The wonderous peoples and landscapes of Central Asia are captured on film in magnificent fashion by professional photographer, Vladimir Jirnov. Working and living in the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan, Vladimir has proven himself to be one of the top travel photographers & photojournalists in this area of the world.

Since 1985, Vladimir has been shooting in-and-around his home country of Uzbekistan, producing documentary photographs of his homeland and his people. For over six years, Vladimir worked as the single staff photo reporter for "Saodat," Central Asia's largest magazine with a monthly sales volume of over one million copies! This was quite a job for one photographer/reporter to handle.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1992, Vladimir opened the first advertising agency in Uzbekistan, where he and his associates produced calendars, brochures, advertising articles, and more. This tenure lasted for only 3 years, until 1995, when Vladimir decided to return to photography full-time as a freelance travel photographer/photojournalist. This calling back to full-time photography can be best described in Vladimir's own words, "a photographer has to be a photographer."

We are glad that Vladimir chose his first passion as his career decision, as the images in his portfolio are excellent examples of the peoples and landscapes of Central Asia. To be a foreign photographer travelling to a strange land in search of capturing images of indigenous peoples is often a very difficult job, as the photographer almost always stands out to the native people, who may not act naturally in this setting. However, to be a native photographing your own people as Vladimir does, one can capture amazing images of these same peoples much easier as they will not be as uncomfortable around the native photographer.

Our staff enjoyed building the Profotos portfolio of this travel photography master and it is our hope that you will be able to see into the faces of the peoples in these images, and know what they are feeling and thinking. This is a great presentation of an obscure part of the former U.S.S.R. - Uzbekistan as seen through the lenses of master photographer Vladimir Jirnov.,Citizen of Uzbekistan, Central Asia, former Soviet Republic.

Degree of the Technical University of Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

In professional photography since 1985. From 1986 to 1992-single staff photo reporter for the largest magazine in Central Asia - "Saodat" with a monthly turnover of more than 1.000.000 copies. It was a good practice in photojournalism, as the magazine demanded all kinds of photography-reportage, photo novel, portraits, landscapes and so on, in both b/w and color images. During this time, I was also a member of the Union of the Journalists of USSR.

After the destroying of Soviet Union in 1992, the editorial system failed and it was necessary to deal with new fields of activity to establish an advertising printing business. I was among the founders of the first printing advertising agency in Uzbekistan. Our agency produced: calendars, prospects and others. But a photographer has to be a photographer, and in 1995 I returned to professional photography - now as a freelancer. At the end of 1999 as the author and producer, I began a web project, and in October 2000 site centralasiaphoto.com appeared online.

My photos have been exhibited in numerous places, in Uzbekistan and abroad, including: international tourist fairs; various magazines and periodicals, etc.

At the international photo contest "Interfoto 2000" in Moscow, my photo "Kurash" took 2nd place in the "Sport" category.

Also in the year 2000, I became a member of the Academy of Art of Uzbekistan, and took part in the "Magnumphotos 2000" seminar in Tashkent.

The bank of my images consists of nearly 3000 slides and negatives from all around Uzbekistan and Central Asia.

I am ready to cooperate with you for every photo in my image bank, for both editorial and online projects. I am able to work out of Central Asia for a long time, however, I would not refuse a proposal to serve permanently in the USA, Canada, or Europe.