Laura Riis 2025 Highly Commended
Hania (on the left) and her friend are playing in their house. Her mother Majina converted from Kalash to Islam many years ago, changing Hanias destiny forever. Rumbur, Pakistan December 2024
"I don’t always understand the prayers at Chowmos, but I love watching the big fires and the celebrations. It feels like magic" - Hania, Rumbur, Pakistan 2024
During the Chowmos festival, Kalash communities gather around large fires to perform traditional dances that mark the end of purification rituals. These dances, passed down through generations, are a vital part of their cultural and spiritual identity, reinforcing community bonds and honoring their ancestral beliefs. Rumbur Valley, Pakistan, 2024.
In the midst of winter, Shamraz celebrates her purification, testifying her faith as kalash. Not long ago, her father converted to islam, leaving her, and her sisters at a crossroad; shifting between where they belong. Pakistan, Bumburet, 2024
A father and child witness the annual sacrifice of a goat to Balaumain, the Kalash deity said to visit during Chowmos, in Bumburet, Pakistan, 2024.
An elderly Kalash woman lies at rest, surrounded by women from her community in a moment of prayer and farewell. Inside, the women, dressed in traditional headpieces and embroidered shawls, gather in quiet solidarity, while the men wait outside. The atmosphere is solemn but deeply rooted in collective strength, reflecting the Kalash community’s enduring bond with their spiritual traditions and ancestral rituals. Pakistan, 2024.
Three young girls from Bumburet sit side by side in a local Madrasah, reciting verses from the Quran. Each day after school, they spend three hours here in religious study, part of a growing network of madrasahs across the valley. Bumburet, Pakistan, 2024.
Kalash Valley, Rumbur: one of three Kalash valleys alongside Bumburet and Birir in northwest Pakistan. Together, the valleys are home to around 10,000 people, of whom approximately 4,000 are Kalash and the rest Muslim. April 2023.
Three young Kalash boys sit in a classroom at Kalasha Dur, the only school dedicated to Kalash language and culture in the valleys. Located in Bumburet, the school serves around 80 students, offering education rooted in their own traditions. Pakistan, 2023.
Hima converted from Kalash to Islam in her youth, following her husband’s decision to embrace the faith in search of enlightenment. “I converted for the sake of my children,” she explains. Today, Hima is mother to eight children: two born before her conversion, still part of the Kalash community, and six born after, raised as Muslims. Birir, Pakistan, 2024.
Goats are sacrificed in ritual ceremonies, connecting the community to their gods and their heritage. But sacrifice takes many forms here. For some, like those who convert to Islam, leaving the Kalash faith means a profound personal sacrifice: severing ties with traditions, community, and identity that have defined generations. Pakistan, 2024.
A young Kalasha girl gazes toward the horizon as her sisters pray behind her during Daodadoo, the sacred day of prayer that follows purification. On this day, the Kalash come together to wish for peace, prosperity, and all the good things in the world. Bumburet, Pakistan, December 2024.
About the work
Set in Northwest Pakistan, this project explores the intimate reality of religious conversions within a small indigenous community, balancing animism and Islam. For centuries, the Kalash have lived in the remote Hindu Kush mountains, their traditions woven into rituals of dance, color, and fire. Yet, with the Muslim world as their long-standing neighbor, change has always been at the edge of their existence. For Kalash youth, this means growing up navigating an identity shaped by both heritage and the world that surrounds them.
In Islam, conversion is a one-way path: an irreversible commitment. Among the Kalash, a community of just 4,000, social pressure to conform is mounting. Last year alone, 90 individuals converted to Islam as a part of a growing wave, driven less by personal conviction and more by the weight of societal expectation. For some, conversion is a personal act of love or survival, offering relief and a sense of belonging to the majority. For others, it brings a profound loss and disconnection.
With change as the protagonist, this story moves not only through the lives of those considering conversion, but through the men and women who already have converted, mothers now raising children born into Islam. Their stories reveal a deeper, more complex inheritance
This shift is not just about faith, but about belonging. Raising profound questions of continuity, choice, and the pressure to take sides. Framed by generational shifts, this work traces the tensions of youthhood, revealing the uncertainty of a generation navigating imposed change. Each image is a dialogue between past and present, where childhood, faith, and identity intersect in ways both personal and universal.
About the Photographer
Laura Riis (b. 2002, Denmark) is a documentary photographer whose work focuses on youthhood, religion, and identity in societies caught between tradition and change.
She began photographing in Latin America and Pakistan four years ago, prior to participating in the Speos x Magnum Photo masterclass in 2024-2025. With a background in cultural studies and a childhood influenced by her time in India, Laura brings a deeply personal curiosity to how people shape their sense of self, faith, and belonging across cultures.
Working through long-term projects, she uses portraiture and environmental photography to create intimate visual dialogues between past and present. Her latest work explores religious conversion among Kalash youth in Northwest Pakistan, a project that was group exhibited by Magnum Photos in Paris, 2025