In the latest iteration of Christopher Wilton-Steer’s photographic documentation of the world’s most celebrated trade route, the Aga Khan Foundation is delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of The Silk Road: A Living History.
Set to be published in September this year by Hemeria, the publication follows a travelling Aga Khan Foundation exhibition in London and Toronto after the same name, and features 150 photographs primarily taken during the photographer’s overland journey from London to Beijing in 2019.
Like the exhibition, the book celebrates the diversity of cultural expressions found along the Silk Road; also highlighting examples of how historical practices, rituals and customs live on today, and revealing some of the connections between what appear, at first glance, to be very different cultures.
It also seeks to engender interest and understanding between distant cultures and challenge perceptions of less well-known and understood parts of the world. Photographs from Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, India, China and elsewhere feature.
The Silk Road: A Living History will be launched in an event hosted by the Aga Khan Foundation in September 2024, with a talk by Christopher Wilton-Steer. Details on this will follow in due course.
The book is now available for pre-order via the publisher’s site.
Photographing the Silk Road
Travelling overland by car, bus, train, ferry, horse and camel, Wilton-Steer covered 40,000km across 16 countries in pursuit of traversing the historic Silk Road; also seeking to experience and illustrate – through his photography – the transitions between diverse cultures and the legacy of exchange along this renowned trade route
The outcome is a body of work that conveys the many and varied lines of similarity between different communities and across borders; highlighting what connects us.
On his journey, Wilton-Steer – also Head of Communications at the Aga Khan Foundation – documented numerous Aga Khan Development Network programmes and institutions, including the campuses of the University of Central Asia, the restoration projects of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and climate resilience programmes of the Aga Khan Foundation, amongst others.
“Unlike the rockier Pamirs to the west that burst out of the earth’s surface in dark browns and deep ochres, the mountains here are softer and glow purple, pink and blue.”
– Extract from the Tajikistan chapter
Book details
The book is being published by photographic book specialists, Hemeria. Details of the book are as follows:
- Size: 24x29cm
- Images: 150 photographs
- Pages: 208
- Cover: Case bound with cloth spine
- Language: English and French
- Shipping: September
- Cost: €45 + delivery. Discounts for higher volume purchases.
Books can be purchased via the publisher’s site.
For bulk orders, hosting a talk with the author, please contact: ellen.agnew@akdn.org
Supporting disadvantaged communities
The author’s royalties for this book will be donated to the Aga Khan Foundation. These funds will be used to advance AKF’s mission to address the root causes of poverty, improve the quality of life and build a future where we all thrive together.
The Aga Khan Foundation and agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network have been active in countries along the Silk Road for decades. AKDN is a long-term partner in the development of Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan.
About the Silk Road
The Silk Road, the name given to the numerous trading routes that connected China and the West, was established over 2,000 years ago.
For several centuries it facilitated the exchange of goods, ideas, religions and technologies across thousands of miles, shaping and changing the world as we know it.
While it lost its prominence to new maritime trade routes by the 1600s, its legacy of interconnectedness still endures. Today, it is the focus of the largest infrastructure project in history – China’s Belt and Road Initiative – which will connect two thirds of the world’s population.
“Kyrgyzstan is a nation of vast, gentle and sweeping valleys and appears still a land before time. The sense of space, under the huge dome of the blue sky, is profound and almost spiritual. I’ve visited very few places on earth that feel like genuine wildernesses, this is one of them.”
– Extract from the book
About the Author/Photographer
Christopher Wilton-Steer’s photography explores less well documented and often misunderstood parts of the world. His work aims to build bridges of interest and understanding between cultures and bring attention to diminishing cultures.
Christopher’s work is regularly featured in National Geographic, The Guardian, CNN, Financial Times, and Der Spiegel amongst others. His previous exhibition – The Artisans of al-Darb al-Ahmar: Life and Work in Historic Cairo – was shown at London’s Royal Geographical Society in 2018, in Brussels in 2019 and in Austria in 2021.
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Learn more about this project in this talk and podcast.
