My name is Asher Svidensky. I'm a freelance photographer specialising in art photography with a strong passion for documentary and storytelling. Whilst being conscripted into the military back in 2009 (2009-2012) I was fortunate enough to be able to do it as a photographer and there began my career. My body of work has since been published in magazines and newspapers around the world, including the BBC (TV, radio and website). National geographic (USA), The Times Newspaper (UK), Metro Newspaper, GEO (Germany & France), AD (Netherlands) and many more. In 2014 I also had the privilege of giving a TEDx talk.
In the image: 13 year old Ashol Pan, Mongolia's first eagle huntress During my voyage of 2013 to Mongolia, I flew over to Ulgii (or ölgii), the capital of the far west. I went there in order to document the Kazakh eagle hunters' lives in west Mongolia. These eagle hunters, who preserve an old tradition that’s passed from generation to generation, tame eagles and use them for hunting smaller animals, such as foxes and marmots. The eagle hunter’s families live on this side of Mongolia after having migrated between Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia until the fall of communism and closing of all borders. The tradition’s preservation was what drew me to them. They preserve it without any touristic nature, unlike in Kazakhstan. These Kazakh eagle hunters, who live in Mongolia today, are the last ones on earth who still deserve the title “Eagle Hunter”. It is not merely a title to them, but a way of life. Link to BBC article - http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26969150
Many years ago, at the 16th century the Huang family has brought the unique art of “Yin-Bou” fishing to the Li river of Xing-Ping village in south china. Fishermen who use cormorant birds in order to fish in the river. I’ve photographed 73 year old Yue-Ming and his older brother 83 year old Yue-miang, they have been fishing in the Li river since they were 15 years old and they are masters of the "Yu-Khuo" technique, using an old lamp they control their birds in the water and collect the fish from them.
A small, isolated and beautiful village called Xijiang (西江), near the city of Kaili, is home to a major part of the “Miao” (苗族); an ethnic group that is spread around this region of south China. Generally speaking, all the people of this ethnic group accept the "Miao" title as a statement of their origin although, the “Miao” are actually a mixture of approximately 20 different tribes: Biasha, Xixiu, Dangi etc. each tribe with It's own traditions, rituals, and styles of clothing. For the BTS video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH1CubbEY9E