A beautiful elegy for photographer Matthieu Chazal by Paul Salopek on the epic Out of Eden Walk.

On those bitter days afoot in the Caucasus, Murat and I would sometimes send Matthieu ahead to search for shelter in the snowy wastes. He was very good at it. Often, we found him at a tumbledown farmhouse or roadside inn, regaling a crowd with outlandish stories, and sipping from a jar of homemade Georgian wine. Last month our nomad friend left us, at 49, a casualty of aggressive cancer. Once more he scouts the road ahead.

https://outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.org/articles/2024-10-forgiving-moment