Freedom and Honor of the Fatherland The Guča trumpet festival in central Serbia, which started as a humble gathering of trumpet players in 1962, was recently called \"Europe's biggest, baddest summer music festival\" by the Guardian. Amid the wild street parties and constant flow of Balkan trumpet music and alcohol, foreign participants are less likely to notice the prevalence of Serbian nationalism. Festival goers sing patriotic anthems, dance to traditional folk songs, and wear the regalia of the chetniks.

Chetniks formed in the early 20th century as a royalist guerrilla force fighting for liberation of Serbia from the Ottoman Empire. During the Second World War, they took up arms as a royalist resistance group, at times collaborating with the Partisans and at times with the Axis Powers, fighting on the side of the Nazis.

Since the fall of Yugoslavia in the 90s, chetnik, which loosely means militia, has come to refer to anyone who is ideologically aligned with the nationalist movement, which is linked to the massacres of the Yugoslav wars. Young people in the countryside confuse patriotism for nationalism and get caught up in celebrating the glory of the Serbian monarchist past.", "

Cinderella

\"And yet, through it all, Cinderella remained ever gentle and kind, for with each dawn she found new hope that someday her dreams of happiness would come true.\"   Disney's Cinderella, 1950

Inspired by the iconic fairy tale, these photographs tell the story of a young woman looking for love in New York City—a modern day Cinderella searching for her Prince. Cinderella seeks the traditional in a city that celebrates the modern. Possessing the innocence and idealism of a girl who still believes in fairy tales, she recognizes that the Big Apple is a world away from pumpkin carriages, yet longs for that glass slipper. This documentary project captures the excitement and loneliness, hope and rejection she encounters as she navigates the complex world of dating in New York.", "

Slow Boat

Boat travel on the Amazon river is anything but fast. To cover the complete distance on this poor man's river cruise, from Yurimaguas, Perú to Belém, Brazil, takes over two weeks. Between the main cities that lie on the river, the voyage lasts days.

Time is suspended: each day is the same as the last. Morning merges into afternoon and finally into night. The monotony is punctuated by meals of chicken, pasta and rice. The main activity of the passengers is waiting — for a job offer, for the sun to go down, or for their destination to be reached.", "

Barcelona Portraits

El Raval, a historic neighbourhood in old Barcelona, is a melting pot of old-timers, immigrants and prostitutes; young people from Spain and abroad frequenting its famous bars and nightclubs; and tourists navigating its windy streets with map in hand. This journey in portraits travels the corners of El Raval, from seedy bars to modest courtyards.", "

Sustainability and Self-Sufficiency in the Amazon

In the Amazon Basin, transport is slow and villages are isolated, situated hours or even days away by boat from Iquitos, the largest city in the region. The indigenous communities along the Ampiyacu River, an Amazon tributary, understand first-hand the concept of self-reliance and sustainable living. Their daily reality is that they still hunt, catch or grow most of their food.

With limited resources, and little government assistance, they must overcome the challenges of their environment: months-long flooding during the rainy season, disease carrying insects, and inhospitable conditions for crop cultivation. The people in these communities strive to balance modernity and progress with their traditions and culture, all while keeping their forest intact.", "

Nash Chemodan (Our Suitcase)

This project explores nostalgia, memory, censorship and the immigrant experience as it is embodied by objects. Around 300,000 Soviet refugees came to the United States between 1987 and 1993. This project deals with the items that these immigrants took with them when leaving the Soviet Union for a life in the US. Because of the restriction on communication between relatives and friends already living abroad, many simply had no idea what to take and what to leave behind. As a result, families and individuals arrived carrying antiquated objects that they would never use again. These seemingly useless objects travelled halfway around the world because of their presumed necessity.

The premise of the project is two-fold. Firstly, it deals with facing the unknown and unpredictable on the other side of the Iron Curtain. With little money and no guarantee of a job, refugees prepared for a period of frugality and self-sufficiency. The things they brought with them were supposed to provide comfort or utility. Secondly, the fact that many still hang on to these obsolete articles points to a certain nostalgia, if not for a country that no longer exists, then for their friends and family from that time period.

Nash Chemodan was shot with a Kiev camera on 6x6 medium format film. The Kiev series was manufactured in the Soviet Union and continued to be made in Ukraine after the dissolution of the USSR. This project is made possible through a grant by the BluePrint Fellowship project of COJECO, funded by the UJA-Federation of New York and Genesis Philanthropy Group.", "

Voices Rising: Women Leaders in Afghanistan

The situation for many women in Afghanistan is abysmal. However, in order to understand the future of this war-affected nation, Afghan women—overwhelmingly portrayed as veiled subjects controlled by their fathers and husbands—cannot all be viewed as powerless victims. Women are moving to the forefront, despite the country’s male-dominated culture. They are parliamentarians, lawyers, athletes, businesswomen, musicians, and more than even before, they are role models for a younger generation of girls.

Since the Taliban were thrown out of power in 2001, women have taken an active part in government and civil society, returning from years spent as refugees in Pakistan or Iran, or reemerging from the hidden life they were forced to lead in their own country. Women are attaining leadership and power positions despite being harassed and threatened for going against fixed gender roles in a traditional society. They are fighting to make their voice heard, both in their professional and personal lives. While these women must deal with challenges, risks and targeted attacks, none of them is willing to give up what she has achieved.", "

Entertainment, Kabul-style

Over the last decade, the international community has poured money into making Kabul safer. The army and police force have benefitted from advanced training and better equipment, but the threat of insecurity still looms. People remember the slew of terrorist attacks on soft targets in the capital, which continue to happen with alarming regularity.

In spite of the trauma associated with these memories, or perhaps because of them, resillient Afghans are carving out a space for fun amidst the chaos that everyday life can bring in a country dealing with a violent insurgency. Away from the judgemental eye of conservative parents, young people gather with friends to listen to music, play video games or smoke hookah. Kabulis are looking for ways to relax and put aside their worries, if only for a few hours. There is an array of options: in recent years, a water park, bowling alley, and karaoke bar have opened up in the city. One of the latest additions to the entertainment scene is Kabul Paintball Park, an outdoor arena where visitors use weapons that shoot paint instead of bullets.", "

Ultra-Orthodox Purim (2015)

The festival of Purim celebrates the bravery of Queen Esther, who saved the Jewish people from destruction in the ancient kingdom of Persia. Traditionally, adults and children dress in costumes, recite the Purim story, and eat poppy seed-filled sweets. People do what they don't ordinarily do: while adults drink in excess, certain Hassidic communities allow their children to smoke cigarettes. In the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim, all these customs are adhered to with a religious ferver.", "

Veterans of the Great Patriotic War

On the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, elderly Russians across Brooklyn and Queens don their best clothing, and with the help of their adult children, affix their Red Army World War II medals to their chests.

Over 20 million citizens lost their lives in the Great Patriotic War; Almost every family was affected. Many of the former Soviet citizens who participated in the war effort are well into their 80s and 90s, but in Brighton Beach on May 9th, they they stand proud as relatives, well-wishers and neighborhood children hand them flowers, thank them for their achievements, and wish them a happy Victory Day.","

Palestinian Oktoberfest

The Taybeh Oktoberfest celebration is a singular event: the only Christian village in the West Bank, home to the only brewery in the Palestine, celebrating the only Oktoberfest in the region. After being cancelled in 2014 following that summer's war in Gaza, Taybeh's Oktoberfest was back in full force in 2015. Thousands of locals, foreigners and Israeli Arabs descended on this village of 1500, located a thirty minute drive from Ramallah.

Tabyeh Brewing Company, which was opened in the village by Khoury family in 1996, was the first microbrewery in the Middle East, predating the first Israeli microbrewery by 10 years. The Khourys recently expanded their production to include wine, some of which was also available at the festival.

Like any Oktoberfest celebration, some drunkenness was expected, but the family-friendly atmosphere without excess reminded visitors that they were not in Bavaria but in Palestine. While Taybeh is only 40 kilometers from Jerusalem, where tensions have been rising in recent months, Oktoberfest presents a good opportunity to have a glass of beer and forget about the conflict, at least for now."); // "

It's a Jungle Out There

The Amazon contains a biodiversity of plants and animal unrivaled anywhere else on the globe. However, for the people who live in the Amazon Basin, access to imported products and food supplies is limited. Villages and most large cities are virtually cut off, unreachable except by boat or airplane. The local communities must sustain themselves from the land and the Amazon River. The balance that was in place for thousands of years — before the influx of external forces that began to deplete this region — is slowly being regained. The concept of conservation is gaining momentum, and in the Amazon, the law of the food chain is returning: eat or be eaten.", //$cinderellaText = array("text1", "text12", "text14", "text145", "text1434", "text145345"); $id = ($_GET['id'] ? $_GET['id'] : 1); $pg = ($_GET['pg'] ? $_GET['pg'] : 1); $dir = $pages[$pg-1]; // if dir doesn't exist, go to homepage if (!is_dir($dir)) { header("Location: http://www.annaloshkin.com"); exit; } $imagesDirty = scandir($dir); foreach ($imagesDirty as $filename) if (strpos($filename, '.jpg')) $images[] = $filename; if (array_key_exists(($id-1), $images)) $thisImg = $images[($id-1)]; else { $thisImg = $dir.'01.jpg'; $id = 1; } ?>
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