While reminders of former Soviet Union remain in Kazakhstan, the country's vast natural resources have ensured a influx of wealth. Uriel Sinai explores this juxtaposition in his photographs.
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(CNN) -- Uriel Sinai's affection for Kazakhstan started as a straightforward reporting assignment.
The World Press Photo award-winning photographer went to Kazakhstan and other central Asian republics in 2006 to capture how they had changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"It was quite amazing, I didn't expect to see what I saw there," he says.
Visually, it was the blend of the new and the old that attracted him to Kazakhstan. "Seeing the mixture of things that are very much Soviet-like and then the current Kazakhstan, with its wealth and money," he says. "That really struck me."
Being an Iran-born Israeli national, Sinai's chances of ever visiting his real birthplace are slim. Having no memories of Iran (he left as a baby), he looks for hints of his birthplace elsewhere.
"I am always trying to feel the place. Everywhere I go, I am trying to feel this place that I am not able to go to."
Kazakhstan and its vast steppes, rural areas, mosques and arid climate reminded him of Iran more than anything. "I think it is as close as I can get to somewhere close to where I came from," he says.
He says he felt the connection while driving for hours through the rural countryside. 'You can really feel it in Kazakhstan," he says. "You can feel Iran in the air."
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Kazak men lie down in a ray of sunlight to dry off in the Turkish section of the Arsan baths in Almaty -- a place where tradition meets the new demand for luxury.
A worker monitors production at Saiman Corporation, part of the TSC Group and a leading company in Kazakhstan and Central Asia in the production of electro-technical products. Since it gained independence in 1991, Kazakhstan has attracted around $11bn in foreign direct investment each year.
Islamic worshippers perform their Friday prayers in the Great Mosque in Almaty. Sinai, who has been also photographed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict says the Islam in Kazakhstan is a "different kind of Islam" than the one he experienced elsewhere.
"It's not as fanatic," he says. "And I am not referring only to Islam, but other religions as well. In Kazakhstan, it seems more open."
"You can see people going to the bars and drinking alcohol and then going to the mosque on Friday," says Sinai.
Under the Stalinist rule, Muslims were oppressed and mosques closed. That changed with the independence. "Suddenly, you could go back and practice Islam," Sinai says. "It's something wonderful."
Postitutes prepare for the evening ahead in Almaty. Sinai says he tried to capture the culture of Kazakhstan as a whole. "Something that struck me was the way they treat women," he says. "You go to a restaurant, a family restaurant, there are children around and everything. And then you get the menu with pictures of naked women in it."
"You look into a newspaper and you will see pictures of naked women on page three," Sinai says. "You go to a coalmine and the director has a picture of a naked woman on the wall behind him. It's part of the culture, not something anyone can change right now. "
A herdsman in central Kazakhstan watches his cows from horseback. Iran-born Sinai says the vast rural areas of central Kazakhstan reminded him of his motherland, a place he can not visit, as he is Israeli citizen.
A patron eats under a painting of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, in a restaurant decorated with Soviet and communist symbols. Kazakhstan had the world's first spaceport.
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