Don Parsons
Well-known
I'm a pilot and I'll be travelling to Tashkent this week (and several times in the future.)
Any helpful hints on taking pictures in Tashkent would be appreciated.
don
Any helpful hints on taking pictures in Tashkent would be appreciated.
don
pachuco
El ****
Tips? Make sure you remove your lens cap! But seriously, that sounds great and I wish you happy shooting. Someone here will chime in with some actual advice I'm sure. Safe travels!
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Uzbekistan is a totalitarian police state, one of the most oppressive in the world. The country's dictator, Islam Karimov, is a former soviet official who stayed in power after the fall of communism. Communist rule was was not very respectful of human rights, but the current government is worse, with torture and brutal methods of execution (including boiling alive in hot oil!) regularly used against political prisoners. While the police are probably more concerned with domestic dissent, I would do some checking to see what you are allowed and not allowed to photograph before doing so.
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Don Parsons
Well-known
Thanks guys.
Chris, I know it's bad there. My company flies in all the time, usually laying over for a day or two.
Just thought I'd ask here if anyone had been there.
Don
Chris, I know it's bad there. My company flies in all the time, usually laying over for a day or two.
Just thought I'd ask here if anyone had been there.
Don
Florian1234
it's just hide and seek
I don't know her name by now, but there was a female photojournalist who was sued by the Uzbek government for taking and publishing photos taken in the country. They said she would depict the glorious people of Uzbekistan in a wrong and mean manner or something like that.
rxmd
May contain traces of nut
Hi Don,
I've lived much of the past seven years in Tashkent (doing research) so I know the place a little bit. All those comments about it being a police state, little freedom of the press etc. are not without grounding, but as a foreign pilot staying on a layover you are unlikely to be affected, or even notice it directly. The most salient feature you'll notice is that there are lots of policemen in the streets, and that on the street you'll be regularly asked for your papers. So make sure that you have your passport with you and that your visa and hotel registration are in order. (I had a fake registration once and ended up being dragged through police stations and secret service interviews for two days, being threatened with extradition, and being fined $800 or so.)
From what I understand you'll be basically spending your layover in Tashkent. The basic two questions here are how much time you have on your hands (and what days of the week you'll be there), and whether you speak any Russian (I'm not even daring to ask about speaking Uzbek).
Photographing in the streets and in the markets can be difficult because of police presence. I've been approached by police regularly, being told that building or market so-and-so was off limits to photography. In reality policemen are usually trying to squeeze some money out of you. The best recourse is not to be alone, but part of a group of three or four people with at least one or two locals. Basically the best strategy is to tell a policeman to their face that you know they're bull****ting you, and that you have no money on you so they won't get anything for their time and hassle, but it took me a few years of acclimatization to be able to pull this off, so you better have someone around you who has this kind of capability. That said, you're unlikely to get into any serious legal trouble because after all you're not a journalist. (They don't like journalists all that much for obvious reasons.)
On the subject of company - if you fly into Tashkent more often, you can make yourself a lot of friends in and around the international community there by offering to bring foodstuffs when you fly in. I was affiliated to a French research institute, and there was an Uzbekistan Airways pilot usually doing the Paris-Tashkent route who had a lot of French friends because he always handled their orders of French cheese and wine.
Tashkent is a very Soviet city, having been largely rebuilt after the earthquake of 1966. It is also a beautiful city in my book, admittedly a bit square and blockish, but very green, even though the city administration has recently started to cut down a lot of the parks in the city center. There it depends on what you want to see. If you have a knack for Soviet avantgarde architecture, take the metro to Kosmonavtlar station, walk out any exit and look at the amazing white 14-storey building (but when photographing it, keep the lower huge building with the copper glass firmly to your back, it's the Ministry of the Interior and they don't like it being photographed). If you want to look at massive prefab blocks, go north to Yunusabad; and on the way stop at the massive TV tower, which is a unique construction on its own right, being 200-something meters high and built earthquake-proof. (There's the obligatory revolving restaurant at the top which gives you nice aerial views, but as a pilot you're probably used to those.) A counterpoint to that would be the very Uzbek old city buildings around Chorsu bazaar and in the city quarters west of the canal (quarters such as Kokcha).
Tashkent had a large airplane factory building Ilyushin-76s and wing components for other Ilyushin planes, with a large living quarter adjacent to it, but it was recently closed (and is now in bankruptcy proceedings). I guess the factory itself will be off-limits to you, but around it there were city quarters giving you a fairly good idea of how the Soviet Union housed elite workers, with nice 2- to 4-storey buildings in green environments - the quarters around Kadysheva bazaar and in the south-east, the main point of orientation being Lisunova street.
What people consider most photogenic are usually the markets. The biggest is Chorsu bazaar, one of the largest food markets in all of Central Asia and rather picturesque on its own, with a large domed hall in the center housing the spice and sweets section. Definitely worth a visit. However, there are plenty of others. The one I liked best is Farkhad bazaar, in the south-west in Chilanzar quarter, but my sympathy may be a bit skewed because it's where I did my grocery shopping for years. Take the metro to Chilanzar station and then a taxi to Farkhad bazaar for 1000 sum or so. Another impressive market is at the hippodrome, selling mostly clothes. That one used to be the largest market overall in the region until the 1990s, the hub for practically all the transcontinental trade coming from China, until that shifted to Dordoy market here in Kyrgyzstan, but it's still very large and very impressive.
Tashkent has a beautiful subway, with amazingly decorated stations (my favourites are Alisher Navoiy, at the interchange between the red and blue lines, and Kosmonavtlar, a station dedicated entirely to a spaceflight setting). It's forbidden to take pictures though, and there are police patrols, so the only way to take pictures is with a digital compact with flash and sound disabled. Even then it's risky business. You could, in theory, get a photo permit from the subway administration, which is near Bunyodkor metro station (still called Druzhba Narodov by everybody), but in practice in all of my time there I haven't managed to find anybody persistent enough to follow through with that.
There's a fair share of museums; the one I like best is the open-air railway museum which has lots of Soviet (and one German) steam engines. It's near the main Tashkent railway station, metro station "Tashkent", or tell a taxi driver to go to "Severnyi vokzal", the Northern station. (On the subject of taxis, always agree on a price beforehand, and don't worry about getting ripped off - you can be sure to be ripped off and there's nothing you can do about it in the first few weeks or months of living there until you get a feel for both the prices and the practices of haggling.)
If you want to leave Tashkent for a day or two, there are several places to go. This time of the year, you can go to Chimgan or Beldersay for skiing, for hiking, or for renting a few horses from people there (usually Kazakhs) and spending a day on horseback in the mountains. For going there, either have something arranged from your hotel, or go to Maxim Gorky metro station (officially called Buyuk Ipak Yo'li now, the "Great Silk Road", but everybody used the old Soviet name) and take a taxi from there.
Finally, there is a great flea market in a district called Yangiabad on the south-eastern outskirts of the city. It's always on weekends, and usually worth spending a day. It's in a very photogenic setting, a post-industrial dilapidated warehouse complex full of railroad tracks and everything. Apart from the setting, it's also nice for buying Soviet memorabilia; I bought a lot of camera equipment there. If you go, drop me a note.
If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask.
I've lived much of the past seven years in Tashkent (doing research) so I know the place a little bit. All those comments about it being a police state, little freedom of the press etc. are not without grounding, but as a foreign pilot staying on a layover you are unlikely to be affected, or even notice it directly. The most salient feature you'll notice is that there are lots of policemen in the streets, and that on the street you'll be regularly asked for your papers. So make sure that you have your passport with you and that your visa and hotel registration are in order. (I had a fake registration once and ended up being dragged through police stations and secret service interviews for two days, being threatened with extradition, and being fined $800 or so.)
From what I understand you'll be basically spending your layover in Tashkent. The basic two questions here are how much time you have on your hands (and what days of the week you'll be there), and whether you speak any Russian (I'm not even daring to ask about speaking Uzbek).
Photographing in the streets and in the markets can be difficult because of police presence. I've been approached by police regularly, being told that building or market so-and-so was off limits to photography. In reality policemen are usually trying to squeeze some money out of you. The best recourse is not to be alone, but part of a group of three or four people with at least one or two locals. Basically the best strategy is to tell a policeman to their face that you know they're bull****ting you, and that you have no money on you so they won't get anything for their time and hassle, but it took me a few years of acclimatization to be able to pull this off, so you better have someone around you who has this kind of capability. That said, you're unlikely to get into any serious legal trouble because after all you're not a journalist. (They don't like journalists all that much for obvious reasons.)
On the subject of company - if you fly into Tashkent more often, you can make yourself a lot of friends in and around the international community there by offering to bring foodstuffs when you fly in. I was affiliated to a French research institute, and there was an Uzbekistan Airways pilot usually doing the Paris-Tashkent route who had a lot of French friends because he always handled their orders of French cheese and wine.
Tashkent is a very Soviet city, having been largely rebuilt after the earthquake of 1966. It is also a beautiful city in my book, admittedly a bit square and blockish, but very green, even though the city administration has recently started to cut down a lot of the parks in the city center. There it depends on what you want to see. If you have a knack for Soviet avantgarde architecture, take the metro to Kosmonavtlar station, walk out any exit and look at the amazing white 14-storey building (but when photographing it, keep the lower huge building with the copper glass firmly to your back, it's the Ministry of the Interior and they don't like it being photographed). If you want to look at massive prefab blocks, go north to Yunusabad; and on the way stop at the massive TV tower, which is a unique construction on its own right, being 200-something meters high and built earthquake-proof. (There's the obligatory revolving restaurant at the top which gives you nice aerial views, but as a pilot you're probably used to those.) A counterpoint to that would be the very Uzbek old city buildings around Chorsu bazaar and in the city quarters west of the canal (quarters such as Kokcha).
Tashkent had a large airplane factory building Ilyushin-76s and wing components for other Ilyushin planes, with a large living quarter adjacent to it, but it was recently closed (and is now in bankruptcy proceedings). I guess the factory itself will be off-limits to you, but around it there were city quarters giving you a fairly good idea of how the Soviet Union housed elite workers, with nice 2- to 4-storey buildings in green environments - the quarters around Kadysheva bazaar and in the south-east, the main point of orientation being Lisunova street.
What people consider most photogenic are usually the markets. The biggest is Chorsu bazaar, one of the largest food markets in all of Central Asia and rather picturesque on its own, with a large domed hall in the center housing the spice and sweets section. Definitely worth a visit. However, there are plenty of others. The one I liked best is Farkhad bazaar, in the south-west in Chilanzar quarter, but my sympathy may be a bit skewed because it's where I did my grocery shopping for years. Take the metro to Chilanzar station and then a taxi to Farkhad bazaar for 1000 sum or so. Another impressive market is at the hippodrome, selling mostly clothes. That one used to be the largest market overall in the region until the 1990s, the hub for practically all the transcontinental trade coming from China, until that shifted to Dordoy market here in Kyrgyzstan, but it's still very large and very impressive.
Tashkent has a beautiful subway, with amazingly decorated stations (my favourites are Alisher Navoiy, at the interchange between the red and blue lines, and Kosmonavtlar, a station dedicated entirely to a spaceflight setting). It's forbidden to take pictures though, and there are police patrols, so the only way to take pictures is with a digital compact with flash and sound disabled. Even then it's risky business. You could, in theory, get a photo permit from the subway administration, which is near Bunyodkor metro station (still called Druzhba Narodov by everybody), but in practice in all of my time there I haven't managed to find anybody persistent enough to follow through with that.
There's a fair share of museums; the one I like best is the open-air railway museum which has lots of Soviet (and one German) steam engines. It's near the main Tashkent railway station, metro station "Tashkent", or tell a taxi driver to go to "Severnyi vokzal", the Northern station. (On the subject of taxis, always agree on a price beforehand, and don't worry about getting ripped off - you can be sure to be ripped off and there's nothing you can do about it in the first few weeks or months of living there until you get a feel for both the prices and the practices of haggling.)
If you want to leave Tashkent for a day or two, there are several places to go. This time of the year, you can go to Chimgan or Beldersay for skiing, for hiking, or for renting a few horses from people there (usually Kazakhs) and spending a day on horseback in the mountains. For going there, either have something arranged from your hotel, or go to Maxim Gorky metro station (officially called Buyuk Ipak Yo'li now, the "Great Silk Road", but everybody used the old Soviet name) and take a taxi from there.
Finally, there is a great flea market in a district called Yangiabad on the south-eastern outskirts of the city. It's always on weekends, and usually worth spending a day. It's in a very photogenic setting, a post-industrial dilapidated warehouse complex full of railroad tracks and everything. Apart from the setting, it's also nice for buying Soviet memorabilia; I bought a lot of camera equipment there. If you go, drop me a note.
If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask.
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Mablo
Well-known
Say hello to Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, the "Taskent Terror". He was terrorizing the European professional cycling scene in the -90's. A hell of a sprinter. I've heard he lives in Tashkent. He still has a lot of afficionados in Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djamolidine_Abdoujaparov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djamolidine_Abdoujaparov
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italy74
Well-known
I wish I could be there, a friend of mine, a local, lived there for many years, now she's in Russia.