Alessandra Meniconzi | Canon EOS R | Mongolia

Photo © Alessandra Meniconzi | Source: Canon Europe

One of my very favorite travel photographers is Alessandra Meniconzi*, a Switzerland-based Canon Ambassador and a true globetrotter who preceded most of us to the remote corners of the world. I cam to know Alessandra's work through her wonderful book "Hidden China" which she graciously gifted me a few years ago.

"Never behave like the paparazzi, always be polite and respectful. 

The subject has their pride; they are not an object, but a person like you."

Her work has always been focused on the ancient heritage and customs of indigenous people, and she has recently spent a few years documenting the traditions of Mongolia's nomadic people, by establishing connections within their communities, particularly in the Altai Mountains in the far west, where Mongolia meets Kazakhstan. Her work has been published by Canon-Europe to advertise for the EOS R, and can be found here.

Supplementing her remarkable images, Alessandra also shares her shooting philosophy when she's out in the field. 

I found her approach, while not exclusive, to portraiture to be very practical and useful. She chooses to have her subjects posed against a black background in a dark room or, if not possible, she uses her own black fabric to hang behind the subjects as backgrounds. This enhances the Mongolian costumes, and brings out their colors.

* Alessandra's website is password protected.

C. Glendening & S. Leahovcenko | Mongolian Eagle Hunters

This is a double feature on the eagle hunters of the Altai mountains of Mongolia; one is the cinematic work of Cale Glendening, and the other is a photographic essay by Sasha Leahovcenco.

The golden eagles live in the high Altai mountains, in far-western Mongolia, and build their nests in the crags of the area’s rugged peaks. The hunters, a Khazak minority, are traditional nomadic clans who learn to climb up to these crevices to capture and domesticate the young eagles. The birds are hand fed, and live with the hunters’ families for years.

The hunters take their eagles high into the mountains, so they can fly down and catch foxes and other small mammals. It's a dying tradition, with an estimated number of only fifty or sixty authentic eagle hunters left.

Photo © Sasha Leahovcenco | All Rights Reserved

Although eagles can live for thirty years, the hunters keep each one for only about ten years, then release it to live out its last years in the wild.

The hunters are called burkitshi, and try to pass their long standing tradition to their sons. The tradition of hunting with golden eagles is said to have been started by the nomadic tribes of Manchuria in northern China around 940 AD.

Sasha Leahovcenco's Mongolian Eagle Hunters photo essay is here. 

His biography reveals that is a humanitarian, entrepreneur and photographer. He was born in Moldova, an Eastern European country and former Soviet republic. A martial art champion, he eventually took up photography as a career, and traveled to Chukotka (the northern most part of Russia), Haiti, Central America, the Middle East and several countries in Africa. He covered stories of the earthquake in Haiti, the aftermath of typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, the ongoing war conflict in Ukraine and the Syrian and Lebanese refugee crisis.

Cale Glendening is a director and cinematographer who has spent the last eight years traveling the world filming on five continents in over 35 countries. His clients include Google, Red Bull, Cholula, Valvoline, Dollar General, BBC, ESPN, and Animal Planet.

Nomads of Mongolia | Brandon Li

With the temperature in New York City in the teens today, I thought I'd feature a documentary about the Nomads of Mongolia by Brandon Li, a talented peripatetic movie maker.

The Mongolian pastoral herders are one of the world's last remaining nomadic cultures. For over 3000 years, they have lived on the steppes, grazing their livestock on its grasslands, and move in the search of better pastures and campsites. They live by and for their livestock, including their horses.

About half of Mongolia’s population is still roaming the vast plains living in the traditional ger, and moving their campings several times a year. Nomadic life may seem to us to be extraordinarily hard, but Mongolians have developed, over the centuries, strength and resilience that are essential for survival in this harsh nature.

However, modernity, bringing a new economic system, opportunities in mining, and the effects of overgrazing and climate change are pushing this ancient nomadic culture to adopt a more urban, settled lifestyle. Many Mongolian herders believe their traditional way of life is over, and some have already broken the ancient tradition of passing down the family herd to the youngest child.

How Hwee Young | Mongolian Shamans

Photo © How Hwee Young-All Rights Reserved

Shamans are people (they can be of either gender) who are considered to have access to the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits. Shamans typically enter into trances during their ritual, and practice divination and healing.

My experience with a shaman was in Bhutan...not far from Paro, where he was holding a ritual to cleanse a child from evil spirits. The ritual took place in a very modest farmhouse...in its main room with the family and neighbors attending. The process involved the shaman to eventually "host" the spirit in his body whilst in a trance, then running out of the house to expel it. 

So I am glad to feature Mongolia Shaman Brothers; a photo essay by the talented How Wee Young. 

Mongolian shamanism is an all-encompassing system of belief that includes medicine, religion, a cult of nature, and a cult of ancestor worship. Male shamans in Mongolia are called boo (isn't that funny?), and they consider themselves to be an intermediaries between the visible world and the hidden world of spirits and gods.

In Mongolia, shamanism merged with local Buddhist traditions, and it’s often impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.

How Hwee Young is a staff photographer with the european pressphoto agency b.v. (epa) based in Beijing, China. Her career began in 2001 where she joined Singapore's leading newspaper The Straits Times as a photojournalist. Over the last ten years, her images have been published on front covers and featured in major newspapers and magazines including the NewYork Times, British Times, the International Herald Tribune, the LA Times, the Sydney Herald, the Telegraph, Time magazine, Der Spiegel, GEO Magazine, South China Morning Post, Bangkok Post, amongst others.

Karl Doyle: Nomadic Souls

Photo © Karl Doyle-All Rights Reserved

Karl Doyle's Nomadic Worlds Series is the type and the quality of work you don't want to miss, especially if -like me- you're interested in ethnography and ethno-photography.

Karl Doyle is originally from Ireland, and relocated to London working with many visual artists. He traveled to Mongolia on the Trans-Mongolian Express train from Beijing to Ulan Bator, and spent weeks on horseback to capture the true essence of the Mongolian nomads. 

In this Nomadic Worlds gallery, he merges the Mongolian Nomads, and the Harajuku Girls of Tokyo and New York’s stylized sub-cultures into one continuing series...to highlight the diversity of their environment.

For larger projects, Karl uses a Sinar 4x5 for studio/interior settings, and a Wista for outside work.