A sequence reflecting on displacement, grief, and generational reminiscence by photographer Alina Bobrova. Rooted within the huge landscapes of Kazakhstan, the continued challenge is a dialogue between Bobrova and her father. All through Bobrova’s life, her household spent loads of time touring. In 2021, when this challenge first started, Bobrova traveled between the US and Kazakhstan revisiting websites from ancestral tales together with her father, and “listening to how landscapes keep in mind what we can not”. Nonetheless, after her father’s sudden passing within the spring of 2025, the challenge shifted. Her father’s absence reshaping every part Bobrova has been constructing her complete life.
“The challenge, as soon as expansive, has turned inward—anchored now in a single nation, and one terrain: Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is a rustic the place my ancestors constructed their lives, and the place my very own grief has taken root. The surprising passing of a member of the family erases a complete world of reminiscences with out warning, leaving solely fragments of tales we will by no means totally recuperate. I really feel a deep urgency to protect my household archives and safeguard these fragments earlier than they disappear. For me, images are vessels of presence, proof of affection, and proof {that a} life was lived. In a world the place displacement continues throughout borders and generations, I see pictures as a common language. A common language that retains me related to those that got here earlier than me, at the same time as time pulls us aside.”
