Photography is literally the art of writing with light. There we find an overlay of the past reality. Through the reflection on film and then on the paper people and objects from a long-gone moment begin a dialogue with the audience, who is looking at them here and now. This technology allows recording and capturing the light rays generated by different illuminated objects. "From a real body, which was there, proceed radiations which ultimately touch me, who am here, the duration of the transmission is insignificant; the photograph of the missing being, (…), will touch me like the delayed rays of a star" - that's the description of this effect by Roland Barthes, a French postmodern philosopher, from his book 'Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography'.

The photography has an incredible ability to connect the past and the future in the captured random point of time, and it is the core charming essence of photographic pictures. With the help of photos created under someone's impressions we are able to stretch the threads to the moments that ultimately shape the canvas of our existence. Accidently revealed destinies, objects and events appear united in one shot. It comes especially evident in analog film photography. One photo is one random universe in life.

Alim Khaidarov devoted his life to studying and preventing mudflows. This work is especially important for Almaty due to its location near the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains. Together with his professional activities Alim Khaidarov was interested in the life of his home city Alma-Ata. This interest is embodied in his extensive photographic archive. There are the history of Verny's wooden courtyards, the romantic city building history of Alma-Ata (it is already familiar to us) and the deserted fields that have now become the streets of the megalopolis. These plots are the photographic impressions of Alim Khaidarov.

For the last few decades the history of our city is in constant conversation with the works by Bauyrzhan Sabitov, a modern young artist. Bauyrzhan was fascinated by photography at school and most of all he got interested in street life. He chose film photography to depict the life of Almaty streets. The fragility of captured occasional moments, i.e. light, shadows, passers-by and the character of the city, comes through especially sharply through the nerve of limited chances of luck when you shoot on analog film.

The works of the two authors united by the plots and film photography are combined into the image of Almaty, which we know, which we are inspired by, and in which we want to be.