‘The nomads brought me in like a daughter’: Emily Garthwaite’s best phone picture

The British photojournalist on following the Kuch migration in the mountains in Iran

It wasn't navigating rocky paths, herding hundreds of animals or the prospect of spending 14 nights in a tent that Emily Garthwaite was thinking about on her first day on the Zagros mountain range. It was where she fitted within Hossein and Jahan's family.

The British-born photojournalist, who has lived in northern Iraq since 2019, was joining the husband and wife, three of their nine children, other relatives, plus donkeys, dogs, sheep, goats and horses, for their biannual Kuch (migration). The nomad family of the Bakhtiari tribe were moving to warmer pastures for the winter months of 2020, a 250km walk.