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Photo Exhibition
28 August 2019

PhD Candidate Exhibits Stunning Photos from Pamir Mountains at Maison de la Paix

Since 2015, Tobias Marschall, PhD candidate in anthropology and sociology, has been traveling to the remote Pamir Mountains found in Afghanistan’s north-eastern tip to understand the lives of the Afghan Kyrgyz through photography. On 17 September 2019 from 16:00-18:00 he will host a vernissage to display a selection of his 15,000 collected images in the Institute’s Interpetal as part of his exhibit, “On the Edge: Afghan Kyrgyz Migration in an Era of Climate Change”. Thereafter, the exhibit will be on display in Maison de la paix’s Davis Lounge until 31 October 2019.  

“Tobias' approach can be described as slow photography; moving away from any Orientalist exoticism, he documents the whispers of global connections", said Alessandro Monsutti, Professor of Anthropology and Sociology and also Mr Marschall’s thesis supervisor. 

Portrait of Tobias Marschall by Till Mostowlansky

Mr Marschall’s fieldwork included walking the trails of the Afghan Pamirs to follow the Afghan Kyrgyz’s economic networks and migration strategies, a people that for more than a century have been facing extreme political and climatic pressures – winters are marked with temperatures reaching -40°C and the rugged, mountainous plateau lying above an altitude of 4,300 meters did not shield the region from the violence that has affected Afghanistan for more than 40 years. 

The photo exhibit will move to La Galerie d’Anières on 8 January 2020. 

Read Mr Marschall’s student story and view other photos from his field work. 

Landscape photo credits: Tobias Marschall