@ellamaillart.bsky.social"We rise straight out of the gorge through a rock-fall only to climb down vertically into the depth again further on! Our mounts drop from rock to rock at the risk of breaking their legs. Only Jocubai remains in the saddle, his stirrups level with the eyes of his mare."
@ellamaillart.bsky.social'Descending The Gravel Slopes Of Jengart', Tian Shan Mountains, Kyrgyzstan, 1932
"We begin to descend ourselves. ... My own mount's bumpings has begun to shake loose its load and the saddle and all the rest begins to slip over towards its round barrel."
@ellamaillart.bsky.social"Now the mountain reveals itself between two cliff-like faces of ruddy rock built of obliquely running strata. Our precipitous trail rises straight out of the ravine, tracing a zig-zag path through a rockfall. We reach a pasture ground and begin to work round its edge."
@ellamaillart.bsky.social"We leave our Alpine camp half-way up the range and start for the Chuguchak pass, our doorway into the Syrt. We are soon above the tree limit ... On the smooth snow of the steep glacier, my horse is started by a few black rifts, too narrow to be called crevasses."
@ellamaillart.bsky.social"In the morning we make our toilet by a stream where ducks are paddling in the mud ... We cook our eggs at the bottom of the samovar, pay two roubles per horse for hay consumed, and start off once more full of enthusiasm, though stiff all over."
@ellamaillart.bsky.social"A group of poplars tells us we have reached Chalba, the village in which we are to sleep. We shall thus be spared the necessity of guarding our horses through the night in order to prevent them straying into the corn."
#EllaMaillart #Photography #Kyrgyzstan #TianShan #Turkestan #Horses
@ellamaillart.bsky.social'Jocubai With Argali Skull', Tian Shan Mountains, Kyrgyzstan, Ella Maillart, 1932
"Native to the mountains of Central Asia, the argali is the largest species of wild sheep in the world and their massive corkscrew-shaped horns are highly-prized as trophies."
@ellamaillart.bsky.social"If only Jocubai would not outdistance us all the time. As though glued to his saddle he trots along ... Our beasts seem starved; they are always wanting to stop and browse, and we have continually to urge them on in an attempt to circumvent their efforts."
@ellamaillart.bsky.social'A Kyrgyz Boy and His Mother', Ella Maillart, 1932
"Since 1916, many attempts have been made to wean them from their nomadic lives and settle them in colonies founded by Russians. But they show little interest in cultivating the earth. ..."
@ellamaillart.bsky.social"As we pass through the small Kirghiz villages, I notice a small semicircular brown yurt standing by every house. By no means all the natives have taken to a sedentary life. They stifle between four walls ..."
@ellamaillart.bsky.social"Jocubai trots in front of us, his pointed hat on his head, his musket over his shoulder, and leading the pack-horse whose load is framed in the tent poles. We follow as best we may, trying to keep out of the way of the dust raised by the other horses ..."
@ellamaillart.bsky.social"Auguste! I must confess I never really believed we should get off till this moment?"
"But why so pessimistic? Is it because of the way you were brought up? If we hadn't been determined to succeed, do you think we should ever have achieved anything in this country?"
@ellamaillart.bsky.socialKarakol, Kyrgyzstan, Ella Maillart, 1932
"Our horses, for which we had paid on average the low price of four hundred roubles each, turn out to be all mares and in foal by asses. ... Auguste and Volodya have to put up with a great deal of teasing."
@ellamaillart.bsky.social"In Karakol ... a few animals appear all of a sudden at the horse market and at last we can think of starting ... It will take some time to get used to them and the joy of riding is well paid for by the agony of our thighs."
#Photography #EllaMaillart #Kyrgyzstan #Karakol #Tierskei #TianShan
@ellamaillart.bsky.socialKyrgyzstan, Ells Maillart, 1932
Dispossessed rural families at a railway station, victims of a Soviet campaign of mass repression, dispossession and execution aimed at the elimination moderately wealthy or independent peasants ('kulaks') as a social class.
@ellamaillart.bsky.socialKarakol, Kyrgyzstan, Ella Maillart, 1932
"Their wives wear enormous turbans, dazzling white, the material wound in close and narrow spirals not crossing as in the south, which are made to pass below the chin, providing a most impressive bandage for the head!"
@ellamaillart.bsky.socialSemirechye, Karakol, Ella Maillart, 1932
"Now each of us has a horse, with a pack-horse in addition. We take them to be shod with crampons to help negotiate the glaciers and rocks. It seems I have everything to learn from these beasts."
@ellamaillart.bsky.social'The Kirghiz Woman Who Made Our Bread', Ella Maillart, 1932
"To the flour the younger of the women adds salt, water, yeast, three ladles of melted butter and then begins to knead it with closed fists and all the power of her muscular arms in their silver bracelets."
@ellamaillart.bsky.socialKarakol, Kyrgyzstan, Ella Maillart, 1932
"Barbers abound who, according to Mussulman custom, shave the heads of their numerous clients. In Russian, their signs read 'Parikmakherskaya' and in Turki-jagatai 'Sastarass'."
#Photography #Monochrome #BlackAndWhite #EllaMaillart #Kyrgyzstan #Karakol
