Struck by the resilience of the Nenet people, a group of Siberian nomadic shepherds who endure temperatures of minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit), an Italian photographer traveled to their land three times to honor their existence and share it with the world in an atmospheric photo series.
Today, the Nenet people are facing survival threats due to the ecological damage being done by the exploitation of the region’s natural gas and oil deposits. Bergamini told The Epoch Times that he has never seen another tourist group on his visits to this remote, freezing location in northern arctic Russia.
“The main thing that struck me is their ability to adapt themselves to the most inhospitable place I have ever visited. Everything is difficult,” he said. “Even walking outdoors in those temperatures is incredibly tiring; you freeze! And the awareness that they are a people destined to disappear within a few years has prompted me to photograph them. They are the last.
“They live in impossible climatic conditions. It puts us to the test and makes us realize how tiring it can be to survive, but it also offers unforgettable and intimate moments, where time and white merge.”
While unsure exactly how many Nenet people there are in Yamal, Bergamini claimed they usually live in small family groups of six to eight. On each of his three visits, the photographer stayed with a different host family to learn about life in the tundra. Bergamini had an interpreter with him who helped him in communicating with the Nenet families.
“We needed to have special means of transport able to withstand those temperatures, and specific equipment to navigate where there are no roads, only expanses of white,” he said. “We all slept together. In the morning, everything is frozen inside the tent. The food is based on either stewed reindeer, or fish caught and left to freeze outside. They are a working people, not very sociable, but nevertheless interesting and hospitable.”
As do many tribal and traditional communities, the Nenet revere their elders. One of Bergamini’s most memorable experiences in Yamal was a shared moment between a grandfather and his grandson, the “past and future” of the photographer’s host family.
“Inside the tent, the old man tried to make us feel at ease by offering us food and hot tea, and shelter from the cold by the light of a lantern,” he recalled. “He tried to tell us about his family with a shepherd dog puppy on his lap, while his nephew listened to him.”
The Nenet survive temperatures as low as 50 degrees below zero, and just a few hours of sunlight a day, inside tents, or “chums,” made from the reindeer skins from which they also make warm clothes. They sell some reindeer in the cities they pass in order to stock up on essential staples for the winter.
Ice fishing provides another staple food. The Nenet pierce the frozen water, spear big fish, and use the flesh to make warming soups on wood-burning stoves inside their tents.
“While these are on, the climate is quite welcoming,” said Bergamini. “But as soon as you go to bed and they go out, you sleep at 20 degrees below zero.”
The Nenet change location in search of fresh pasture and food as the weather changes, on foot or by sled. Babies and children may ride in small covered carriages to protect them from the cold.
During his trips, Bergamini was also lucky enough to witness a Nenet migration.
At first light, the families dismantle their tents following “an orderly and rapid system,” rolling up their reindeer leathers, dismantling wooden poles, lifting the flooring, collecting their food supplies, then loading their sleds and securing babies and children. Before sundown, they have herded their reindeer—with the help of trained dogs who retrieve the grazing reindeer from the tundra—and have set off on a journey of several kilometers.
“The cold during the journey is at the limit of bearable,” said the photographer. “Once they have chosen the new area, within an hour or two the tents are set up again in the dark. Finally, a fire can be built to warm up.”
The Italian started taking photos in his mid-20s with his father’s old reflex camera, after being asked to document the places he visited and people he met. His passion for “capturing the essence of travel” through photos turned into a career.
