Volume 1

Brazilian artist Andrei Polessi created the cover for the first volume of Primitiva it depicts children during a break from classes at the Lamayuru Monastery in the Ladakh region, in the far north of India. Polessi decided one day to “go after this world that eludes us”—and since then he has lived with more doubts than certainties. He is the one who guides us in this inaugural gesture, where every story is also a way of setting out.

In this issue, we cross borders and cultures. We step into a dirt-floor ring in Pakistan and witness the Ma’nene ritual in Indonesia, which brings the dead back to life. In Iraq, we follow the intimate gaze of Abbas Raad, who photographs to “restore the truth” of a country rebuilding itself. We hear from the Arctic’s greatest documentary photographer, Ragnar Axelsson, as he discusses the importance of bringing about change through an image. And we meet Kamran Ali, who, in Madagascar, turned a journey into an act of reconstruction—helping to build a hospital.

Primitiva is made of two things: stories and pace.
We climbed into Upper Mustang with Tânia Muxima, drifted down the Rio Negro with António Avelar, and crossed a polar storm in Svalbard alongside Filipa Coutinho. We attended a wedding in India as guests of Renata Monteiro and Tiago Lopes. And we listened to Andreas Tonelli—intrepid traveller, explorer and cyclist—in what would prove to be one of the last interviews he ever gave.
There are many more stories still waiting to be told.

Pick up Primitiva travel at your own pace—around the world, through stories, and through everything that still moves us.