By 1992, a few years after the fall of the Soviet Union, it became clear to more people outside Kazakhstan, that the Soviet Nuclear Testing program at the Semipalatinsk Complex had been a disaster. Albeit until then, one mainly known and quietly borne (until 1989) by the local Kazakhstan population.
 
It was but a few years earlier when Karipbek realized his birth defect (he was born without arms) was due to the nuclear testing. Over the years he adapted, became an artist and found that by holding a paint brush with his teeth he could create paintings like the one seen in this photograph. It depicts the effects of nuclear testing near his childhood home in Kazakhstan.
 
For more than 40 years beginning in August 1949, the steppes of Kazakhstan held a polygon of nuclear tests, along with sites for uranium processing, and nuclear waste burial.
 
Karipbek was part of a group touring the USA in 1992 warning how the cold war and Russia's reaction to it, resulted in nuclear testing which directly affected everyone living in the region. The group hoped to return home with a signed, nuclear test ban treaty. At that point largely due to the widespead opposition in Kazakhstan, only the Russian Federation had taken unilateral action in halting nuclear testing for a year.
 
Karipbek continues to speak out against nuclear weapons and their legacy today.
 
I made this photograph for the Santa Fe Sun newspaper, it was not published.