The Uyghurs

“Kevin Bubriski's images from Kashgar on the brink of the millennium are nothing short of fantastic. They achieve what every documentary photographer hopes to achieve: journalistic precision and visual poetry. They are less than a quarter of a century old but beautifully tell the story of a place like no other in Asia. On my repeated viewings, I was engulfed by a mix of emotions, from nostalgia of an ancient city I hold dear in my heart but could only visit too briefly to jealousy of not making such images during my first trip to the region, despair caused by looking at a rich heritage that has recently been destroyed to anger when thinking of the violence that many among these people had to go through in the last few years, many of them locked in Chinese reeducation camps. The Uyghurs is an important photographic testament to a place not so far away from us that is already long gone.” ~Patrick Wack, photographer and author of DUST

“Kevin Bubriski’s photographs capture a Kashgar before the Chinese government’s crackdown that is a window into humanity and tradition, a world that few of us got to know but many dream of. His photographs hold that dream like a fragile locket. With captivating texts and poetry by Tahir Hamut Izgil and a historical essay by Dru Gladney, this book can help one understand just how rich and filled with warmth, depth, and history this important and magical city once was. The Uyghurs is a testament to the resilience of Uyghurs whose voices, culture, and memory must carry on.” ~Lisa Ross, photographer and author of Living Shrines of Uyghur China

“The Uyghurs: Kashgar before the Catastrophe should stop you in your tracks. With its haunting narrative, evocative photographs, and poignant texts and poems, this volume illuminates and inspires. Perhaps most important: At a time when Chinese authorities seek to erase Uyghur identity, this book also preserves.” ~Sophie Richardson, China Director at Human Rights Watch and author of China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence

“Kevin Bubriski’s photographs offer a glimpse back into the ways and dreams of the people of Kashgar before the disasters of the twenty-first century. More than an echo of a vanished past, they suggest an alternative future: what it might look like for Uyghurs to live with dignity in the magnificent city they built themselves over the centuries.” ~James A. Millward, Georgetown University and author of 'The Silk Road' and 'Eurasian Crossroads'

“We often associate photographs with a feeling of loss, since they present the illusion of connecting to a person, place, or time that we know is already gone. This sense of loss is amplified in Kevin Bubriski’s The Uyghurs: Kashgar before the Catastrophe, because the disappearances that were imposed on Uyghur communities since these images were made are so severe and so full of trauma. As Tahir Hamut Izgil attests in the story of his childhood in Kashgar, the persecution of Uyghurs was already taking place clandestinely while Bubriski’s vivid images of Uyghur life were being recorded on the street. Two realities: one seen, one kept hidden. Bringing the two together in this book serves as a reminder that there is always more to imagine than what meets the eye in a photograph. The loss is real, but so is the life.” ~Carolyn Drake, photographer for Magnum and author of 'Two Rivers' and 'Wild Pigeon'

“[A] stellar compilation of full page black/white photography augmented by texts and poems from Tahir Hamut Izgil… A magnificent volume that will be of particular value to readers with an interest in Chinese Communist Party's racial discrimination campaigns against the Uyghurs.” ~Midwest Book Review

"The Uyghurs features striking portraits and street scenes in Kashgar alongside prose and poetry written by Kashgar activist and poet Tahir Hamut Izgil.” ~Bowdoin Orient

“What has been erased cannot be replaced, but Kevin Bubriski’s 1998 photographs can help us remember what once was in Xinjiang. The vibrancy, beauty, and grit of Kashgar and its people that Bubriski witnessed and photographed more 25 years ago has irrevocably changed, making his photographs even more significant.” ~The Diplomat

“The Uyghur city in Xinjiang has been disrupted by outside forces through history—of which Chinese rebuilding is the latest change. A book of images and stories records what it once was.” ~China Books Review

“Bubriski depicts Kashgari life on a small scale: the quotidian moments of friends gathered on the street, children playing, street food being cooked. It’s mostly about a city seen through the lives of its people […] If seen without context, there’s nothing remarkable about Bubriski’s photos. They show regular people going about their everyday lives. But they’re extraordinary precisely because they give us a glimpse, without any editorial judgement, filter or beautification, of people’s old lives in Kashgar. They have become remarkable because these lives are no longer allowed to be lived in the same way.” ~The Mekong Review