George Butler
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Azerbaijan
- Backgammon
- Baku
- Chicken Market
- Kids In Street
- Lahij
- Market Bazaar
- Meat Market
- Oil Caravan
- Oil Menders
- Qismet
- Red Car
- Round Oil
- Sasi and Sakid
Where the camera can be insensitive and misunderstood the reporting artist can be subtle and unimposing. It is far easier to learn about your subject (human or landscape) during the period it takes to create the image rather than over the snap of the shutter. And so the reportage illustrator still survives with an edge over photography and film.
Reportage has to empathise with the situation and at the same time document and describe this environment to the audience. The best reportage work is not necessarily the most photorealistic or aesthetically pleasing Ð the development of the camera has allowed the artist freedom to convey the image with license and expression of opinion Ð safe in the knowledge that somebody will have photographically documented it before and will do again.
With all this in mind, on 1st August 2008 I travelled to Baku - the capital of Azerbaijan. Where I spent two and a half weeks, drawing, describing and documenting the life and culture of the Azeri people.
Azerbaijan is a Lesser Economic Developed Country. With a huge natural oil resource under the Caspian Sea. This gives it more money than it knows what to do with every week. However this money rarely gets down to the grassroots within the city and so on one hand you have very few rich government officials and on the other you have millions of people living in relative poverty.
As a reporting illustrator this makes a fascinating juxtaposition to explore with both pictures and words. To begin I drew in and around the old sporadic oil fields, with their continuously nodding donkeys and abandoned 'dereks'. The shape and structure of these machines lends itself to be drawn in pen and ink, after all everything is covered in an indian ink coloured stain, but there is not two weeks work in an oil field. And I inevitably went looking for the typical characters of Baku.
As it turns out they are pretty easy to find, you must to get past the staring, the jokers, the posers, the disinterested and those expecting something in return - but once you do there is a wealth of untapped stories to be heard. The difficult part comes in finding a willing spectator to act as translator - and so very often these short lived relationships are carried out in silence. With silent suggestion they agree to be drawn, or maybe they don't but are then too polite to move. They are so polite and fascinated by what you are doing that they thank you for the privilege - one man even tried to pay me. It was this mutual fascination that brought on the best drawings.
So I spent my time wondering the streets and bazaars looking for possible subjects and views. With every drawing you do you can expect to be offered 'chai,' lunch, or food from the stalls and they would be offended if you did not except their offer. I felt like I had friends for life in the oil mechanics, the potato sellers, the taxi drivers, and even the police, all who took pride in their hospitality and sat very obligingly as I drew them.
Although you can still get a sense of character through the language barrier, what became difficult was putting these people in context, they are proud to be Azeri, well dressed, polite but hugely influenced by Russian interference. You end up with a strange mix of language, culture, pride and not as much religion as you might expect. The difficult part comes in describing those feelings in a picture.
I ended up drawing in some orphanages, deep into town - the first was for disabled children, who's parents could not look after them, the second for abandoned babies. To give you an idea of the poverty of the city - often the parents would take them out for the day to beg and then bring them back at night. Presents donated by various charities often go home with the nurses for their children, after all they are extremely poor too, with an attitude that says - my children need toys too, why should children who cant appreciate even them get the special treatment? This is the nature of many of Azerbaijans problems - this is where the oil money needs to reach not on fancy limestone fronted buildings for government officials to look at.
So my trip started with oil and ended with orphans, somewhere in between I worked, made friends and drank tea. This is why Azerbaijan was ideal for the reporting artist and traveller Ð there are people willing to sit for you everywhere you go, they will feed you, no doubt house you, they will talk to you even if you cant talk back, they will laugh at you even when they don't understand a word you are saying, all this and you will always feel safe.
The only thing is it is relatively undocumented in the Western world, despite its potential for the future in oil. This means nobody can pronounce it or knows where it is Ð so they are taken back that you would consider going there, after all any country in the East ending with 'jan' 'stan' 'an' or 'than' must be terribly dangerous, No?