The 2024 European Photography Awards’ Photographers of the Year

The people of the Ilemi triangle (the Omo Valley of Ethiopia, Central and Eastern Equatoria, and Northern Kenya) in East Africa are pastoralists, whose way of life is based on pastoralism, and is typically nomadic. Their bond with their livestock is connected to their environment, making their subsistence farming systems have a small ecological footprint. Trevor Cole's masterpiece titled "Pastoral peoples and practices" masterfully displays the culture and practices of these nomadic people, securing the coveted Photographer of the Year title.

Cole's capture of these nomadic people shows the raw practices of how the pastoral people of the Ilemi triangle are living in an age-long tradition that survived for tens to hundreds of years. The photograph shows the vulnerable lands lived by these people with climate changes and impacted by drought which desiccated their environment. His photographs show the many livestock these nomadic people rear which includes cattle, sheep, and goats.

These livestock represent their livelihoods and all their wealth is dependent upon them. The animals are part of their resource used for bartering, be it for guns, dowry for wives, blood for nutrition, milking them as part of their daily diet, and occasionally slaughtering the cattle for much-needed meat. Their connections with their animals are matchless as are their interactions with the environments in which they live.