Ed Kashi – A Period in Time. Looking Back While Moving Forward

Review by Gerhard Clausing •

Ed Kashi’s new photobook, A Period in Time, feels like both a personal diary and a sweeping portrait of our shared world. It gathers images from his more than 45 years as a photojournalist into one powerful collection that is as emotional as it is informative. This compendium is more than a retrospective; it is the story of a lifetime spent observing the world with empathy and courage. Through decades of photographs, Kashi shows us how one person with cameras can become both witness and participant in history. From the first pages, Kashi reminds us that photographs are “repositories of possibilities.” That idea runs through each of the many chapters: his documentation doesn’t just record, it stirs up curiosity, compassion, and memory.

The book begins with Kashi’s early black-and-white photographs from the late 1970s and 1980s, when he began to observe people closely yet respectfully. Even in his earliest pictures we sense his drive to understand rather than judge. His early work reveals a young photographer searching for his voice; you can sense his fascination with people and social rituals – celebrations, the streets of New Orleans, the tense neighborhoods of Northern Ireland. These photographs are raw, direct, and full of exploratory discovery.

By the 1990s, Kashi’s storytelling matured further. In Kurdistan and Cairo’s “City of the Dead,” he began creating deeper, long-term projects. His portraits of Kurdish families, for example, are quiet and dignified, focusing not on suffering but on endurance. In Cairo, he found beauty in unexpected places: everyday life between tombs, celebrations near ancestor memorials. His eye for human resilience shines through even in the harshest conditions.

Kashi’s later series broaden the view. In the series “Aging in America,” we find portraits of older adults, presented with tenderness and respect, giving a voice to a generation often overlooked. In “Curse of the Black Gold,” his exploration of oil exploitation in Nigeria, he uses vivid color and sharp contrasts. We see the flames of oil wells glowing against dark skies as evidence of pollution right next to ordinary life (photograph 6 below). These images are visually stunning but also deeply unsettling; beauty becomes a way of revealing injustice.

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Kashi continued to travel and bear witness, from India’s rapidly changing highways to the Middle East’s fading Christian communities, from Syrian refugee camps to Nicaraguan sugarcane fields where workers die from heat and exhaustion. His pictures are never detached; in gripping fashion they invite us to feel what it means to live within these realities.

In his recent work, Abandoned Moments, which was also published as a photobook and previously reviewed in the PhotoBook Journal, Kashi allows chance and imperfection to take the lead. Blurred figures, fleeting gestures, and uneven light convey a sense of freedom and acceptance. After decades of disciplined observation, he seems content to let the world move as it will and document its intrinsic chaos (sample photograph no. 8 below).

Alongside the images, presented well on generously large pages, Kashi includes excerpts from letters and field journals written to his wife and collaborator, filmmaker Julie Winokur. These notes add intimacy and honesty; his exhaustion, fear, and longing are all there. They remind us that photojournalists carry emotional weight long after they leave the field. In the back of the book, helpful notes on each of the images provide further details.

What ties all these years together is Kashi’s belief that photography can open minds and hearts. His pictures do not simply document events – they speak to our shared humanity. A Period in Time is both a summary of one photographer’s visual witnessing and a mirror reflecting our own world, in all its beauty, pain, and perseverance. What makes A Period in Time special is how personal it feels while still addressing global issues. Kashi’s camera has recorded war, hope, poverty, and love, yet he always looks for dignity in the people he meets. The result is a book that feels alive – a chronicle of one man’s life in pictures, and a reminder of how much compassion can be found in looking closely.

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The PhotoBook Journal previously featured a review of Ed Kashi’s Abandoned Moments. A Love Letter to Photography.

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Gerhard (Gerry) Clausing, Editor Emeritus and Editorial Consultant of The PhotoBook Journal, is an author, visual artist, and educator who explores perception, transformation, and memory.

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Ed Kashi – A Period In Time: Looking Back While Moving Forward

Photographer: Ed Kashi (born in New York City; lives in Montclair, New Jersey, USA)

Texts: Ed Kashi, Don Carleton

Language: English

Design: Norah Tahiri in collaboration with Michael Curry and Ed Kashi

Hardbound, with illustrated cover, 336 pages; 11.5 x 14.25 inches (29 x 36 cm); printed in Canada by Friesens; ISBN 978-1-953480-22-4

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Articles and photographs published in the PhotoBook Journal may not be reproduced without the permission of the PhotoBook Journal staff and the photographer(s). All images, texts, and designs are under copyright by the authors and publishers.