Polish-Canadian photographer Alexander Komenda explores the nuances of daily life in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan in his series, “The Lost Enchiridion of the Fergana Valley.” Following seven trips to Kyrgyzstan between 2017 and 2022, the series refrains from factual purity. Instead, as Komenda explains, the images exist “as segments entangled in one common history governed by the legacy of an empty promise and corruption.” He elaborates:

“This is almost half a decade’s worth of bearing witness to people putting on shoes like watching a glacier move. As much an observation as it is a meditation. As much my father’s workplace, who works as a human rights advisor, as it became my workplace, as a photographer. The camera is an opportunity to reach out via kinship and reciprocity. Where is the line between division and unity? Such questions became starting points, where the quotidian can be unpicked and contemplated; to capture a feeling, to convey the bond that occurs off camera. How does one encompass it all and depict such complexity and nuance with tranquility, dignity, and respect, without exaggerating the tragedy nor undermining it?”

See more from the series below!