Abandoned moments
Ed Kashi is a much-travelled man. In a career spanning over 40 years, he has worked in more than 100 countries, capturing personal and commissioned projects for major publications. After originally wanting to be a writer, he changed direction when he was 18.
He reveals, ‘I happened to go to a university [Syracuse] that had a great photojournalism programme, so I vectored and said, “Well, what about photography?” Within two or three months of learning basic black & white darkroom skills, and learning about photographers like Gene Cunningham, and some of these greats that were working into their 90s, I was in hook, line and sinker.’
But it was another photographer’s book that truly had an impact on him. Kashi admits, ‘Mary Ellen Mark, the great American photographer, had come out with a book called , which was this black & white study of a women’s mental institution in Oregon. I must have been 18 or 19 when I saw that book and I was like, “That’s what I want to be”. I
