Oroqen girl in Inner Mongolia
Eight years ago, photographer Alexander Khimushin set off on an adventure around the globe—and he’s been a permanent nomad ever since. This lifestyle has allowed him to see incredible sights while also teaching him a valuable lesson: people are the most amazing part of his travels. “Especially in those remote places, where culture and traditions are still alive,” he explains. “There are hundreds of unique ethnic minorities in the world.” But, due to forces like globalization, war, and discrimination, many of these groups are living on the fringe. “They are losing identity, language, traditions and, in some cases, facing total extinction,” Khimushin writes. This harrowing fact was the inspiration for his ambitious ongoing series called The World in Faces.
The premise of his portrait project is simple—to show the diversity of the world by taking pictures of people. “If we all realize how unique and amazing we, the people, are, we will care more about each other, [and] be more tolerant to people of another ethnicity, religion and culture,” Khimushin says. In the over two years that he’s developed this series, he’s taken hundreds of portraits. The straightforward shots include people young and old as they don dress, jewelry, and grooming styles that speak to their particular culture. This includes portraits of the Tofalar people—the smallest ethnic minority group in the world—as well as the Wakhis in Afghanistan. Khimushin recalls this group, specifically, as being “one of the most hospitable and peaceful people” despite the threat of the Taliban looming nearby.
Khimushin continues to travel and photograph people from the farthest corners of the world. Follow along with this journey on Facebook.
Alexander Khimushin shows the beauty of diversity in his ongoing series The World in Faces.
Hamer tribe woman in South West Ethiopia
Ixil Mayan girl in the Guatemalan highlands
Wakhi woman in Afghanistan
Daasanach girl in Africa
Woman in the Wakhan Valley, Afghanistan
Semeiskie Old Believer woman in Siberia
Tofalar boy
Man in the Bodi tribe
Sahrawi (Morocco) man
Wakhi boy in Afghanistan
Boy in Samoa
Shughnan girl in the Pamir Mountains
Wakhi girl in Afghanistan
Hamer tribe girl in South West Ethiopia
Ladakhi woman in Nubra Valley
Girl in the Mursi tribe
Young Gelug Buddhist monk from the Diskit Monastery
Mam Maya man from San Juan Atitan in Guatemala
Tofalar girl
Alexander Khimushin takes selfie in northern Ethiopia
Alexander Khimushin: Website | Facebook | Instagram
h/t: [22 Words]