EAGLE HUNTERS

For millennia, Central Asian nomads have hunted on horseback to protect their livestock from foxes and wolves. A symbol of Kazakh national identity, the practice was suppressed and nearly eradicated during Soviet rule in Kazakhstan, which sought forcibly to settle nomadic populations as part of the collectivisation of agriculture. But some berkutchi (eagle hunters) fled to a region of Mongolia, where this ancient tradition lived on.

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Bordering Russia to the north and China to the south, and located just 25 miles from Kazakhstan's easternmost tip, Bayan-Ulgii is a true frontier. Known as Mongolia's Wild West, it is the remotest and only Muslim-majority province of the world's most sparsely populated independent country.

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In winter 2013, Faraz took a 40-hour bus ride on dirt roads and frozen rivers from Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar, to reach Bayan-Ulgii. He lived, herded and hunted with two eagle-hunting families, documenting their way of life, tracked argali (a rare species of wild sheep and the largest in the world) and explored a landscape dominated by icy plains, vast lakes and the imposing Altai Mountains.