Photography

Time has almost stood still in the tiny Lower Nanyao village beneath the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in south-western China. Wild buffaloes still pull ploughs through fields and the villagers continue to harvest by hand, as they have done for centuries. Many of the sun-dried brick homes do not have plumbing, and destructive activities such as cutting trees continue to be banned by religious fiat.

But the villagers are experts in one modern field: photography. Thanks to the efforts of us-based The Nature Conservancy (tnc), the visual and cultural delights of Nanyao and other villages in northern Yunnan province can now be preserved for posterity. The villagers are shooting stunning photographs of the sweeping vistas on view after tnc gifted them with Kodak cameras and Fuji film.

The project records how the three distinct groups of the region