About Pamir Knot
Read the mountains, understand the people…
Why read the mountains? Well, I am passionate about the outdoors because they deliver constant beauty and teachings. The more you learn to “read” the outdoors, the more excited and appreciative one becomes. Where to cross a river? How to increase your path finding capabilities in remote country? What are these tufts of hair in the bush? And what about these pug marks? I enjoy sharing my knowledge and look forward to learn with you along the way.
Why understand the people? Through my work as well as on a personal level, I’ve been always drawn to fully immersing myself in the places I travel. The rough and isolated high altitude environment of the Western Himalayas has given birth to an incredibly pure and good-natured people. Before all, I am passionate about these people, so even though I am no linguist, I always try to learn their languages. I speak Urdu (Pakistani language), Wakhi (spoken in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan), Tajik and some Kyrgyz. I constantly strive to get close to people – literally – to understand better what and whom I am photographing.
It’s the beautiful and personal that I look for in this region and those are the aspects that I want to share with you.
My name is Matthieu Paley. I was born and grew up in Normandy, France. I spent lots of my childhood traveling all over Europe and North Africa in my parent’s camping car. This conditioned me to leave for Asia at age 23. Since then I have lived, studied and worked in New York, Munich, Skardu and Gilgit (North Pakistan), Khorog (Tajikistan) and Bangkok. In 2002 I set my base camp in Shek-O, a small, relaxed fishing village near Hong Kong.
In over 10 years of guiding and working on my photo projects, I have cumulated over four years living in the Karakoram, Hinduskush and Pamir region and trekked approximately 2500km at the crossroads of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Western China. I have probably done close to 10000km of jeep travels and about 400km of donkey and horse travels. I own two donkeys that I leave with friends in the Pakistan’s Karakoram mountains: Clementine and Donkey Gi. Clementine got recently traded for a baby yak and trekked over into Afghanistan’s Pamir mountains…
Guiding came to me as a natural evolution and direct result of my work and interest in the region. Through my language skills and knowledge of local culture, as well as an intensive time trekking and exploring the mountains, I often get contacted by private individuals as well as international organizations to help organize a trip. My experience in this field encompasses guiding, scouting, translating, logistics etc.
For a few seasons I worked with UK based Full Moon Night Trekking in Baltistan, Pakistan, establishing trekking routes and guidelines for community managed ecotourism. In 2001 I coordinated a 3-week documentary film production for Ushuaia, a French television series, involving 23 crew members, 2 tonnes of technical equipment, helicopter charter and reconnaissance expedition with producers and directors of Ushuaia.
My clients range from experienced mountaineers to individuals who never left their home country before. What brings us together is a deep love of and respect for nature and an itch for adventure.
As a photographer, my work has appeared in GEO, National Geographic Adventure, Time, Outside, Discovery, Vanity Fair, Le Figaro and Le Monde 2 among others. I have collaborated on numerous books such as “World Heritage, 25 years of GEO” and “Childhood” (both on Solar Editions), and I recently completed a book on Siberia for “Les Editions du Chêne”.
Images are often better than words, have a look here for some sample publications and images.
