NEWS: Photographer Rena Effendi: I\'d like to go back to Osh and discover what happened to these people (fergana.ru)

Rena Effendi was born in Baku (Azerbaijan) in 1977. She began as a translator and developed interest in photography through her hobby (painting). Effendi won the National Geographic Society award "All Roads" for the story of the village of Khynalik (2008). In 2007, Photo District News listed Effendi among 30 best distinguished photographers in the world. * * *

Rena Effendi's exhibition House of Happiness is on display at Photographer.ru gallery (Modern Arts Center) in Moscow. All photos were made for Marie Claire in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, in September 2007. Their publication fomented a scandal in this Central Asian country. Ferghana.Ru asked Effendi some questions on what had surprised her on her first visit to Osh and why the photos of wedding ceremonies and bordellos had enraged the Kyrgyzes accustomed to having their photos taken against festive backgrounds.

Rena Effendi: I came to Osh in September 2007. I thought the Ferghana Valley was a kind of cauldron for all kinds of cultures and ways. After all, there are lots of Uzbeks there, lots of Kyrgyzes, Uigurs, and Ljuli Gypsies... Scanning Eurasianet.org once, I happened on a piece about polygamy spreading through Kyrgyzstan. I was captivated by the subject. Polygamy? Nowadays? I also saw a piece on bride-kidnapping. It was interesting too because we have a similar tradition in the Caucasus. In a word, I decided to go to the Ferghana Valley with its traditional cult of the family and see everything with my own eyes.

Ferghana.Ru: And did they permit you entry into dwellings?

Rena Effendi: I saw polygamy with my own eyes, I really did. Unfortunately, it was nothing to make a story of, for a photographer. I discovered that I had entertained some overly romanticized views. I thought all wives shared one house and cooked together while their children played outdoors... Nothing of the sort. Women live separately, and not all of them so much as guess that their men have other families. The second marriage is usually unofficial. I met two men each of whom had two wives. I took a picture of one of the men with a wife but his other wife flatly refused to have her picture taken.

Neither did I fare any better with the bride-kidnapping story. As it turned out, it is a Kyrgyz tradition and it is in the northern part of the country that brides are kidnapped. There are lots of Uzbeks in Osh and they do not practice it.

full interview >>>