About this time of year, professional reindeer herders and tourists alike get together to celebrate Reindeer Herders’ Day across the Yamal region of Russia. Lasso throwing, sled racing, and reindeer meat eating abound.

Photographer Dmitry Tkachuk, who was born and still lives in Tyumen’, Russia, wanted to do a story on the event, so he traveled to one in Nadym. While he was there he met the Nenets, who are nomadic herders in northern Arctic Russia. He wanted to know more about their lives following reindeer on the tundra, so he asked them if he could come along.

They agreed. Tkachuk traveled with the Nenets through the Gulf of Ob to the village of Yar-Sale on the Yamal