Blog Migration

As I'm migrating to Kyrgyzstan, my blog is also migrating to a new host for some technical reason. Here is the new site:

http://www.ikurukuwajima.com/blog

Southern Kyrgyzstan

About 2000 people were thought to be killed in the recent clashes in the southern Kyrgyzstan. A number of people, especially ethnic Uzbeks lost houses due to arsons and looting, and hundreds, or thousands, of IDPs still don't know where to move. Worked with Save the Children in Southern Kyrgyzstan. I've been based in Bishkek in the past month and will be here for a while.

Samara, ru

Trying to catch up with many things... I was in Samara, Russia for a photo project called disorientation. Basically, the idea is throwing 5 foreign photographers into a middle-sized Russian city and letting them photograph whatever while any research on the city is banned. We just had to wander around with a map of "other" city... Nonetheless, Samara turned out to be one of my most favorite cities in the world.

Joining Gruppe 28

It's been almost three years since I left school, and I'm finally joining a relatively new German agency called Gruppe 28. www.gruppe28.com/
I've been rescanning and retoning photos to submit pictures for the whole week. I will post some new pictures soon....
Also, I will be in Japan in April for some business. Long time no home.

Passing on Message to People currently near Moscow...

I was asked to pass а message on some photo event in Moscow on March 6th to 7th. There is gonna be a photo exhibition and lectures by professionals. Here is the link:

http://www.projectionsofreality.org/ru/lectures/

If anyone happens to read this and be near Moscow, that would be a cool event to attend, and I wish I could go...

6-7 марта в Москве будут лекции фотографов и продюсеров мультимедиа. Вот ссылка на информацию о событии:

http://www.projectionsofreality.org/ru/lectures/

Armenian Earthquake after two decades

I shot the aftermath of Armenian earthquakes, which happened in Feb. 1988, when I was in Armenia in December. Even two decades later, the earthquake still affects people in the Northern Armenia. Vanadzor, one of the cities hit hard by the earthquake, still has housing shortage problems, and a number of people live in small houses domiks, which were built after the earthquake to shelter people with low income. The mix of the Soviet collapse, Karabakh war and subsequent economic turndown prevented the city from recovering. As a result, hundreds of people still live in those domiks.
It seems that the city is a sad example how natural disasters could cause damages to people and local economy in the long term...