Honey Hunter

In the Himalayan foothills of Nepal, honey hunting unfolds across a landscape of flowering trees, forest paths and sheer rock faces. The photographs move between the hunters’ preparations and the descent itself: ropes and ladders drawn against the cliff, smoke rising toward the hives, and bodies suspended between rock and open air.

Rather than isolating the moment of danger, the series attends to the knowledge and coordination that make the hunt possible. A close view of bare feet finding purchase on the rock sits alongside the distant figures on the cliff, shifting between bodily effort and the scale of the terrain. The honey is gathered through a practice shaped by close attention to season, landscape and the behavior of the bees.

These images hold the spectacle of the descent in tension with its ordinary human details: waiting, walking, carrying and working together. The cliff is at once a source of food and a demanding place of labor. Through this movement between landscape and gesture, the series considers honey hunting as a way of living with the mountain—one that depends on skills learned over time and shared among those who take part.