From Cossacks to guerillas – capturing women without men.

by stephaniejonesberry

Image of Anya Romanova (centre) and her Year 8 friends at Ataman Platov Cossack Cadet School, Belaya Kalitva, southern Russia by Anastasia Taylor-Lind.

A LITTLE girl stares intently at her sister while holding a Kalashnikov, a woman standing astride two horses commandeers them at full gallop, while the most senior female officer in the Afghan army sits at her desk dwarfed by flowers. These just a few of the arresting images from British photojournalist, Anastasia Taylor-Lind, whose work is full of female imagery in unusual or unimagined places. There is an eerie honesty about much of the work as it gives itself up and silently reveals the lives of women committed to causes beyond the comfort zone of the western eye.

“At the moment I am working on a long term theme that looks at communities of women living and working together independently of men,” said Taylor-Lind, who has found her way from Devon to a home in Lebanon. The photographer travelled north through Iraq to live among a female unit of the Kurdish Workers Party – known as the PKK, where some beautiful and incisive shots were birthed. Internationally denounced as a terrorist organisation, some could object to the personification of these fighters, but Taylor-Lind has taken a difficult subject and transformed it. The women may be armed and in military dress, but they are eating and smiling, combing their hair, playing volleyball and holding wild kittens – they are lethal, but human.

In a 2008 BBC documentary, the photographer made it clear she is not willing to concede such clear cut divisions between wrong and right: “I want my pictures to question people’s perceptions and pre-conceptions of what a terrorist is.“It is more important than ever to understand terrorism and those who commit acts of terrorism – what has happened to them to make them do that? “If you do not give people a political voice, then what options are you giving them?”

In the same programme, Taylor-Lind said she felt the female PKK unit was exceptional for “challenging the value of their culture” and coming from a traditional, patriarchal village society where women are worthless. “They are experiencing more freedom than they have ever had in their lives previously,” she said. “They experience true democracy – the ability to live as equals to men, which would never have been the case if they stayed in their villages or towns.

It is no great surprise to discover that someone as exceptional as Taylor-Lind has a string of awards behind her and last month became a full member of the international VII Photo Agency. The photographer started working with the US-based agency, which specialises in conflict photography, in 2009 through the mentor programme it offered – under the guidance of Ron Haviv. She studied documentary photography at the University of Wales Newport, on a course established by Magnum photographer David Hurn – thought to be one of the best photography degrees in the world.

Taylor-Lind said she believes her work is “almost entirely” dependent on the relationships she forges with her subjects – not a skill everyone has. “I often do stories that are not female orientated,but for now that is my focus,” she added. “I like to spend a lot of time with my subjects, and get to know people as a person or friend, not just as a photographer – this then leads to the opportunity to make more intimate images. Living with people helps a lot, as you are there when daily life happens, and when possible I like to revisit people within a story.”

After her studies, she freelanced in London for a few years, did an MA at London College of Communications and then moved to Syria in 2009. Taylor-Lind holds awards from Canon Italy, The Guardian and The Royal Photographic Society among others. She has exhibited in spaces such as London’s Saatchi Gallery, the Frontline Club, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam.

Taylor-Lind said she sees her work as both art and journalism: “The aesthetics of a visual medium and the information and message of journalism.” Meanwhile, she hopes to photograph the Asgarda – a separatist feminist movement in the Carpathian Mountains -, as well as women living in Afghanistan’s prisons. Some of the individual stories or chapters are up on my website, my two most recent are not,” she explained. “I will shortly continue with the next chapter in this series.”

Visit www.anastasiataylorlind.com/ to see the photographer’s work.