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My favorite place in the world, between states, sky and earth, defying borders. It was our second trip to Irshad pass. I went back 6 or 7 times, in snow and wind, excitement to my stomach, a fleeting vision of heaven and then we must head down into the valley.
The 64 residents of the remote east Greenland village of Isortoq still hunt and fish but combine traditional Inuit foods with purchases from the supermarket, the large red building in the foreground. A favorite dish: seal dipped in ketchup and mayonnaise. In the middle of winter I lived here for 10 days, documenting the life of a hunting family.
Young Juma is particularly fond of his father’s horse. Qara Jilga summer camp, Afghanistan.
Juma Boi is grabbing a fish that he hit by throwing stones in the water. Even though the Pamir has a lot of fish in summer, Kyrgyz nomads are not especially talented with catching them using a line and a hook, seeing it as a pointless exercise – they are herders in their core.
The last chicken: Er Ali Boi tried to breed chicken in his camp, but at 4200 meters his enterprise wasn’t a success, except for the entertainment it brought to his nephew, the young Juma Boi.
“I have been gone 7 months. It’s about dedication, but mostly it helps with focusing the mind.”
Kabil Marek from Kashmir.
Mareile stands on an immersed boulder at the Kachura lake, heart of the Karakoram mountains. We lived in this village for a few months, doing volunteer teaching. Nearest phone was a 5-hour drive, all before the internet. We just soaked it in.
Outside Wuruchan’s home, his Kalashnikov lay in the soft grass, unguarded, wrapped in flowers. Death and beauty?
Kalta Minaret, at the entrance of Khiva, an ancient silk road city recalling times of caravans and arduous journeys across deserts. Uzbekistan.
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“Kandaisyz? How are you?” Fighting the wind, a young Kyrgyz comes to greet us on the frozen Wakhan river.
An earliest abstract shot, playing with obstructing the lens with various substances. These are the dunes of Skardu, near where we lived, in the back is Karpocho mountain.
Stubborn and strong. On an icy stretch, Katchga (meaning “beige”) the leading yak, refuses to go on, too slippery… 16-year old Nematullah, a Kyrgyz on his way up home, will have the last word.
Dices, Uttarakhand, India.
A boy plays on the wall of the family’s mud house in Kermin village, in the Chapursan River Valley. Karakoram, Pakistan.
After getting a shave from his dad, Khairuddin disposes of his hair in a ‘clean place’, such as this frozen river on the edge of camp. Although the Kyrgyz are Sunni muslims, their rituals also reflect other ancient traditions.
Entrance to the Little Pamir. Rolling hills, leftover from an ancient glacial outflow, the snow wrapping around it. Here is chocolate cream and the last thing that I can think of is ice-cream!
It was midday. A couple of weeks of altitude trekking and simple food got me lethargic; i laid under a tree. Khudo Boz came by, all ready to cut barley, asked if I wanted to join. I lifted my camera, his outfit revealing years of hard work.
The kindness of strangers. Bringing apples to the visiting guest. Karakoram, Pakistan.
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.”
Ganges, Rishikesh, India.
Radhika’s home, Uttarakhand, India.
Shrine, Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan.
“And what’s behind that one?”
My two sons Timoté and Iluka and the Kumtag desert. Xinjiang, China.
Like many Rajasthani shepherds, Lakan crosses large stretches of India, feeding his herd of over 400 goats along the way.
According to NASA’s satellite data, the Dasht-e Lut desert is the hottest spot on Earth. The beauty of this desert is a major reason the UNESCO inscribed the Lut Desert on its World Heritage List. Iran.
Magnus Eraksen goes out seal hunting on a kayak. I followed him in a similar kayak, camera around my neck, terrified of falling in the water. East Coast, Greenland.
Burning field, Madhya Pradesh, India.
Marbet, a seven year-old Afghan Kyrgyz girl, had just returned home from watching over her father’s sheep. I was taking picture of her brother, and she just sat there. Her red cheeks are the result of the extreme cold that affects the Afghan Pamir throughout winter.
A jeep on the treacherous road leading to Pakistan’s remotest village, Shimshal, deep in the Karakoram mountains.
Snow in August. We slept in our tent, right next to this Kyrgyz camp. She came to invite us for “chai” and stood there a second, waiting for us to get ready, gazing at her home, all she ever knew.
Narmada river, Madhya Pradesh, India.
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