Kashmir

The Garden of Eden has its origins in Kashmir. Towering trees, gardens, and orchards dot the landscape at the foot of the Himalayas; nearby, houseboats bob on the shores of Dal Lake. But this land only seems to be paradise. At the other extreme of the country’s reality are barbed wire, weapons, demonstrations, suffering, and death. Kashmir is one of the most militarized areas of the world. The bloody conflict between Pakistan and India over this strip of land has raged since 1947. The Kashmir population resists the military occupation by India, thereby intensifying the armed conflict. Hundreds of people die there every year, and a resolution of the conflict is not in sight. Rather, the events repeat themselves with a strange cyclicality. Again and again, the Kashmiris protest, and every time, people die. Andy Spyra describes this situation of dynamic stasis in his long-term visual project, which brings together elements of travel reportage, narration, and documentary photography in a unique, subjective and emotional form of crisis photography, far removed from the overwhelming speed of the modern mass media.

Again and again, the Kashmiris protest, and every time, people die. Andy Spyra describes this situation of dynamic stasis in his long-term visual project, which brings together elements of travel reportage, narration, and documentary photography in a unique, subjective and emotional form of crisis photography, far removed from the overwhelming speed of the modern mass media.