Everything is big on the shores of the Caspian Sea: great hopes in a promising future, huge oil and gas deposits, ambitious architectural and development projects evocative of Absurdistan.
Everything is precarious on the shores of the Caspian Sea: the changed living environment following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the new beginning in economic, social and political terms, which has been (and still is) associated with many imponderabilities.
With a fine sensibility, Ukrainian artist Mila Teshaieva (b. 1974) traces the transformation in the three former Soviet republics Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan und Azerbaijan and polls the people on their lives and goals. The atmospheric and narrative intensity of her photographs captures the viewer’s attention.
Based in Berlin, Mila Teshaieva has received numerous distinctions, including the Prix de la Photographie Paris, the Humanistic Prize of the Phodar Biennial, the NPPA Best of Photojournalism, the Photolucida Critical Mass Book Award 2012, and the PDN Photo Annual 2013. Promising Waters is Mila Teshaieva’s first solo exhibition in Germany.