KURDISH VIEW: PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURES ESSENCE OF PEOPLE WITHOUT A NATION
Eric Billingsley
Albuquerque Journal
Clatchy-Tribune Business News
July 25, 2008 Friday
Jul. 25–Who are the Kurdish people? Where is Kurdistan? And why
should anybody care? These are just a few of the questions that have
sparked a passion in Albuquerque photographer Rob Leutheuser.
"They are one of the largest ethnic groups in the world without their
own country," Leutheuser says. "This is a littleunderstood people in
a region that has huge impacts on global geopolitics."
So every year he travels to the region, which encompasses parts of
Iraq, Iran, Syria, Armenia and Turkey, for eight to 12 weeks to live
among the people and photograph his experiences.
No, he’s not a photographer for National Geographic.
Leutheuser’s relationship with the Kurds started by happenstance
in 1997. And since he retired from federal government work in 2000,
the 58-year-old has funded all of the trips out of pocket, launched
a Web site (beyondbordersphotography. com) to display his photos,
shown his work at local galleries and lectured about his experiences.
Combine rich natural resources such as oil, the war in Iraq, the
strategic geographic significance of the Kurdistan region and the
Kurds’ desire for independence, and you have a political hotbed.
"The Kurds are in the process of going through a huge cultural shift
because of politics and economic pressures," Leutheuser says. "I
spend a lot of time with the traditional pieces of the culture that
are left … small villages and large families."
A complex people
Leutheuser says each trip gives him a glimpse into different parts of
this complex region and culture, which comprises a mountainous area
roughly the size of Texas and includes 25 million to 35 million Kurds.
"One trip, I was curious about the relationship of Armenians and Kurds,
and on my last trip I looked at the Yezidis as a minority religion,"
he says.
The Yezidis are one of the religions referred to as the "Cult of
Angels," considered by many to be a direct descendent of one of the
oldest monotheistic religions in the world, Zoroastrianism, according
to Leutheuser. "Every time I go back I’m seeing the bigger picture,"
Leutheuser says.
Kurdistan refers to the traditional homeland of the Kurdish
people. The international community does not recognize the whole
region as a country, but Kurdish languages and cultures are distinct
from neighboring peoples, according to Kani Xulam, director of the
American Kurdish Information Network, an advocacy group.
Kurdish language is akin to Persian and other Indo-European languages,
and linguistically different from other dominant languages in the
region, such as Semitic Arabic and Altaic Turkish, according to
kurdinfo.com and Leutheuser. Four major Kurdish dialects include
Kurmanji, Zazaki, Sorani and Gorani, according to Xulam.
Leutheuser says, when traveling, it would be easier if there was
just one Kurdish language. But Kurmanji is the most common one that
he encounters.
"I’m regularly surprised at how unintelligible my pocket-fulls of
words are, when I move from region to region … and that even goes
between the dialects," Leutheuser says. "I can be in one region and
feel like I’m getting the language nailed, and travel eight hours
away and people look at me like I’m speaking Swedish."
Kurds are predominantly of Mediterranean racial stock, and resemble
southern Europeans and Levantines, according to kurdinfo.com. There
are also two racial substrata: a darker aboriginal Palaeo-Caucasian
one, and more localized blondism in the Alpine people living in the
heartland of Kurdistan.
Leutheuser says differences come through in some of his photos. For
example, one photo shows two young girls from Van, Turkey. One has
a dark complexion and dark eyes, and the other is fair-skinned with
blue eyes and brown hair.
The vast majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslims. There are also mainstream
Shi’a Muslims. And many of the rest are part of the "Cult of the
Angels," which includes the Yezidis, Alevis and Ahl-e Haqq.
"My impression of being at Lalish, a Yezidi holy site, was that I
was surprised at how informal the sense of the entire complex was,"
Leutheuser says. "It was a gathering site for religious and social
celebrations. It had none of the attributes of hushed reverence."
>>From Midwest to Mideast
Leutheuser grew up about as far from the Middle East as you can get.
Born and raised in Ann Arbor, Mich., the youngest of four children,
he took up photography at age 17. He graduated from the University
of Michigan in 1972 with a degree in natural resources management.
His first dose of cultural immersion came in 1974, when, with camera
in hand, he traveled to South America for six months. "I learned that
it was a big world, and it’s all accessible," Leutheuser says.
He went on to serve in the Peace Corps in Central Africa from 1976 to
1979 and took a job with the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of
Reclamation after returning to the States. He has also done several
overseas volunteer assignments in Tajikistan to assist farmers in
agricultural water management.
Leutheuser moved to Albuquerque in 1990 and worked with the bureau
until his retirement in 2000.
Leutheuser’s first glimpse of Kurdistan was in 1997, when he and a
friend, also a photographer, went on a monthlong trip to Turkey and
Greece. They happened to visit southeastern Turkey during the Kurdish
separatist war.
"Call it serendipity, but sometimes the best things in life are
serendipitous," he says. "All of the sudden this Eastern culture,
which is predominantly Muslim, appealed to me."
Life on film
Leutheuser returned in 2001 for a three-month trip through Georgia,
Jordan, Syria and Turkey.
"It was a pretty epic threemonth journey," Leutheuser says. "As I
processed what I was doing and experiencing, the Kurds stuck and are
still sticking. At that juncture, I think I was drawn to the starkness
of both the landscape and the people."
Leutheuser has returned every year since. He always travels alone,
stays with families whenever possible and uses hotels as needed. He
says his relationships with some of the people have evolved past
formalities and niceties. Friends can get angry with him, he can get
angry with them, and then they share a cup of tea the next morning,
he says.
"Staying with a traditional Kurdish family is humbling because of
their hospitality and generosity, ability to do so much with so little,
and by who they are," Leutheuser says.
Historically, he shot blackand-white and color photos with a 35mm
camera. But last year he also traveled with a digital camera. He says
photos, in and of themselves, are not what helps him understand the
Kurds. Rather, it’s the act of photography that creates situations
he would not otherwise experience.
"I photograph people," he says. "The ultimate is when they get over
the fact the camera is there … and that happens with time. And when
the camera is not ignored, it can also create a situation when the
shutter is pressed."
On Aug. 10, Leutheuser will return for what he has dubbed "The Kurdish
Sweep." He will travel through parts of Iran, Armenia, the country
of Georgia, eastern Turkey, attend a Yezidi religious celebration in
northern Iraq and cap off the trip with a visit to northern Syria.
"It’s an evolving awareness and I have just had the luxury of being
able to follow and nurture an interest," says Leutheuser. "The Kurds
are the landscape. They shouldn’t be romanticized, but they should
absolutely be honored."
Kurdish wisdom
Here’s a sampling of Kurdish proverbs:
"A thousand friends are too few; one enemy is too many."
"For every wise man, there is one wiser still."
"With fortune on your side, you can sow salt and harvest grass."
"A woman is a fortress; a man her prisoner."
"A kind word warms a man through three winters." Kurdistan at a glance
Approximately 52 percent of the Kurds’ traditional homeland is
controlled by Turkey, 18 percent by Iraq, 24 percent by Iran and 4
percent by Syria, according to Kani Xulam, director of the American
Kurdish Information Network, an advocacy group. Between 25 million
and 35 million Kurds live in the Middle East. Close to 1 million now
live in Europe, and approximately 50,000 in the U.S. The majority
in the U.S. are refugees who fled Iraqi Kurdistan following failed
uprisings against the Baghdad central government in 1975, 1991 and
1997, Xulam says.