Photojournalist Kiliii Fish took on a bold assignment. Document a quickly growing movement of everyday individuals learning primitive survival skills. Fish, being a descendant of the Nanai, an indigenous people who inhabit the border of China and Russia, became interested in the way that his ancestor’s lived, as his grandmother would tell him and his brother stories about their descendants.
Years later, Fish met a woman named Lynx Vilden, who teaches people how to survive and live off the land using basic, primitive skills. Fish knew that this would be an excellent opportunity to document ‘modern’ people living in a Stone Age environment.
Fish joined the group for the 6 months of preparation that led up to the month-long survival training in the Cascade mountains. As Fish describes on his blog:
Nothing could have prepared us for the month ahead. We strained our way up scree slopes in bloodied bare feet, picked every last berry we could find, broke too many arrows whilst hunting marmots, and stayed just ahead of raging wildfires by anxiously scouting from mountain ridges.
The photos and the story are amazing, but to hear it told from Fish himself is something not to be missed. Fish recently talked about the hardships and the inspiration from this project at the DP Review PIX event. Watch the video and see additional photos of the group learning how to live primitively on DP Review.
See more from Kilii Fish on his website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
