ABOUT

Buzkashi, meaning “goat pulling” in Persian, is the wild, brutal sport of Tajikistan and its neighboring ‘Stans.’ Think polo - but with a headless, eviscerated goat instead of a ball, hundreds of riders, and no formal teams. Rooted in the nomadic cultures of Central Asia and played for hundreds of years, riders, or chapandaz, battle for control of the goat while dodging rivals (and the occasional whip or elbow) in scenes reminiscent of a Napoleonic battle painting. The rule book is less of a book and closer to a couple of sentences, with the match often overflowing into the fleeing crowd (something I can testify to first hand) games can last for hours until one rider hauls the goat across a hay-marked goal line in the dirt. Once a pastime of the steppes, Buzkashi is now a beloved spectacle at festivals and major gatherings such as weddings.

Watching Buzkashi matches was often like stepping directly back in to those famous battle paintings of the period. A seething morass of fighting players and horses, kicking up clouds of dust and visceral noise. I wanted some of the images from the project to take on the visual cues of those old paintings. Idealised in the middle of what is an otherwise brutal moment.