Spotlight on Photography: Finding Frozen Fun in Kyrgyzstan

In the winter of 2020, Lake Ara-Köl in Kyrgyzstan was becoming more and more popular. Social media was full of new videos of people from nearby villages spending time right on the surface, which freezes over when winds sweep across the steppe.

When we arrived music was playing. Horses-deeply woven into Kyrgyz culture as a nomadic symbol of the mountain landscape-carried visitors across the ice, unfazed as children sledded at their hooves.

Amid that scene unfolded something I had to capture: a man grilling shawarma right on the ice-meat for sale, turning on a spit over a gas burner. It all looked chaotic yet somehow perfectly natural. At that moment it seemed absurd. But now, remembering it, I think it was wild and beautiful.

@danilusmanovphoto