High Pastures

A place I keep returning to — Kyrgyzstan.

Still relatively unknown on the global tourism map, the country retains a sense of scale and openness that feels increasingly rare. Vast landscapes, high pastures and a nomadic culture that continues to shape daily life define its character.

This project, published in Touring Magazine in a feature written by Tino Mantarro, focuses on Songköl Lake and the capital, Bishkek.

At 3,000 meters above sea level, Songköl unfolds as a high-altitude plateau surrounded by mountains and seasonal yurts. Horses move freely across the grasslands, weather shifts quickly, and light transforms the lake from steel grey to deep blue within minutes. It is a place where distance becomes tangible.

I first travelled there in 2012. The photographs from that journey were lost, a reminder of how fragile documentation can be. I returned in the summer of 2019 — this time on horseback — and spent days working across the plateau, rebuilding the visual narrative I had once thought gone.