January 28th 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang provincve. A Uighur-minority family looking at a new development replacing an old part of town near the Tuman river.

January 29th 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Street of the old town.

January 29th 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Uighur-minority bird keeper in the old town of Kashgar.

January 29th 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. View through a window into a local restaurant where Uighur-minority patrons are sitting.

January 29th 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Street of Kashgar with local Uighur-minority residents.

January 29th 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Naan bread seller on a street of the old town of Kashgar.

January 29th 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Uighur-minority man having a rest drinking tea at a tea house in the old town of Kashgar.

January 30th 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Young Uighur-minority woman photographed in the café where she works at the gate of the old town.

January 30th 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Uighur-minority woman photographed in a local restaurant.

Januarty 30th 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Two young Uighur-minority men photographed on their way to work.

January 30th. 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Night view over People’s square and the massive statue of Mao Zedong reigning over it from the Tianyuan International Hotel.

January 31st 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Uighur-minority men walking in a commercial street full of Chinese flags near the Idkah mosque.

January 31st 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Uighur-minority woman making a phone call in a street of the old town of Kashgar.

January 31st 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Uighur-minority local women discussing in an alley of the old town of Kashgar.

January 31st 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. Uighur-minority residents - young and old - of a neighbourhood in the old town attend an outdoor Mandarin language class.

February 1st 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. One can nowadays often see walking the city streets in Xinjiang those ubiquitous groups of clumsy civilians doing self-defense training with the sticks that every shop or restaurant is now equipped with.

February 1st 2019. Kashgar, Xinjiang province. A closed down mosque in the old town of Kashgar is surveilled 24/7 by police officers. It is also covered with and surrounded by numerous video cameras.

February 1st 2019. Uighur-minority store owner in front of his store.

Februarty 2nd 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. Local Uighurs eating lamb skewers at an outdoor grill.

February 2nd 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. View over a local bazar on a Saturday afternoon.

February 2nd 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. A restaurant in a the Uighur old part of town.

February 2nd 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. Uighur-minority kids playing in the streets of what remains of the old town.

February 3rd 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. Uighur-minority locals wait in line for ID check and body searches before entering the local bazar.

February 3rd 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. Uighur-minority restaurant staff and patrons with their children in a Uighur restaurant in the old twon of Hotan.

February 3rd 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. Jade traders from Hotan display their jade stones for sale at the Hotan jade trading center.

February 3rd 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. View over the White Jade river - also known by the native name of Yurungkash - from the road. The river gets its name from the white jade often found in its alluvial deposits. Hotan is famous for this white jade.

February 3rd 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. People coming out of an underground commercial area in downtaown Hotan.

February 3rd 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. Tuanjie Square in downtown Hotan.

February 5th 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. Couple eating lunch in a local restaurant. In the reflection in the window one of the many additional police stations that have been installed at almost every street corner over the past three years.

February 5th 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. Two young Uighur-minority girls posing for photos in the ruins of an old neighborhood close to the White Jade river.

February 5th 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. View over Kunlun Park.

February 5th 2019. Hotan, Xinjiang province. Young Uighur-minority girl posing for photos in the ruins of an old neighborhood close to the White Jade river.

XINJIANG 2019

In February 2019, less than two years after my last trip to Xinjiang and the conclusion of my first project in the region, as the repression against the Uighur minority is reaching new heights, I have started a new long-term project about the forced sinicization in the province.

It has now been proven that more than one million Uyghur-minority Chinese citizens are being detained in reeducation camps for the only reason they are Muslim. These camps, which according to Chinese authorities are merely professional training facilities (“vocational centers”), are aimed at indoctrinating the detainees towards Chinese communist secularism, fostering reverence of leader Xi Jinping and making them denounce their faith while submitting them to forced labor.

Breaking away from the contemplative approach of “Out West” – my first project in Xinjiang - I have returned to a more traditional documentary form to show, close to the people, the weakened pulse of life within the Uyghur community, whose culture is now doomed to disappear.

It is currently very difficult for any foreign journalist – and even more so for photographers – to work in the region. Police presence has been doubled or tripled over the past two years. Check points are ubiquitous in the streets and the countryside. I was stopped many times per day, my images were checked and oftentimes deleted. On the second part of the trip, police officers in civilian clothing were following me 24/7 wherever I went.

These first images – of which I present to you a tight edit – were taken on a ten-day trip along the oasis towns of South Xinjiang, in the Tarim basin, cradle of the Uyghur nation and hotbed of the Chinese repression.

XINJIANG 2019

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