People address the shaman who is living in Ungurtas village, Kazakhstan, as Apa or Apashka, which means "granny" in the Kazakh language.
Originally from Turkistan, Apa was told by the spirits to find a particular mountain. She found it eight years ago, and made a temporary living space and started accepting pilgrims. Soon after, pilgrims built a whole farm and made steps on the mountain, which is thought to have healing properties.
Apa is a sufi. She calls herself the last dervish of Kazakhstan. Some of the rituals she performs include slaying of a goat and pouring blood onto practically naked people. Or after killing an animal, blood is smeared on to the face, hands and feet of people currently living at the farm.
Life at the farm is very basic. Every day starts with chores: bringing water from the river, cleaning the stoves and putting new coal in them, taking care of the goats and other animals. Women usually cook and take care of the dishes.
Once in a while Apa says that she receives a command from the sprits and gives out personal or sometimes common assignments, which usually include visiting some nearby holy place or saying particular mantras.
People come from other countries to visit her — Russia, Ukraine, and of course other cities in Kazakhstan. Some people come to her for health or addiction problems, others to resolve life issues. Some stay there for a short period, some stay for a period of three months and often come back more than one time.
— Pavel Prokopchik
This latest in the series of photobooks titled, in almost every picture deals with one family’s attempt to solve one of the great mysteries of photography: how to shoot a black dog.
Like a failed science-fiction utopia, this Apartheid-era residential tower has become the city's "focal point [of] dreams and nightmares, seen as refuge or monstrosity, dreamland or dystopia, a lightning rod for a society's hopes and fears..."
Bangladesh Rehabilitation and Assistance Center for Addicts (BARACA) is the largest treatment center in the country — this reportage shows the struggle at the crossroads of the world's two largest areas of opium production.
More than one million immigrants (many adolescents or barely over 18) are scrambling to stay alive in Greece — kids who have not been able to experience their youth.