The Uyghurs: Kashgar Before the Catastrophe – A Photographer’s Story

Acclaimed photographer Kevin Bubriski will give us a glimpse into a lost world, portraying the life and culture of China’s Uyghur community in their historic capital city of Kashgar before the government’s severe crackdown. This presentation is based on his book which features over 120 photographs taken by Bubriski in 1998 during time he spent in Kashgar, situated on the ancient Silk Road trade route in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region. Fellow photographer and journalist Robert Gerhardt said Bubriski’s images capture the “cultural, economic, familial, religious, and spiritual traditions” of the Uyghurs. He added, “The vibrancy, beauty, and grit of Kashgar and its people that Bubriski witnessed and photographed more than 25 years ago has irrevocably changed, making his photographs even more significant.”

Guest Speaker:
Kevin Bubriski is a documentary photographer. He has exhibited worldwide; his work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the International Center of Photography, all in New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Asian Cultural Council, Bubriski worked for nine years in Nepal, and has photographed his journeys to India, Tibet, and Bangladesh. Author of Portrait of Nepal (Chronicle), which won the Golden Light Documentary Award in 1993, and Power Places of Kathmandu: Hindu and Buddhist Holy Sites in the Sacred Valley of Nepal (Inner Traditions), Bubriski lives in Vermont with his wife.

Bubriski’s book, The Uyghurs: Kashgar Before the Catastrophe, is available in hardcover at Northshire Bookstore. 

This talk will take place on Tuesday, October 1 from 5:30 to 7:00 pm in the Yester House at Southern Vermont Arts Center.