You notice right away that Uzbekistan is a “young” country. Children are all over the place. Some claim that up to 45% of the population is under 15 years of age (UNDP human development report 2004. Chidren are everywhere and in many cases one only notices them when children live on the streets, work on the markets or beg you for money. But they also play, have fun and can get on your nerves pretty much if you don’t take your time to understand them.
In Samarkand I started thinking about a way to take pictures of children who play on the street, without having to ask them. At some point I figured out a good way which is actually exremely simple. You just have to take out the camera and take pictures of something. If there are kids around, they will spot you and ask you to photograph them. Funny thing is. They do pretty much the same things I did when I was a kid and somone took a picture of me. These are details like the donkey or rabbit ears (the V-sign with your hand behind the head of your friend) and that children like to be either completely cool or dead serious.
Well, the photos are staged but still show a lot of the way the kids see themselves:
