Local photographer Louise Radmore has studied photography for the last 8–10 years at the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO). However, up until recently, it had been a private passion. “Even some of my closest friends had no idea I was into photography.”

Earlier this month, Radmore had some of her work on display at the Pop Up Gallery on Wellington West, which featured some amazing pictures from a trip to Mongolia, a country with which Louise has long been fascinated.

“Mongolia has seemed like the most exotic place on Earth since my days of youth, playing Risk with my big brother. I always claimed Mongolia first, just because. I didn’t even know it had stuck with me until I saw a documentary by Timothy Allen from BBC Human Planet. I saw it and thought, ‘Wow! It really is as cool as I thought it was as a kid.’ And from that point on I had to go.”

At the start of 2017, Louise was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. The aforementioned Timothy Allen was running a competition, with the blessing of a Mongolian Kozak clan, to have eight western photographers come to document their way of life. Louise won one of the “golden tickets,” and flew to Mongolia to follow a Kozak clan across the frozen Altai Mountain range this past February and March. At this time, Radmore is 1 of only 16 westerners to ever be granted such access.

Radmore essentially got to live out her own BBC documentary.

“We followed exactly the same trail [Allen] did we he did the documentary. These are authentic Kozak Eagle Hunters. They are the direct descendants of Genghis Khan, and very little of their lifestyle has changed since then.”

In this interview, Louise talks to Apt613 about how she got into photography, being declared a male (for technical reasons) for the duration of her trip, and the lessons she learned.

On January 9 at the RA Centre, you can attend an event where Louise Radmore will share her photographs, and talk in depth about her trip, which she hopes will bring the audience closer to the culture of the Kozak Eagle Hunters. The event is free to attend, but space is limited.

This interview originally aired on CHUO 89.1FM on December 26th, 2017.