Writing

Chukotka: the Russian Arctic Book

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I am excited to announce the imminent release of my first fine-art photography book, Chukotka, on the Russian Arctic!

It’s produced by Kris Graves Projects, in a format (7”x8.5”) that makes it affordable ($28) while retaining beautiful print quality on textured matte paper. Pre-orders are available here.

At the edges of the Bering Sea and Russia’s Arctic coastline lies one of the wildest regions on earth. In winter, the land is indistinguishable from the ocean, a vast white ice sheet extending into infinity. In summer, the tundra unveils itself in shades of moss and the coastlines are packed with polar bears and walrus. 

Chukotka. The place where human destiny is carved by the cold.

Voices for Biodiversity: Indigenous Peoples as Guardians of the Land

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As I work on indigenous issues a photojournalist, I find myself increasingly working as both a writer and a photographer. The issues surrounding indigenous rights and ecology are rich and complex– it is the combination of images and words that tell the most powerful stories.

I’ve just published a story on how indigenous peoples are the de-facto guardians of biodiversity. We must challenge our current models of conservation by identifying Indigenous peoples as Ecosystem peoples – the original keystone species and cultivators of the wild places we love.

Today the world’s 300 million Indigenous people live in every inhabitable biome on earth, some of whom inhabit territories with the highest levels of biodiversity. Remarkably, the regions of greatest biological richness are often strongly correlated through their high diversity of human cultures, and many of those are often Indigenous cultures.

Many thanks to the inestimable Nejma Bellarbi of Voices for Biodiversity for entreating me to tackle this story and for great conversations as an editor.