#1 CAMERA Book Review: Elliott Verdier - A Shaded Path

August 8th 2018
A quick look at Elliott Verdier's new book A Shaded Path published by Another Place Press (June 18)

Elliott Verdier's A Shaded Path is a long term documentary project produced in Kyrgyzstan between 2015 and 2017. Working with a 4×5 large format film camera, Verdier travelled throughout the country photographing its landscapes and the people who inhabit them. Published by Another Place Press in 2018, the book examines Kyrgyzstan during a period in which the legacy of the Soviet Union continued to influence a younger generation growing up within an increasingly globalised society.

The photographs move between formal portraits, industrial sites, remote settlements and expansive mountain landscapes, creating a visual record of a country negotiating the relationship between its Soviet past and its contemporary identity. Verdier was particularly interested in the contrast between older people whose lives were shaped by the USSR and younger Kyrgyz citizens whose experiences have been formed after independence. Rather than relying on reportage, the project uses carefully constructed large format photographs to explore memory, place and generational change through observation.

A Shaded Path reflects a documentary approach that prioritises time, research and sustained engagement with a subject. The deliberate pace of working with a large format camera influenced both the visual style of the photographs and Verdier's interactions with the people he photographed, resulting in detailed, measured images that emphasise the relationship between individuals and their environment. The book has become an important example of contemporary long form documentary photography examining identity, history and social transition in Central Asia.

Camera is on
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