Kazakhstan Time Travel

• Photographer
  Mario Heller
• Agency / Studio
  Mario Heller
• Prizes
  Bronze in Editorial/Photo Essay

In October 2019, just a few months before COVID-19, ushered in a wave of travel restrictions, and I travelled over 7500 kilometres across Kazakhstan for three weeks. I got to know the country in the rustic railway wagons from Soviet times like through a burning glass. Travellers revealed their most intimate stories to me while they were going to work, weddings or funerals. This is a photo series full of nostalgia and times that are not accessible anymore, but still able to be felt.

Mario Heller is a Berlin-based Swiss photographer whose work focuses on the relationship between our social structures and cultural backgrounds. His first career path was as a pastry chef, but in 2015 his talents led him to become a full-time professional photographer. He travels the globe to unearth fresh stories that deserve to be shared with the wider world.