Daniel Mankarious, Eagle Hunter (PEOPLE 2026)

In the quiet mountain town of Kyzart, Kyrgyzstan, I was introduced to a woman who claimed she could connect me with a practicing eagle hunter — some four hours away, near the village of Bokonbayevo. She scribbled a WhatsApp number on a scrap of paper and, trusting the adventure, I set off. The ‘meeting point’ turned out to be little more than a dusty roadside, but standing there waiting was the eagle hunter himself — calm, rugged, and accompanied by his bird. Without much talk, he gestured for me to hop in. Together, we bumped down dirt roads until reaching an open field just beyond the village. There, against the backdrop of sweeping desert and distant mountains, he began to demonstrate a tradition passed down through generations. The power and grace of the eagle, the silence between commands, the worn leather glove on his arm — it all felt a touch cinematic - like something pulled straight from an episode of Breaking Bad.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.