Pastoral Peoples and Practices in the Ilemi Triangle
Shoot The Frame 2025 Annual Awards (Photo Essay Finalist) — A narrative interview with Trevor Cole on photographing pastoral life in East Africa, the bond between people and livestock, and the craft of working fast inside constantly shifting scenes.
Trevor Cole’s Photo Essay finalist project, Pastoral Peoples and Practices, is a photographic portrayal of the lives of pastoralists in the Ilemi Triangle, spanning Ethiopia and South Sudan. Selected as a Photo Essay Finalist in the Shoot The Frame 2025 Annual Awards, the work centres on a relationship many viewers rarely witness firsthand: the everyday, symbiotic bond between pastoralists and the animals that sustain them.
Cole hopes viewers see more than tradition or spectacle. For him, the images hold a simple truth about how people live alongside their livestock, and what that connection makes possible. He wants the work to reflect “the ways in which these people symbiotically bond with their livestock and live a sustainable existence.” If there’s one detail he doesn’t want viewers to miss, it’s the interaction itself, those inimitable bonds that show up in gesture, proximity, and routine.
That sensitivity has been earned over time. Cole has travelled and photographed in this part of Africa for 26 years, and lived in Ethiopia for four years as a teacher. The project, in many ways, is the product of long familiarity and repeated return, and of learning to relish brief moments that can’t be forced.
His process is straightforward in principle: capture life as candidly as feasible. But in the field, he describes everything as dynamic. Moments appear and vanish, and the best opportunities rarely repeat. “These scenarios tend to materialise while shooting,” he says. “What was there in one moment, is gone the next.” Decisions about what to include and exclude happen instinctively as he searches for light at dawn or dusk, looks for a composition that holds, and tries to balance people and the animals in their care.
Sequencing is shaped the same way. He’s looking for a contiguous visual narrative, images that speak to one another and carry the viewer through a coherent story without overexplaining. It’s less about a rigid structure and more about rhythm, balance, and feeling for what the story needs.
Technically, the setting can be generous. Golden-hour light, dust in the air, and the working environment can create extraordinary frames. But those same conditions make composition difficult, because nothing stays still for long. “Framing is a challenge,” Cole says, “as the scenes in front of you are perpetually in motion.” A face turns, an animal shifts, a background figure steps in, the geometry changes. You have to be spontaneous and quick, and accept that the really great shot is often the exception rather than the rule.
What keeps him steady is the discipline of walking, watching, and waiting, and a willingness to create his own luck. Some days everything aligns. Other days you shoot for a week and feel disappointed, then discover later that one image you doubted actually carries the weight you were chasing. Cole talks about the emotional rhythm of making work in places where the “perfect moment” can evaporate instantly, and the only option is to keep showing up and remain alert.
The relationship side of the project is equally deliberate. Cole photographs the Kara and Suri tribes in Ethiopia and the Mundari in South Sudan. He relies on local guides he trusts, and emphasises that portraits, anywhere in the world, require interaction. While contextual images can sometimes be made discreetly with a longer lens, most of his people-based photographs come from interpersonal moments. Spending time, talking, and getting to know those being photographed creates connection, even if only briefly.
He also describes how social dynamics can improve a scene rather than complicate it. When people are in their own environment, among friends, the mood often relaxes. Friends encourage, tease, and cajole, and laughter changes expressions in ways no direction ever could. The photographs become warmer, more human, and more truthful.
Ethically, Cole frames his approach in practical terms: trust the guides, build bonds, and create situations where subjects and photographers feel comfortable. When a subject is reserved, time and friendliness matter. He asks, and when he’s rejected he respects the choice. Humour can help when it feels appropriate, but the foundation is always respect.
Risk, he says, tends to come less from people and more from animals. Livestock can be unpredictable, especially cattle in close quarters. Even with experience, you need constant situational awareness and basic risk assessment when you’re working close to large animals.
As a photo essay, the cohesion comes from connectivity: images that portray a way of life unfamiliar to many viewers, and a visual sequence that holds together through theme, place, and character. Cole doesn’t describe a “turn” in the work. The photographs, as a whole, portray pastoral practices and the bonds between humans and livestock. This is their life. If he were to expand the essay, he’d consider including more portraits that show how women are part of these pastoral ecosystems, widening the sense of the community and its roles.
Cole’s craft preferences reflect the realities of the environments he works in. He prioritises framing and light, continually adjusts settings, and often uses a higher ISO than strictly necessary to protect shutter speed, particularly on longer lenses. He works in continuous focus to compensate for movement, uses spot metering, and values seeing exposure through the lens on mirrorless cameras. He’s also deliberate about maintaining connection in front of the camera. “Contact is everything otherwise the photo is devoid of emotion,” he says, and that principle shapes the way he approaches portraiture across cultures and languages
