The works of French photographer Francis Latreille expose us to the harsh realities of life in some of the world's most inhospitable places.

The photos in his current exhibition at the Beaugeste Photo Gallery in Tianzifang on Taikang Road show the lives of the Dolgans, a nomadic people who live in Russia's Taymirsky Dolgano-Nenetsky Autonomous District of northern Siberia, where temperatures in winter can reach as low as -60 C.

Jean Loh, the exhibition's curator, told the Global Times that Latreille covered the Arctic and Siberia for 20 years to bring people his humanist vision of the last ice nomads.

Latreille first visited the Dolgans in 1997. In the years since, Latreille has used his camera to record their daily lives, taking photos of their hunting, fishing, house building, fur trapping, reindeer rearing and shamanic rituals.

The Dolgans evolved from a mix of three northern Siberian cultures: the Yakut, the Evenki, and the Nenets. The name "Dolgan" is derived from a clan living in the tundra area, meaning "people living in the middle reaches of the river."

The Dolgan herders move north in the spring and south in the autumn, following traditional migration routes. They live in "ballok," small mobile huts mounted on sled runners. The huts are insulated with layers of reindeer pelts, and have small coal-burning stoves inside.

Traditionally, the Dolgans venerate spirits of nature, with shamans acting as intermediaries to communicate with the spirits.



Global warming

Loh said that due to global warming, Siberia's snow is melting and refreezing. This makes it difficult for the reindeer to dig for lichen, forcing the herders to move more frequently.

The ice melting each summer has also led to an increase in the discovery of mammoth bones. Some Dolgans have started smuggling and trading the bones and ivory.

In 1998, Latreille covered the discovery of a mammoth that had been buried beneath the ice for 20,000 years. In 2006, he documented the discovery of a near-perfect baby mammoth that resurfaced after 40,000 years for the  National Geographic.

In that year, Latreille met the finder, Nenet Yuri Khudi, and became close friends with the Khudi family.

The mammoth remains that Khudi saved from the hands of traders is now preserved in the Shemanovsky Museum in Salekhard. The baby mammoth was named "Lyuba," after Khudi's wife.

The Dolgan language has been classified as "potentially endangered" by UNESCO.

(From top) The photos by French photographer Francis Latreille show the lives of the Dolgans, a nomadic people living in northern Siberia. Photos: Courtesy of Beaugeste Photo Gallery

 

Loh believes that photography remains the best universal language, allowing photographers such as Latreille to befriend the Dolgans and establish an intimate rapport with them.

"In the past, Latreille even went as far as to bring across the continent a heavy load (weighing 40 kilograms) of sail cloth, which he used as a backdrop for his outdoor photographic studio," Loh said.

With increasing urbanization and globalization, the Russian government now encourages more Dolgans, especially children and young people, to leave their homes for nearby cities to receive education, find jobs and leave behind their lives as nomads.

"It is of course a good thing," Loh said. "However, probably one day in the future, we will no longer be able to see the traditional everyday life of the Dolgans as they fetch ice from the river to boil water, and celebrate festivals in sled races."

In light of such a possibility, the humanist portraits in the exhibition take on a greater significance.

The pictures of these vanishing ice nomads, who struggle to perpetuate their traditional life, help us realize the beauty and the harshness of the great wilderness, and the efforts we need to make if we want to preserve its purity.

Date: Until April 3, 10 am to 6 pm

Venue: Beaugeste Photo Gallery

比极影像

Address: Room 519, Bldg 5, Lane 210 Taikang Road 泰康路210弄5号楼519室

Admission: Free

Call 6466-9012 for details