Not by Meat Alone
Kazakh Fishermen of Lake Zaisan
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And nowhere is this adage more true than for the past, a time so removed from our own, for which a single image can have a huge impact. In this section, the editors at Qalam seek to do more than merely showcase documentary photographs from various eras—we want to tell the real stories behind these images and bring history to life. Each photograph here captures a moment that has shaped our world, and the accompanying narrative highlights its significance and context, giving us a nuanced insight into the events they depict. After all, understanding these stories can only help us appreciate the complexities of history better.
This time, our gaze turns to images of Kazakh fishermen on Lake Zaisan, to those who fished while preserving their nomadic lifestyle.
We often assume that the nomadic Kazakh lifestyle has little to do with fishing, making dishes like the famous fishbarmaq—a sturgeon-based take on the traditional Kazakh meat dish found in Caspian towns like Aktau—seem like an exotic oddity. Yet, in reality, fishing was a common practice in certain regions of Kazakhstan.
These photographs capture early twentieth-century Kazakh fishermen near Lake Zaisan, in what is now the East Kazakhstan Region near the Chinese border. Local Kazakhs were active in the fishing trade while maintaining their nomadic or semi-nomadic way of life alongside. These rare images were taken between 1909 and 1911 by Cossack officer Nikolay Katanaev during his travels through the area. His photographs were later included in the exhibition ‘Views of the Siberian Cossack Settlements’, shown at the First Western Siberian Exhibition in Omsk in 1911. The collection offered a glimpse into the lives of local residents, including Kazakhs and Russian Cossacks, the latter of whom had settled in Kazakhstan as part of Russian imperial policy.