Ivan Sigal has a classic Washington resume: A master’s degree from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Diplomacy; extensive overseas travels as a journalist and new-media trainer; onetime senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace; affiliation with the World Bank Institute; currently executive director of a nonprofit that promotes online global citizens’ journalism. But all that won’t get you on the walls of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Being a photographer in far-flung locales can. That’s what Sigal did between 1998 and 2005, documenting rural life in such Central Asian nations as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. The title of the 100-image-and-text exhibit, “White Road,” translates as “safe journey,” a sign often posted at the edge of the steppe—the last indication of civilization for a long while. It’s also a metaphor for the region: The exhibit aims to report and analyze “what was left behind when the Soviet Union’s ideological superstructure was dismantled, eliminating the grand narrative that once imposed meaning on people’s lives.”
“Ivan Sigal: White Road”
Nov. 3 to January 27 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art