After first traveling Kyrgyzstan in 2018, landscape photographer Albert Dros discovered himself enamored with the landlocked country in Central Asia. Its mountainous terrain presents never-ending dramatic landscapes and is filled with sufficient peaks and valleys to make any photographer’s coronary heart soften. Now on his 1/3 visit to the country, Dros took the opportunity to explore an area he’d formerly overlooked. During his explorations of
southern Kyrgyzstan, Dros now not handiest photographed the extraordinary landscapes however additionally the humans he encountered along with the manner. As an end result, his new paintings give an imaginative and prescient of his growing love affair with us of a. Largely untouched with the aid of tourism, Kyrgyzstan offers Dros a smooth slate from which to paintings. By entering into this uncharted territory, he’s free to discover his artistry with out worry of replicating what’s been executed before.
Thankfully, Dros is beneficiant in his choice to percentage the rich tradition of Kyrgyzstan with the world. From the excessive reaches of Lenin Peak to the deep valleys filled with yurts, the country’s natural beauty is not a mystery to the world at massive. By imparting this roadmap, the Dutch photographer hopes to inspire others to challenge out into new areas and explore that which has but to be located.
We had the chance to talk with Dros approximately why Kyrgyzstan is so significant to him and what he found at some stage in his latest trip. Read on for My Modern Met’s one-of-a-kind interview.
I first visited Kyrgyzstan final year. My female friend is from Kyrgyzstan so this become the main motive for my visit. Last year I visited her own family for the primary time and because then I already visited the country greater instances. But it’s manifestly now not handiest my lady friend’s roots and her circle of relatives that maintains me coming lower back. I love nature and I love mountains. And that’s exactly what Kyrgyzstan has to provide.
The landscapes are truely untouched and tourism is virtually simply upcoming right now, but still at a very early section. There are so many lovely landscapes there just waiting to be explored. And that is exactly why I keep coming returned—discover new mountains, new valleys, new canyons, new everything basically.
Why did you make a decision to awareness on the south of Kyrgyzstan this time round and the way lengthy had been you there?
My last go to become my third visit in general. I had explored the east of the united states of america particularly around Issyk Kul Lake and the Karakol location. But I didn’t visit the south but. One of the high peaks named Lenin Peak, which measures over 7000 meters, may be determined in the south. I simply wanted to explore this location and that is what I wanted to discover this journey.
I decided to fly south to the second one largest metropolis within the country (Osh) and from there traveled to Lenin Peak. The south may be very scenic and specific than the rest of the united states of america with one-of-a-kind kind of landscapes. That’s why I decided to force returned to Bishkek through automobile and go to a few places while I became inside the area besides. My final go to to Kyrgyzstan changed into approximately 3 weeks but I also spent a lot of time with the own family and buddies of my girlfriend because her sister become getting married and I became attending a marriage. An exceptional enjoy!
Most sincerely. When I met my lady friend, I had never even heard of the usa Kyrgyzstan. I commenced to do research and observed a few photographs, but not ‘actual’ photos from professional photographers. But from the matters I located—in particular on Instagram—I noticed that this country had a number of capacity. My expectancies had been met and significantly exceeded. I preserve coming back and I am already planning a brand new ride.
Kyrgyzstan has a splendid form of landscapes. You can find 7,000-meter peaks here, however additionally mountains that job my memory of regions in Europe. I also located an area named Sary-Chelek which has quite a few veggies and even hills like in Tuscany. Then there are plenty of components of the us of a which can be certainly dry with canyons. I explored that region on my 2d visit to the u . S . A .. CNN did a few pieces and video about this experience; they have been with me for a week with a video group.
On this visit, I explored a few unexplored canyon regions and did particularly night time photography and drone images. This united states combines many landscapes from all over the global in just a single united states of america, that is actually unique. I think my favourite regions up to now are the regions around Karakol where you can discover untouched valleys at the border near China. These regions have a special surroundings to them. I genuinely can’t describe it. You need to see and sense it for your self. It’s just vacancy, rivers, and large mountains everywhere. You may also locate many wild eagles right here.
The difficult part is simply bringing the special surroundings over to my pics. It’s additionally not clean to image a country where almost nobody is going. Normally you may already test a few popular places on social media and get a feel for the form of snap shots you may get. In Kyrgyzstan, this become now not the case.
I certainly experience that my contemporary pictures set a benchmark for other humans to go to. For them, it’s now less complicated as I already visited many places and published the pictures of them. But I had to explore the whole thing myself and discover the first-class places to image. Kyrgyzstan has numerous beauty, however it’s really a undertaking to capture it.
