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From a thriving miniature city inside a Cairo cemetery to a goat sacrifice in Nigeria, the photojournalist’s eye-opening images are celebrated in a new book
Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing
Time Out of Mind: The Protestants of Northern Ireland, 1988–90
Ed Kashi has dedicated the past 45 years to documenting the social and geopolitical issues that define our era. His work covers dramatic global events, while also accentuating the less visible background moments that often go unnoticed. A new book offers an expansive retrospective of his prolific career. Here we see children playing in the Fountain, a Protestant loyalist housing estate in Derry. A Period in Time by Ed Kashi is available to purchase from The University of Texas Press. All quotes and photographs by Ed Kashi
After the Fall: Culture and Nightlife in Reunified Berlin, 1991
La Vie En Rose, a Vegas-style cabaret on the Kurfürstendamm in West Berlin. Kashi says: ‘I came to Berlin to look for the spirit of the perverse and iconoclastic 1930s art scene. Instead, I found a city suffering from a fin-de-siècle malaise. Berlin in 1991 was still adjusting to unification. As the hypersexual and commercial energy in West Berlin made inroads to the east, Germans questioned if there was any hope of rejuvenating the city’s famous artistic energy, as the wounds of 45 years of separation were still strongly felt’
When the Borders Bleed: The Struggle of the Kurds, 1991–2005
A Kurdish woman stands trial accused of being a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) in Turkey, 1991. ‘Photography allows me to have an intimate, front-row seat to witness and record major events in history. It also allows me to focus on the small, but no less powerful, moments in the lives of regular folks who do life-affirming actions that would otherwise go unnoticed’
City of the Dead, 1993
In Cairo, people displaced by a housing shortage have laid claim to the city’s main cemetery, and 120,000 live, work, shop and go to school in and among the mausoleums. It is a thriving necropolis where the sanctity of the dead coexists with the needs of the living. A glass factory is one of the many small industries that function there
Saigon on Wheels, 1994
Young schoolgirls dressed in the traditional ao dai in Saigon, Vietnam. Pre-communist fashions have made a big comeback since the late 1980s, when the government began to loosen restrictions on clothing. ‘Photography is a kind of diplomatic passport to worlds unseen, unveiling issues that need illumination, documenting history in the making, and capturing the human experience and the many awe-inspiring places in our fragile world,’ says Kashi
The Middle East, 1991–2008
Sunbathers at the yacht club adjoining the war-scarred Hotel Saint-Georges, symbol of Beirut’s glamorous past and ground zero during the civil war. ‘It was the plight of the Kurdish people that brought me to the Middle East for the first time, where I unwittingly discovered my heritage but also faced the hard truths of this inscrutable region of the world. The Middle East finally opened my eyes and heart to my familial origins, not the assimilated reality of a first-generation American’
Ageing in America: The Years Ahead, 1995–2003
Gerald Gross and Ricky Caminetti fell in love in their 80s. Their wedding was attended by over 200 guests in Florida. ‘As a photojournalist, you can have the privilege of expansive knowledge of the world, cultures, the processes of technology and business, and the small yet magical moments of daily life. You can experience exquisite beauty, both of the natural world and within human nature. You will also witness pain and suffering, hatred and violence’
Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta, 2004–06
A 14-year-old boy transports the carcass of a freshly killed goat, which has been roasted by the flames of burning tyres at the Trans Amadi Slaughter abattoir in Nigeria. ‘Living a photographic life, my archive houses many of my personal memories and the experiences attached to the creation of those images’
India: The Golden Quadrilateral, 2007
Kashi says: ‘Over time I have come to appreciate my archive as something more than a simple repository of images. It is a growing, thriving, and continually evolving organism that has become a living library with profound value. In a sense, my archive, made over a 45-year period, offers an opportunity for further exploration into our world during this time’
The Forgotten Faithful: Arab Christians, 2008
‘Despite their deep roots, Arab Christians are being driven out of their land by a rising tide of religious and political extremism,’ says Kashi. ‘Attacks on Christians are up dramatically from a decade ago, prompting a huge wave of out-emigration. Besides uprooting families and communities, this trend is also having an adverse impact on the Arab world. Christians are often the best educated and most modernised citizens of their homelands. They are also often the progressive voices in the political arena as well as successful merchants and traders’
Lost Generation: Syrian Refugees, 2013
Scenes at the International Medical Corps (IMC) facility in the Domiz camp for Syrian refugees just outside of Dohik, Iraq. ‘The Syrian refugee crisis is the largest of our time. Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, over 13.8 million Syrians have become refugees, seeking sanctuary from the raging violence in their home country. Among those affected, at least half are under 18 years old. A generation whose homeland once boasted a middle-class economy and a strong educational system now finds itself traumatised’
In the Hot Zones: Investigating CKDnT Nicaragua, 2013–2023
Family and friends at the burial of a former sugarcane worker, 36, who died of chronic kidney disease of non-traditional cause (CKDnT) in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua. CKDnT affects primarily young agricultural and manual labourers in hot, tropical regions. ‘If photography has taught me anything, it’s that we must seek the common good, treat people with respect and dignity, and expose the problems that exist. But we must also be open to capturing the beauty of life, the human spirit, and human resilience’Explore more on these topics
