Claire Thomas — Altai, Hunters and Herders of Mongolia

Review by Lee Halvorsen •

Captivating! Exotic! Breathtaking! Yes, this book is all of that, but those words understate the exquisite view into nature’s beauty Thomas has wrapped into these pages. The reader experiences relationships among people, horses, eagles, and the land. This isn’t a book about an exciting apex predator or a beautiful but challenging land or hunters and herders surviving, this is about how they exist with and within one another.

Looking at the magnificent image on the cover one could easily believe this book is about golden eagles living with people, people who use the eagles like tools, to hunt. But that’s not at all what this book is about. Over several years Thomas repeatedly traveled to Bayan-Ölgii, a western province of Mongolia, where she lived, traveled and hunted with a Kazakh family. The high mountainous landscapes are home to hunters and herders who use eagles and horses to collaboratively survive in very challenging conditions. She sequenced the book using four very interconnected elements of their lives…horses, hunting, herding, and home…all playing on the grand stage of the Altai mountain range.

Family is a core part of Kazakh life, Thomas opens with a portrait of the late Baygan, the heart and perhaps matriarch of the family who befriended the outsider Thomas and helped her assimilate. The next image, a bleak Altai landscape, a lone motorbike barely visible in the near whiteout. The sequencing, the juxtaposition of the heart of the Altai with the stark landscape and the motorbike, a sign of pending change is indicative of the subtle but meaningful sequencing throughout.

The reader is given a glimpse into the relationship between man and horse. The horse is an undeniably required part of a hunter/herdsman’s life in harsh Altai. Some motorbikes are appearing but they don’t last at all in the winter and in the summer, only a few are around. The horse is the linchpin of maneuverability, augmented in longer household, nomadic moves by the camel. But…the horse, not a pet, not given a name, is the family’s partner. The rely on the horse’s endurance, cooperation, and strength…the horse is the partner making life possible. Thomas brings us eye-to-eye with these life partners in real life work conditions.

And then, the golden eagles. Thomas tells us the eagles are captured when they are young and the training begins immediately after capture. A relationship of trust and respect gradually grows between the human and the bird. Eagles are used to hunt, mostly in the winter when the flat, stark landscape makes it difficult to “sneak up” on prey when you are large like a horse or a human. However, the eagle’s sharp eyes and powerful wings and claws empower and enable the human to achieve hunting success despite the harsh conditions. Thomas brings us very intimate images of young eagles and a young eagle handler learning about one another. Additionally, we see master eagle handlers with their birds proudly and patiently waiting with their humans. Her portrait-like compositions provide a context of the relationships between eagle and human. The eagles are kept for 7-10 years, then taken on a ritualistic journey to the mountains where they are released, normally just as they enter mating age. And the cycle begins again.

But, the eagles, the horses, the landscape are all backdrops to the homelife of the Kazakhs. We are taken to the homesteads to walk with Thomas as she shows us the herds, the living process, the families, the interactions, the intimacy of relationships of an amazing people.

The images are absolutely, positively stunning and they evoke the emotions and relationships so carefully observed and captured by Thomas. This book is a must have, the images are fabulous but the story told by those images is a step far beyond the images themselves. Hold the book, immerse yourself in the lives of the people and beasts of Altai.

Lee Halvorsen is assistant editor, writer and visual artist living in Virginia.

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Altai, Hunters and Herders of Mongolia by Claire Thomas

Artist: Photographer and author, Claire Thomas

Graphic Design: Amélie Boutry

Copy Editing & Revisioning: Lacey Minot

Website for purchasing book..

Printed in France

Language: English

Case bound square backed, cloth bound, printed on Gardapat Kiara 150g, 192 pages, 110 images, 24x30cm, ISBN 978-2-490952-74-8

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