Into the wild: hunting for lynx in Siberia

In December last year, journalist Ben Judah travelled to the Russian republic of Tuva, a remote region bordering Mongolia. There he lived for two weeks among Old Believers, Orthodox Christians who split from the main church in the 17th century, and who maintain the traditions of Russian rural life. The family he stayed with in the village of Erzhei survived by fishing, farming and, as depicted here, hunting lynx to sell their pelts to Chinese traders — a continuation of ancient Siberian practices. “To me, these pictures reveal the state of decay that rural Russia has fallen into, and the dignity of the people who live there,” Judah says. “They reflect as closely as possible what the people there wanted to show me, what they were proud of and thought beautiful.”