Photographer Eugenio Fieni is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. From the project ‘Siberia Peninsula of Jamal – Nenet – Reindeer Men’. To see Eugenio ’s body of work, click on any photograph.

LIFE IN THE ARTIC – The Nenets Saga

After three hours of snowmobiling from the first town, in the Yamal peninsula, we reached their camp in the Siberian tundra. Living several days in close contact with the Nenets, being able to fully immerse ourselves in their culture, their customs, their difficult life, is priceless.

But who are the Nenets? They are an indigenous population of Russia, of Samoyed origin, reindeer herders who have populated the far north of Siberia for over 6,000 years, from the Kanin peninsula to the Tajmyr peninsula around the great rivers Ob, Yenisey and Pur. To date, there are only about 45,000 Nenets, of which about 27,000 are in the Yamal peninsula, and about 500,000 reindeer managed by them. To get help in their work, they selected the Samoied dog breed, managing to adapt it to adverse climatic conditions, so that they would be suitable for the role of shepherd dog.

The name Nenets comes from the word nencia nuenecyaq, which means human beings, and it is thought that this name was given to it by ancient Vikings and Laps who, when they arrived in Yamal, found aboriginal populations smaller than theirs. The features of the Nenets are reminiscent of a mixture of Nordic and Mongolian populations.

The home of the Nenets is the chum, a movable conical tent.

In a single chum, several families often live to split the costs, and each camp is usually made up of 2 to 5 or 6 tents. The chum is made on top of a kind of base, obtained by digging a fairly deep circle in the snow and usually built by 2 or 3 people in a couple of hours.

It is composed of 40 poles of which 4 are load-bearing, the others are used to support the reindeer skins; the stove tube is passed through the center. The furs are very large and need about 80 (40 per side) to cover the structure, a series of overlapping skins create the entrance door. Some chums have a window, others are without.

Inside there is a wood stove that is turned on in the morning and remains in operation all day, turning off slowly towards evening. During the day the temperature is about 20/25 degrees, while at night it can drop to – 10° and beyond if it’s very cold outside. There is no electricity inside, but more wealthy families have a generator that is turned on when there is no storm.

Eugenio Fieni was born in Correggio (Reggio Emilia) on July 9, 1959. In 1980 he began his passion for Photography and in 1993 he enrolled in a photographic club in his city, obtaining good results, in the field National and International. His images are kept in various museums and photo libraries in Italy and Abroad. The Italian Federation of Photographic Associations (FIA) recognizes his remarkable artistic qualities, giving him the recognition of Artist of Italian Photography, Excellent Photographer/Silver, and for his Commitment to Photography / BFI- "Benemerito Italiano Photographer". With the Italian representative he won the team World Cup in 2001 for black and white and in 2022 he won the bronze medal Individual, always for black and white. The FIAP "Federation International de l'Arte Photographique" awards him various titles at an international level and in 2023 he receives EFIAP/D3 Diamond3.

All images and text © Eugenio Fieni