The eagle-hunters have become one of the iconic images of the Central Asian steppe. In 2006, I had the chance to visit and photograph this spellbinding part of the world.
In western Mongolia, the vast steppe rises and makes way for the majestic Altai Mountains, the birthplace of falconry. Over time, the sport and art of falconry evolved to using Golden Eagles more than falcons, and today represents one of the strongest expressions of the Kazakh culture. It is in these isolated mountains that the Kazakh people sought refuge during the Soviet occupation and where important aspects of the culture are still preserved.
I concentrated on Bayan Ulgii, Mongolia's most western province, where Muslim Kazakhs make up about ninety percent of the population. In as much as anyone can live side by side in such a sparsely populated land, they do so in seeming harmony with their Buddhist Mongolian and Animist Tuvan neighbours.
An estimated 50 percent of the country's population remains nomadic herders, a number even higher in Bayan Ulgii. They depend on their herds of goat, sheep, yak and horses to survive, and three or four times a year they pack up their camps and move their animals and their families to greener pastures. My photography focused on this profound, vital relationship the people have with the land.
