In spite of its run-down looks and reputation for widespread crime, Tarlabasi is a culturally vibrant neighborhood kaleidoscope …
Rena Effendi // Safe Refuge for Elephants
There are 34 female and three male elephants and ENP, a tourist accessible elephant sanctuary…
Rena Effendi // Chernobyl, Life in the Zone
Inside the Zone, the inhabitants are mostly elderly women who chose to return home even only days after the worst nuclear accident in the world’s history…
Rena Effendi // Azerbaijan Flood Displaces Thousands
Residents of some 20 villages along the Kura River in Azerbaijian had to flee from the floods caused by heavy rains that increased the water level in the river…
Rena Effendi // Oil Village
Soviet era industrialisation program and mostly petroleum-related production created an environmental crisis both in the Caspian Sea and onshore in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital city…
Rena Effendi // Khinaliq Village
Because of its remoteness, Khinaliq still manages to preserve its ancient way of life. There is no running water but the stream nearby, no gas except the natural fires from the gas-pocked mountains…
Rena Effendi // Youth in Tehran
In a place where being different is prosecuted, the youth in Tehran find creative ways to survive with their meager rations of freedom…
Rena Effendi // Pipe Dreams
Snaking 1,700 kilometres through 5 conflict zones, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline manoeuvres through a delicate web of social, environmental and political concerns…
Rena Effendi // Holidays in the Mine
This is a story of the mining towns in Kuzbass shot over the winter holiday season. Recovering after the post-Soviet industrial crises, Kuzbass now accounts for 30% of Russia’s total coal production…
Rena Effendi // House of Happiness
Family and cultural rituals in the traditional society of Ferghana Valley, a post-Soviet melting pot of Central Asian ethnicities that is undergoing a revival of radical Islam…
Rena Effendi // Neighborhoods of Cairo
Life in a cobweb of Cairo’s alleys and corners: from the City of the Dead, the legendary expanse of cemeteries, where ghosts roam the streets at night…