I was riding a horse, trying not to get my teeth knocked out. Whip in mouth, a Kyrgyz man steers his horse in a game of buzkashi, a competition akin to polo—except a headless goat carcass takes the place of the ball. Buzkashi is the Afghan national sport. The Kyrgyz call it ulak tartysh, or “kid grabbing.”
During my fifth expedition to Afghanistan’s Pamir mountains, on assignment photographing the isolated nomadic Kyrgyz community,for a National Geographic magazine feature story titled “Stranded on the Roof of the World” (February 2013). Shot in summer 2012.
Print Details
Format: Archival print, printed with pigment ink on acid free Hahnemühle paper.
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