Gallery: For These Post-Soviet Nations, Big Oil Offers Hope and Fear

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    Mila Teshaieva
    01

    Promising Waters

    Untitled (Atyrau), Kazakhstan, 2012. A fence surrounds Renaissance Hotel in Atyrau, a new oil capital of Kazakhstan. A tiny fishermen town started its rise since the giant Kashagan oil field was discovered nearby. The inhabitants of the town live with both fears of possible ecological catastrophe and hopes for improved life standards.
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    Mila Teshaieva
    02

    Promising Waters

    Woman with her mud, Kazakhstan, 2012. Mud reserves are ending because the source is now the territory of Kashagan oil refinery plant.
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    Mila Teshaieva
    03

    Promising Waters

    Nobel's Village, Azerbaijan, 2010. The village was built by Ludwig Nobel for oil workers at Pirallahi island. Currently it is abandoned and slowly being submerged by the rising sea.
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    Mila Teshaieva
    04

    Promising Waters

    House of Kadjar, Azerbaijan, 2012. Youngest member of the Kadjar family---who claims to be the royal family in Azerbaijan---stares at copies of ancient Iranian paintings in the family house in Baku.
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    Mila Teshaieva
    05

    Promising Waters

    Kenderli, Kazakhstan, 2011. A woman at her house in an abandoned soviet holiday camp. The camp is being demolished and soon will become a luxury resort.
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    Mila Teshaieva
    06

    Promising Waters

    Untitled (Quba), Azerbaijan, 2011. Soviet-era books are collected for trash in a former library in Quba. The alphabet in the country was changed from Cyrillic to Turkish after independence. The history of the country is now being rewritten, so most of Soviet books are not needed.
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    Mila Teshaieva
    07

    Promising Waters

    Museum of Cosmos, Ashgabad, Turkmenistan, 2013. The capital of Ashgabad holds five Guinness World Records; the latest is boasting "the most white marble-clad buildings" in the world.
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    Mila Teshaieva
    08

    Promising Waters

    The Dream, Azerbaijan, 2010. A model house at an Institute for Peace and Democracy settlement in Baku.
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    Mila Teshaieva
    09

    Promising Waters

    Azerbaijan, 2010. An official of Narimanabad village in his office.
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    Mila Teshaieva
    10

    Promising Waters

    Untitled (Balkanabad), Turkmenistan, 2011. A new stadium is built in line with the policy of “Health and Happiness” that started in Turkmenistan together with new "Era of Supreme Happiness."
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    Mila Teshaieva
    11

    Promising Waters

    Azerbaijan, 2010. A fisherman gathers his nets in a poaching hut at Pirallahi island. As no other work exists outside the capital, people living along the sea are turning to the poaching. The Caspian Sea is overfished for years, and the sturgeon are currently close to complete extinction.
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    Mila Teshaieva
    12

    Promising Waters

    Ruins of the Buzovna resort near Baku, Azerbaijan, 2011. The restaurant was closed and the beach is now out of bounds as it appeared to be too close to the walls of president Aliyev's holiday house.
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    Mila Teshaieva
    13

    Promising Waters

    Family house, Azerbaijan, 2010. Internally displaced people from Karabakh have lived in cardboard homes at an abandoned industrial factory in Baku for the last twenty years. They have never received aid from the government despite managing to build new life in these inhumane conditions.
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    Mila Teshaieva
    14

    Promising Waters

    Untitled (Narimanabad), Azerbaijan, 2011. Birds pass by a former boating spot in Narimanabad, a remote fishing village on the Caspian Sea. Gas to the village has been cut off since independence, and most people live by poaching.
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    Mila Teshaieva
    15

    Promising Waters

    Koshkar Ata, Aqtau, Kazakhstan, 2012. Migrant workers build luxury mausoleums for families of the newly rich at Koshkar Ata, ancient City of the Dead.
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