In 2010, South Sudan became (and still is) the newest country in the world after separating from Northern Sudan. These images were shot in a cattle camp near Rumbek, South Sudan in 2011 and 2012 when I first started traveling to some of these more remote regions with the Obakki Foundation. This place still haunts me in my dreams. Since 2013 when conflict broke out in Juba and started the civil war, these Cattle Camps have been exceptionally dangerous places to go and near impossible for foreigners.

South Sudan is one of a few dying Pastoralist societies. With the mixture of western culture evolving the country, it simutaneously creates conflict as these animals are used almost as a currency to purchase property, land and wives. They’re essentially banks, with cattle keepers guarding them as their life’s work. They’re utterly (no pun intended) facsinating places, and gorgeous to photograph.