EXPOSURES
LANDS OF THE UNKNOWN
continued from page 96
his desire to create a major project about these unrecognized nations. “This was a curiosity of mine before I knew how to photograph it,” he recalls.
Mahon made his first trip to Nagorno Karabakh, also formerly part of the Soviet Union, in 2006, and has since made
multiple trips to Abkhazia, Northern Cyprus, Trandsniestra
and Somaliland for his long-term project, which he calls
When Mahon first began
his series he took a
very literal approach
to photographing the
unrecognized countries,
but has evolved a more
metaphorical style.
“Lands in Limbo.”
When he began the project, which he has photographed using a Hasselblad and a Canon
EOS 5D, Mahon took a literal approach to making images. He would try to find ways to show
important elements like “security” or “military.” As he has grown as a photographer, he has
sought more metaphorical representations of psychological conditions common to all of the
unrecognized countries, like isolation or the desire to be a part of the international commu-
nity. “Showing that visually is tough,” Mahon says.
Mahon’s photographs show citizens living amongst dilapidated infrastructure. In one image from Abkhazia, we see two women sitting on a wire bed frame outside a massive, white
apartment bloc while a cow grazes freely in front of them. In another image, a man dives
