MAY 2017 GQ.CO.ZA 81K
azakhstan rarely
makes news headlines
internationally. Not
since Borat, anyway.
But back in 1997, the
country’s long-serving
president, Nursultan
Nazarbayev, decided he didn’t like where the
country’s capital was sitting, so he moved it
1 000km to the north.
Until then, Kazakhstan’s base was
Almaty, a city of 1.7-million inhabitants in
the country’s south that remains its most
populous metropolis. But that was too close
to China for Nazarbayev’s liking.
His new capital, named Astana – Kazakh
for ‘capital’ – would be moved further north,
towards the Russian border about 1 000km
away. Over the next two decades, the former
Soviet state poured billions of dollars into
building the most surreal artiicial city the
world has ever seen.
Amsterdam-based photographer Ryan
Koopmans irst visited Astana in 2011.
‘I sort of just discovered it online,’ he says.
‘I was looking for cities that have been
built from scratch – like a planned city –
and Astana was just one of the most
extreme versions. I went there to take
pictures of the buildings, and realised,
over time, how much material there was
for a long-term project.’
In 1999, Astana’s population was 281 000,
a number that had doubled to at least 600 000
by 2007. Latest igures indicate there’s now
more than 800 000 residents, making it
Kazakhstan’s second-biggest city.
‘he population has gone up as quickly
as it can,’ says Koopmans. ‘But considering
the sense of scale, it doesn’t feel like a lot
of people. here’s no urban density, so
it’s underpopulated, considering the
magnitude of infrastructure – large
thoroughfares and boulevards without
much traic.’
Getting around usually means trains
(which transport Kazakhs between the
country’s major centres and which can be
old and unreliable), cars and so-called >>REPORT