ALTAI: Hunters and Herders of Mongolia

Witness the ancient tradition of hunting with golden eagles in ALTAI: Hunters and Herders of Mongolia. This debut photobook from photojournalist and fine art photographer Claire Thomas invites us into the highlands, homes, and hearts of ethnic Kazakh herders. Up in the Bayan-Ölgii province of western Mongolia, the land and wildlife set daily rhythms, and traditions are practiced, not merely preserved. Horses, once ridden by Mongolian warriors across frontiers and battlefields in the time of Genghis Khan, are now anchors of nomadic life. For centuries, they have also been inseparable from eagle hunting, with horse, bird, and hunter performing a tightly choreographed dance in symbiosis, each with a role to play, perfected over time. The eagle: the eye in the sky. The horse: the heartbeat that carries hunter and tradition across the landscape. In 2019, after three years of documenting crisis as a photojournalist in northern Iraq, Claire Thomas traveled to the Altai mountains looking for a breath of fresh air. Little did she know that she would spend years revisiting the same families of Kazakh eagle hunters, watching children grow, witnessing traditions pass from one generation to the next, and celebrating—and mourning—with those who had welcomed her into their homes and their embrace. ALTAI is a family album reflecting a universal truth: whether in a ger high in the Mongolian mountains or a cosy home in the photographer’s native Welsh countryside, people share the same hope to love, honor history, and find meaning in community. But this book is also a record of a transforming way of life. Thomas’s photography pays tribute to ancient practices and living heritage threatened by climate change and urban growth, as they adapt in the name of progress and survival. ALTAI holds a world in suspension in its pages, inviting us to treasure what is fragile and must be carried forward and consider how to live in balance with land, animals, and one another.