Book excerpt: The book is an intimate portrait of a part of the world that is seldom mentioned or recognised and the result of years of travelling in the area. Lasthein uses his panoramic camera as a means of both being in the middle of a situation and getting a wide-angle view of the scene. His pictures are often composed of multiple interacting actions. In the Caucasus the concept of borderland gets especially vivid. Here Europe meets Asia and Islam meets Christianity; a myriad nationalities, languages and cultures live side by side. In spite of the unresolved wars and conflicts since the fall of the Soviet Union, people of the new countries and republics are still emotionally tied together by their common history. Jens Olof Lasthein's pictures tell stories full of life from a region which is most often talked about only when bombs explode or border conflicts flare up anew.