Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • A Pygmy net hunter captures a blue duiker in a net near a hunting camp deep in the Ituri Forest. A duiker is a small antelope and main source of protein for Pygmies in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Mbuti drape nets between trees and flush game toward them.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976430.TIF
  • Refugee Pygmy children and sleeping puppies surround a charred campfire.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976468.JPG
  • Rocks are smashed and washed by hand in search of gold flecks in an old mine tunnel left by Belgians. Miners hold flashlights to see underground when they work.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976460.TIF
  • Carrizo Plain is the largest remaining San Joaquin Valley grasslands as they existed in California 300 years ago. Cheat grass was introduced and has taken over much of the valley. The aggressive grass sprouts early in the season, dries out under hot summer sun and often catches fire.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_680966.jpg
  • Plastic buckets and truck parts are used to prospect for gold.  Small time gold prospecting creates newly carved roads destroying the northeastern Congo in the  Ituri Forest. <br />
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Gold fever is contagious in northeastern Congo, where the metal finances local warlords. Rocks are smashed and washed by hand in search of yellow flecks.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972266.TIF
  • A braided river ecosystem for salmon spawning. At the top of this photograph is the Sea of Okhotsk, and below it the Oblukovina River. They flow past wetlands created by heavy rain on the west side of Kamchatka. <br />
<br />
Wetlands are the primary sign of a healthy salmon ecosystem and clouds of mosquitoes form where insects are a main food source. Salmon create a mass migration engine that brings marine-derived nutrients into river ecosystems, and the carcasses fertilize the entire Pacific Rim.<br />
<br />
Salmon bring marine-derived nutrients from the Kamchatka shelf in the Sea of Okhotsk into the eight major river systems that run off the middle range of mountains that divide Kamchatka in half.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260979.TIF
  • Aerial photo showing the braided river ecosystem for salmon spawning.<br />
<br />
When salmon die they fertilize the entire Pacific Rim. Warm waters from volcanic systems within with the coldest sea in the Pacific Rim create an ideal, nutrient-rich environment. And the river systems—some of the last braided streams on Earth that have not yet been constrained by agriculture—are vital habitat for salmon.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260978.JPG
  • A braided river ecosystem snakes through the tundra and is used by salmon spawning.<br />
<br />
Salmon bring marine-derived nutrients from the Kamchatka shelf in the Sea of Okhotsk into the eight major river systems that run off the middle range of mountains that divide Kamchatka in half.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260934.JPG
  • A river ecosystem for salmon spawning is braided and full of nutrients as it meanders through the tundra.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260948.JPG
  • A small community seen from the air is located in the fringes of an estuary along the Lynn Canal part of the Inside Passage. The intertidal or littoral zone in Alaska's Southeast maintains a balance between the land and the sea. The habitat of fresh and salt water is harsh and critical for marine life and birds.
    MM7258_20060729_18732.tif
  • Estuaries seen from the air along the Lynn Canal are shrouded in morning fog. The intertidal or littoral zone maintains a balance between the land and the sea. The shoreline is along the Inside Passage in Alaska's Southeast is a combination of saltwater and freshwater, a hostile environment but a habitat refuge for some species.
    MM7258_20060729_18629.tif
  • A logging camp in the Ituri Forest where the trunk is suspended on a platform and the huge squared-off trunk is cut into nine equal segments. The mud houses are supported by solid mahogany 3 X 3’s that are 15 feet long and cost 1 dollar.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976464.TIF
  • Gold mining in northeastern Congo. Quarantesept and Cinqante are gold mining towns near Ituri forest reserve in DR Congo. Hundreds of people from Congo and Uganda come to work at the mines.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976478.TIF
  • Mbuti Pygmies at a forest hunting camp pass time together. They move with supplies and build other camps as they hunt for food.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976412.TIF
  • Pygmies bend branches to create shelter at hunting camps. The semi-nomadic tribe moves through the forest to find a good site and create a place to congregate.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976421.JPG
  • Mbuti Pygmies at a forest hunting camp. They are semi-nomadic and build nighttime shelters for sleeping.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976414.TIF
  • Mbuti Pygmies at a forest hunting camp in the Ituri forest. The future for indigenous tribes is threatened by logging, mining and urbanization moving into the forest.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976412_2.TIF
  • Shredded remains of trees on the edge of a forest that was clear cut on Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest. At nearly 17 million acres, the Tongass rainforest is composed of considerable stands of old-growth forest, with some trees standing more than 800 years old. <br />
Less than 5 percent of the entire Tongass is composed of high-volume old growth.<br />
The biggest and best trees, the biological heart of the rainforest, has been cut—much of it for pulp.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075108.jpg
  • Shredded remains of trees are the spoils left after a forest is clear cut on Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest. At nearly 17 million acres, the Tongass rainforest is composed of considerable stands of old-growth forest, with some trees more than 800 years old.<br />
Less than 5 percent of the entire Tongass is composed of high-volume old growth.<br />
The biggest and best trees, the biological heart of the rainforest, has been cut—much of it for pulp.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075083.jpg
  • Pygmies bend branches to create shelter at hunting camps. The semi-nomadic tribal boys are going through the circumcision ceremony called nKumbi are accompanied the adults to the camp.  They have their own structure and are sent off into the forest to hunt or fish.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976425.TIF
  • Pygmies chop down the forest they need for their own survival. As Bantus move into this area and search for gold or other resources, these cancerous settlements in the forest grow and grow and eventually the Pygmies don't have the healthy forest they need to survive.
    MM7029_019789.tif
  • Pygmies travel the dusty trans-African highway in Epulu carrying supplies and family members too small to walk.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976411.TIF
  • Aerial  photo shows tire tracks in the tundra are left by poachers. <br />
<br />
 The Kamchatka Shelf in Russia is mostly inaccessible.  Flying in and out by MI-8 helicopter is expensive but the fear is that the roads being constructed  for oil and gas pipelines will open these remote areas to more poaching.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7593_1260980.JPG
  • Tourists dive on Easter Island's reef encounter a moai that was made for a 1994 Hollywood movie and then sunk offshore. The reef is healthy, although it is overfished. <br />
Easter Island is the most remote inhabited island in the world, 2300 miles from Chile and the nearest Polynesian center the opposite direction is Tahiti, 2600 miles to the west.
    RANDY OLSON_MM8059_1477347.JPG
  • Refugee Pygmies wash near their leaf huts. They are under threat from logging companies and a rapidly changing world with little concern for indigenous people and their traditions.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976470.JPG
  • Refugee Pygmies near their leaf huts are threatened by logging companies and a broadening modern world. .
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976471.JPG
  • Refugee Pygmies at their camp. The indigenous tribe retains skills to build structures as they move out of the Ituri forest where they maintain a hunting and gathering lifestyle.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976473.TIF
  • The Okapi is a mammal with distinct striped markings that stands less than five feet tall. The herbivore feeds on tree leaves, grasses and ferns and never developed the long neck of a savannah giraffe since all its’ food is low.<br />
<br />
 Okapi are solitary animals whose dark bodies blend into the shadows and stripes break up an animal outline making it difficult for predators to see them. Major threats to this solitary forest creature include habitat loss due to logging, mining and hunting. Classified as endangered,  The Okapi Conservation Project was established in 1987 to protect the species. THE Okapi Wildlife Reserve is a World Heritage site that covers around 20 percent of the Ituri Rainforest.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972267.TIF
  • An okapi forages in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve is a World Heritage site that covers around 20 percent of the Ituri Rainforest. <br />
The Okapi is a mammal with distinct striped markings that stands less than five feet tall. It is an herbivore that feeds on tree leaves, grasses and ferns that never developed the long neck of a savannah giraffe since all its’ food is low. <br />
<br />
Okapi are solitary animals whose dark bodies blend into the shadows and stripes break up an animal outline making it difficult for predators to see them. Major threats to this solitary forest creature include habitat loss due to logging, mining and hunting. Classified as endangered,  The Okapi Conservation Project was established in 1987 to protect the species. T
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976410.TIF
  • Artisanal logging by Bantus creates holes in the Ituri Forest which leads to mining and the end result of more villages which erode the forest.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972265.TIF
  • Mbuti Pygmy boys learn to fish and other survival skills at their hunting camp in the Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo.<br />
<br />
Boys go through the circumcision ceremony called nKumbi. They are whipped every morning to make them tough, and then they sent off into the forest to hunt or fish. The boys pull a small hook out of their skirts and get a vine and a stick—they know where to dig for worms.  They catch five or six 2inch long fish and eat them raw for lunch.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976419.TIF
  • Mbuti boys endure whippings during a puberty ritual.<br />
<br />
After several months in the Ituri Forest, Pygmy boys learn skills to survive on their own. They hunt, fish and learn to read the forest. On the last day of the nKumbi, whipping is more severe and includes a ceremony where the boys are secluded within a phalanx of men. They are met halfway thru the village with women carrying whips and a melee ensues–the intent is to control the destiny of the child. <br />
<br />
The women want the boy to stay a boy and the men want the boy to be acknowledged as a man.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972260.TIF
  • Hunters scale trees with makeshift smoker baskets in pursuit of honey. One Pygmy spots bees swarming and climbs 60 feet up in the air making a long rope and basket out of vines and leaves. He carries a smoldering log to drive the bees from the hive before collecting the honey.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972259.TIF
  • A Pygmy girl does chores for a wealthy Bantu family in Beni. <br />
<br />
This is the daughter of Kenge-known because of a book, "The Forest People." Kenge is possibly the most famous pygmy.  His daughter was traded off to a wealthy Bantu family when the father had a good job with GIC and his wife needed help with the kids.  During the war, the family moved to Beni, because it was a little more secure than Epulu. They brought their pygmy with them.  She does various chores around the house-laundry, sweeping, mopping, washing children.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976475.TIF
  • Villagers in the war-weary Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo scrape for gold in a shaft dug decades ago by a Belgian company. Armed groups controlled Ituri’s rich mines, using gold to buy weapons. Hundreds of people from Congo and Uganda come to work at the mines.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976458.TIF
  • Gold mining near the town of Quarantesept in northeastern Congo. Hundreds of people from Congo and Uganda come to work at the mines.<br />
<br />
Villagers in the war-weary Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo scrape for gold in a shaft dug decades ago by a Belgian company. Until recently, armed groups controlled Ituri’s rich mines, using gold to buy weapons.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976457.TIF
  • A Pygmy choir sings and dances and is led by a Bantu tribesman at a Pentecost church in Epulu.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976439.JPG
  • Mbuti boys wear grass skirts and leaf mouthpieces to stay silent during their circumcision ceremony. Pgymies are of the Congo's few remaining traditional tribes in the rainforests of the world. They are threatened by logging companies and growing modern culture.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976417.TIF
  • Pygmy Boys in a nKumbi Manhood Ritual wear a leaf mouthpiece to keep them silent. Forest Pygmies near Epulu, Democratic Republic of Congo are indigenous, semi-nomadic, hunter-gatherers in the rainforest of the Congo Basin. The BaMbuti Pygmies perform a  nKumbi or initiation that lasts five months where the boys live at a camp in the forest and daily learn survival skills.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972262.TIF
  • The thin whisper of skirts dissolves into the Ituri rain forest as boys trail their elders on their way to a hunting camp. The Mbyte are one of several Pygmy groups still following semi-Nomadic traditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Part of the nKumbi manhood ritual involves young Pygmy boys learning survival skills. They walk single file on a path to meet net hunters wearing grass skirts while they train for five months before their initiation into manhood. At that time, they will be on on their own and will share adult responsibilities and feed their families.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972253.TIF
  • A Mbuti boy endures a ritual scarification by razor blade. It is the last of the manhood ceremony that follows months of training to learn skills and live independently.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976452.TIF
  • Mbuti boys endure whippings during a puberty ritual ending the manhood ceremony.<br />
Women carry whips to meet the men halfway through the village, and a melee ensures where they beat each other. Women try to control the destiny the child but the men traditionally win, and each boy is paraded through the village for the scarification ritual.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976451.TIF
  • Mbuti boys sit on a log in the Ituri forest and endure rites of manhood alongside their peers.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976445.JPG
  • A Pygmy church choir is led by a Bantu tribesman.<br />
<br />
Pygmies have no land rights.  The colonizing Belgians assigned land rights to residing ethnic groups and this still holds. Because Pygmies are nomadic and had no chiefs, they did not receive land rights.  Pygmies are at the bottom of the social caste system—they have no power.  Strong ethnic groups still have strong land rights.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976440.TIF
  • Pygmies daub each other with clay to decorate their faces and beautify their bodies.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976422.TIF
  • Though blind, an Mbute boy endures rites of manhood alongside peers. He learns survival skills in the forest and takes part in all the rituals over a five month period until the group is initiated and boys become men. When the boys run along the trails he does also, with his hands on the back of the boy in front of him. All boys are whipped each morning which is believed to help make them tough to survive in the Ituri Forest. <br />
<br />
Pygmies are semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers who rely on a healthy forest for their livelihood.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972252.TIF
  • A Pygmy woman mops the floor and does a multitude of chores for a wealthy family in Beni.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976476.TIF
  • Pygmy boys dance wear leaves on their mouths for silence as they go through a manhood initiation called nKumbi.  They wear ceremonial skirts for their circumcision ceremonies, and when the ritual is completed, the skirts will hang in the trees at the entrance to their village in the Democratic Republic of Congo.<br />
<br />
Pygmies are nomadic hunter-gatherers who rely on a healthy forest to survive. They have no claim to their own home territory, however, because the colonial Belgians assigned land rights only to sedentary groups
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972605.TIF
  • Mbuti women assemble shelter walls using mongongo leaves in double leaf construction. They make  a leaf-hut more impervious to rain.  Shelters are built six feet high in a beehive-shaped frame of sticks. The forest hunting camps are about 10k apart, and 10K from where they string their nets to hunt in DR Congo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972258.TIF
  • The sound of pipes fills an Mbuti camp as men play by the fireside hunting camp in the Ituri forest in DR Congo. <br />
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Pygmies stay up late telling hunting stories and act out the animals. The semi-nomadic tribe sets up nets to hunt small antelope called duikers.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972255.TIF
  • Bantu tribespeople living a more urban existence in permanently build homes decorated with more modern items and wear western-style clothing.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976443.TIF
  • The Mbuti ferry the portable details of their lives from camp to camp. The semi-nomadic tribe hunts and gathers in the Ituri Forest to survive.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972257.JPG
  • Gossamer blossoms of pink farewell-to-spring flutter on slopes of the Carrizo Plain National Monument where wildflowers flourish amid remnants of California’s original grasslands.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-5.JPG
  • Women with young children walk through the unpaved streets of a gold mining town in northeastern Congo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976459.TIF
  • A Pygmy woman hauls a piece of mahogony from the Ituri Forest.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976462.TIF
  • Mbuti Pygmies at a forest hunting camp where people gather to flush out duikers into their nets.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976427.JPG
  • Traders push goods hundreds of miles by bicycle along the trans-African highway which runs east/west in DR Congo. War lords along the way patrol through the rebel controlled gold mining region.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976436.TIF
  • A photographer at a Mbuti hunting camp.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976431.TIF
  • Mbuti Pygmy families at a hunting camp build a fire for cooking the Ituri forest.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976428.JPG
  • A logging company hires Pygmies to cut down their own forest. There are few registered logging concessions in the Ituri.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976437.TIF
  • Estuaries along the Lynn Canal are shrouded in morning fog while Lion's Head in the Tongass National Forest rises above.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075073.TIF
  • Scientists collect samples under a pier.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6842_964860.jpg
  • Clearing room for a garden, Mbuti men hack through tropical hardwood. A logging company hires Pygmies to cut down their own forest which they depend on for their livelihood.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976474.TIF
  • Estuaries shrouded in morning fog are revealed in the intertidal region of the Southeast Alaskan coast along the Lynn Canal in Alaska's Southeast.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075072.TIF
  • A Pygmy chops down forest for a garden.
    MM7029_008568.tif
  • Mbuti boys during a puberty ritual where a medicine man watches over the ceremony.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976453.TIF
  • The road to Beni is nearly impassable during the wet season with slippery, silted mud.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976466.TIF
  • The mud-choked road to Beni is nearly impassable in any vehicle during the wet season.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976465.TIF
  • A woman holds her child safely during a domestic dispute incident amon Pygmy family members.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976454.JPG
  • A Mbuti boy displays welts from being whipped during a puberty ritual. The belief is that the harsh treatment makes them stronger to survive the challenges of life in the Ituri Forest.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976447.TIF
  • A mother holds her children waiting as Pygmy tribespeople are treated at a health clinic.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976442.TIF
  • Mbuti boys with photographer Randy Olson.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972838.TIF
  • An Mbuti boy catches fish as part of his initiation into manhood. Pygmy boys learn survival skills in the Ituri Forest.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972261.TIF
  • The building front of the Save the Pygmies Foundation which is an effort to protect one of the few remaining traditional tribes of the rainforest.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976469.TIF
  • Pople walk by modest homes that line the unpaved road in a small gold mining town in northeastern Congo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976456.TIF
  • The Chief of Salate makes his way through the Ituri Forest to a secluded camp for the nkumbi manhood ritual.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976446.JPG
  • An Mbuti hunter drapes a net between trees to catch game. Pymgy tribes of Congo are one of the few remaining traditional tribes of the rainforest.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976429.TIF
  • Mbuti boys wear grass skirts that swish when they dance during their circumcision ceremony. The leaf plates keep them silent from speaking.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976416.JPG
  • Boys wearing ceremonial skirts trail their elders to a hunting camp.
    MM7029_005227.tif
  • Though blind, an Mbuti boy (in foreground) endures rites of manhood alongside peers.
    MM7029_002171.tif
  • A Pygmy preacher at the Pentecost Church in Epulu.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976461.TIF
  • Mbuti Pygmy boys pass time during the endure rites of manhood alongside their peers.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976450.TIF
  • Pygmies sort out the hunting nets they made  with twined liana bark in the Ituri Forest.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976432.JPG
  • An Mbuti hunter carries a net of twined liana bark as the Pgymies trek through the Ituri forest to set up a camp.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976426.TIF
  • Pygmy boys tie dried grasses together to make ceremonial skirts they will wear for their circumcision ceremonies.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976413.TIF
  • Mbuti boys wear grass skirts during their circumcision ceremony.
    MM7029_004879.tif
  • Mbuti boys sit together, painted for the nKumbi manhood ritual ceremonies in the Ituri forest.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972262_2.TIF
  • The mask of a medicine man at the door where  Pygmy boys are secluded before the rituals signifying their manhood.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976455.JPG
  • Mbuti boys wait to be whipped during an initiation into manhood. The Salate is at the end of the nKumbi Pygmy manhood ritual.  The men watch over Pygmy boys who have been secluded for 5 months preparing for this ritual.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976448.TIF
  • Bantu tribespeople as a more sedentary group, dressing in western clothing when families go to worship at the Pentecost church in Epulu.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976438.TIF
  • Pygmies bring leaves to the Okapi Faunal Reserve to feed the Okapis, forest giraffes.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976409.JPG
  • Traders push goods hundreds of miles by bicycle along the muddy Trans-African Highway. Rain can't stop the human flood of those who push through to resupply newly minted gold mines in the Ituri. It is the main east/west highway in DR Congo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972263.TIF
  • An Mbuti hunter carries a net of twined liana bark on his head that is used as a net to capture prey as the semi-nomadic tribe moves through the Ituri Forest.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972256.JPG
  • Pygmies girls daub each other with clay to beautify their bodies. They also do this in solidarity with the boys’ for their initiation into manhood ceremony called nKumbi
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972254.TIF
  • Tribesmen Steer a boat across the remote Ituri River watershed deep in the Ituri Forest in DR Congo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976444.TIF
  • The sound of pipes fills an Mbuti camp as men play by the fireside.
    MM7029_004311.tif
  • Wildebeest migration in Serengeti National Park.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7314_1023384.JPG
  • A Pygmy woman does chores for a wealthy family in Beni. <br />
She is the daughter of Kenge-known because of a book, "The Forest People." Kenge is possibly the most famous pygmy.  His daughter was traded off to a wealthy Bantu family
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976477.TIF
  • A young child holds a hunting bow as Pygmy children in a village play outside.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976467.JPG
  • A Bantu woman clears brush that is burned to plant a garden.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976420.TIF
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