Photographer Palani Mohan on capturing the last Kazakh eagle hunters of Mongolia
Palani Mohan tells Kylie Knott about his new book, a chronicle of the nomads who hunt on horseback with trained birds of prey and their vanishing way of life
If you've ever wondered how long a camera battery lasts in minus 40 degrees, ask Palani Mohan.
"My camera gear collapsed all the time … when it's minus 40 with wind chill, your batteries give up really quickly. I'd be crouched on an ice shelf waiting for the perfect light and when it came I'd stick my hand under my armpits and whip out a battery. I might have a minute before it's zapped of energy. At night I'd tape batteries to my armpits and thighs to keep them warm."
It's just one of the many stories Mohan shares about his five years photographing the last remaining Kazakh eagle hunters in the unforgiving wilds of the far west of Mongolia, a mission that started when the Australian photographer was 17 and working at . "I saw this image of a man standing on a mountain holding an eagle and was like 'wow, that's amazing, where is this? I need to go there'."
In 2012 Mohan did just that. "The plan was to take portraits of the eagle hunters but when I got there I found there was a really important story to be told," says the Hong Kong-based photographer.
That story is about the golden eagles living in the high Altai mountains that reach from China through Mongolia and Kazakhstan to Russian Siberia and their close bond with the eagle hunters, known as , who belong to the traditional nomadic clans from the country's Kazakh minority. Numbering around 100,000, the nomads have been raising livestock near the mountains for hundreds of years and the eagle hunters have been climbing the sharp peaks to capture the birds from nests in the crags. The birds are then hand fed and live with the hunter's family, at times staying in the family's , a traditional Mongolian hut.
