Interview: Woman Spends Months in Siberia Documenting Lives of Nomadic Reindeer Herders

Documentary photographer Alegra Ally has dedicated her life to telling the stories of indigenous people around the world. Since she was a teenager, she has spent time with remote tribes in Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Namibia, and now Siberia.

Thanks to a successful fundraising campaign on Kickstarter, Ally was able to journey to the Yamal Peninsula and join a family of nomadic reindeer herders as they made their annual winter migration.

As a champion of women, Ally was especially eager to tell the story of a Nenets woman on a journey to motherhood. For this visual documentation, her time centered around Lena, who was about to give birth in the midst of a migration that calls for the Nentsy to travel thousands of miles toward the Arctic Circle. Immersed in the harsh conditions of Siberia, Ally joined Lena and her family as they continued to keep their culture’s traditions alive.

Read more about the journey of Alegra Ally at mymodernmet.com (Jessica Stewart, mymodermet.com, 01.03.2020).