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2009 Banff Mountain Photography Competition
Mountain Culture

Matthieu Paley: Marbet in the High Pamir

“Marbet, a seven year-old Afghan Kyrgyz girl, just returned home from watching over her father’s sheep herd. Her red cheeks are the result of the extreme cold that affects the Afghan Pamir throughout winter. I first became aware of the Afghan Kyrgyz ten years ago, while working in the neighbouring Pakistan Karakoram range. Ever since I’ve been following and documenting the story of this nomadic community of the Little Pamir, Afghanistan’s poorest and least accessible mountain region. Untouched by war, this people — the remotest high-altitude community in the world — faces a multitude of challenges in their fight for survival. Due to the extreme altitude and climate, increasing opium addiction, and with no health facilities whatsoever, they currently have the highest infant and maternal mortality in the world. Prior to my five-week solo expedition, the last visit in winter by a westerner to the Afghan Kyrgyz was in 1972.”

Matthieu Paley is an award-winning photographer who divides his time between the Western Himalayas and Hong Kong, which he uses as a base for continuing his work throughout Asia. Since 1999, Matthieu has remained in the Western Himalayas on and off for over five years, working on documenting the remote mountainous regions of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Northern India, and Central Asia. Matthieu’s assignments have taken him all over Asia, from the base camp of the highest unclimbed mountain in the world in Bhutan, to Tuvalu to document the effects of global warming on this sinking island. His work has been published worldwide, as well as exhibited in galleries in North America and Europe. He has collaborated on numerous books and recently completed a book on Siberia. His next book on the Kyrgyz of the Afghan Pamir, the result of ten years of work in the region, is currently in production. More recently, Matthieu has lectured at various mountain festivals in Europe and North America.

www.paleyphoto.com

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