YANNICK AUGENSTEIN
Ausangate

A Quechua woman in traditional clothing herding Alpacas in the Peruvian highlands below Nevado Ausangate, a sacred mountain in the Vilcanota mountain range in Incan mythology. Ausangate and its lakes symbolize the male deity from which the energy that fertilizes mother Earth is born. The herding communities around Ausangate are some of the last remaining pastoralist societies in the world.
With this photo, I am trying to not only convey the beauty of the landscape itself, but also to highlight the significance of this mountain to the local communities, towering over their daily lives like a benevolent giant.

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