2018 - Ongoing

Inspired by my father’s journey as a migrant worker in a Detroit collision shop after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Auto explores the intersections of the West and Central Asia through the lens of labor and global trade in the automotive repair industry.

I began photographing his workplace in 2018. The project grew as I followed the threads of his coworkers’ lives back to auto shops in their home countries—Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan—and then back again to cities in the United States shaped by new migration currents from Central Asia and the Caucasus. These interconnected enclaves, sustained by the movement of remittances, labor, and used parts, challenge and redefine our sense of proximity and community.