may find a soft smile among hardships hen the hand touches hand over the dastarkhan imitating Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" in the gesture of kinship and devotion, Kazinform refers to the press service of the Kazakh Embassy in the UK.