Meet the North wrote this story for National Geographic Russia. With each new border and political shift, the indigenous women of Chukotka, Russia adjust to maintain their heritage and survive. Read about how they survive through Jenny’s words and Eric’s photos. This story appeared both on-line and in the printed magazine in Russia in February,…
We were eating more than I thought possible, including jellied whale casserole and fresh apricot buns, while Elizaveta Dobrieva’s family explained that their ancestors descended from the polar bear and the killer whale. Then Elizaveta disappeared into the back room of her apartment in Lavrentiya, Chukotka, and came back cradling a dark wooden carving. Its…
Here is Meet the North’s next National Geographic story. With each new border and political shift, the indigenous women of Chukotka, Russia adjust to maintain their heritage and survive. Read about how they survive through Jenny’s words and Eric’s photos.
After a 14 hour drive on non-roads across the tundra, we found them. The animals and the people who look after them. Our home for the next little while. Fall 2017. Chukotka, Russia. Photo Eric Guth.
Happy to get a ride from some whale hunters up the coast of the Bering Sea in Chukotka, but WOW was it uncomfortable. Bouncy! (Like, turn you black and blue kinda bouncy.) I think they took a bit of pleasure from watching us fly off the plywood while they sat on the lifejackets. Photo Eric Guth
This is like the heart. It has many ways of showing itself. This wall has been through a lot. We know that from its cracks, which we might call texture, but we know are also the signatures of experience. The windows, we might say, are broken. But breaking has opened them. Love is what you see…
Standing by Provideniya’s “Gateway to the Arctic” sign and studying my Russian lessons. Language is a gateway too. Photo Eric Guth
Come along! Sign up! My next newsletter comes out tomorrow. Previously unreleased photos from Russia, links to new audio stories, and a letter from me to you. Even a song that has inspired me on the road – and I’ll tell you why this custom tundra vehicle is called The Cockroach. I send these out…
I’m writing these days, which means reading too. From Wade Davis: “… the myriad of cultures of the world are not failed attempts at modernity, let alone failed attempts to be us. They are unique expressions of the human imagination and heart, unique answers to a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human…
The stories we tell ourselves. . . Anadyr is the urban heart of Chukotka. It’s home to 15,000 people, but with the apartment buildings, administration centres, a cultural complex, swimming pool, movie theatre, supermarket, mall, and some hotels, it feels like a city. It’s a city in the middle of the tundra on the edge…