Documentary photographer Kiliii Yuyan has spent the last 15 years immersed in indigenous cultures. A descendant of the Han Chinese and the indigenous Nanai/Hezhe people of Siberia, Yuyan was raised in the United States. Despite his Western upbringing, he drew on the teachings of his Nanai grandmother. This is what pushed him to document the indigenous cultures in the wildest corners of the globe. His new series, Living Wild takes the public into a movement called the Stone Age Living Project where the aim is to go back to a simpler time.
“I think that there’s a lot to learn from the experiment that is Living Wild. It gives us inspiration that there're alternative ways to live, it gives us insight into ancient practices that continue to vanish every day,” he said speaking to Feature Shoot.
“I hope that this work will tie into my work with indigenous cultures and highlight the importance of cultural practices that stem from the land. I also want to see some questions debated.”
Why are modern people interested in hunter-gatherer lifestyles? For those that aren’t interested, why is there such a strong reaction against? What do we as a species lose when we lose these cultural practices that evolved among people for thousands of years?
