AUTONOMOUS
tHE dissolution of the uighur culture in xinjiang
Filled with over 200 images of a culture and region that no longer exists. The Kalhagen’s take us across the Taklamakan dessert to an area closed off to journalists, the Uighur Autonomous region of Xinjiang, referred to locally as Turkmenistan. Since the 1940’s it has been the goal of the Chinese government to dilute the culture of the Uighur population through oppression and the destruction of entire towns in the name of progress. The journey travels through Kashgar and up the Karakorum Highway through the Pamir mountains to the border of Pakistan carried along only by the kindness of strangers while back at home in America a deeply divided country elects the 45th president of the United States moving towards its own authoritarian dictatorship.