On Everest
2016-2024
On Everest is a series of portraits and landscapes made in Nepal during several treks in the Everest region between 2016 and 2024. When I started hiking in Nepal, one of the first things I noticed were the porters (often referred to as Sherpas). These porters are familiar to Westerners – they carry the equipment and supplies needed for trekking and mountaineering expeditions. At least in theory, this work can provide a chance at upward mobility in a region with little economic opportunity.
But the group of porters I became really interested in - commercial porters - are the people documented in this project. These porters carry the supplies needed for the lodges that cater to trekkers, from crates of beer to sheets of plywood. Their loads range from an excruciating 130 - 300 lbs, and because they get paid by weight, they are incentivized to carry as much as possible. They are responsible for paying for their own food and lodging, so to save the little money they earn, they economize on meals and often share a single bed between two or three people. As altitudes rise, so do the prices, and even these sparse accommodations become increasingly costly. The work is physically demanding even outside of the weight they carry, and they are often subject to respiratory infections, altitude sickness and hypothermia. And, unlike expedition porters, the commercial porters generally do not have the opportunity to move up the ranks to become cooks, guides, or expedition leaders, nor do they have much in the way of worker protections.
This project builds on my photographic work on tourism and tourist populations in the developing world, starting in 1997 with The Gringo Project. Most of my previous work describes the Western travelers themselves, but in On Everest, the traveler's presence is implied through the portraits of porters and the things they carry. Everything they carry - whether snacks, toilet paper, or construction materials - is ultimately for the trekkers. Being a tourist is always full of contradictions and hypocrisies, but those conflicts are often ignored for the sake of leisure. On Everest, this punishing labor was happening right alongside me and all the other trekkers who come to hike in the most spectacular mountains in the world. The labor behind tourism is usually hidden, with much effort, to provide a kind of seamless enjoyment for the tourist. On Everest, it is impossible not to see the individuals doing this work.
I have always been interested in tourism as a window into the mechanisms of global capitalism - the way that exploitation, opportunity, and consumerism are all wrapped up with one another. The contradictions are always there: the fact that tourism provides employment and yet that employment is most often exploitative and damaging, while at the same time offering economic growth in areas where there are few other opportunities. On Everest, there is no hiding this mechanism and the people involved in the labor and life-long consequences of the work. And yet. I’m left with the same questions I’ve been grappling with for years - about my role as a traveler, as a tourist, as a hiker, and a photographer. Like most of my projects, this one doesn’t offer a solution or a call to action. It’s more an opportunity to look at what is happening on Everest and by extension, a reminder that everything we purchase, whether it’s a device or an experience, is supported by the labor of others.
