Kyle Obermann Photography

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Kyle Obermann Photography

Conservation Photographer and Writer I'm an environmental and adventure photographer with 3 years’ experience living and working in China. The journey continues.

I pair my research background in sustainable development, public policy, and Sino-US relations with a camera and backpack. I use my lens to explore local, people-led conservation efforts and strengthen environmental movements in the China. This journey has brought me from being a leadership fellow at a leading China-US relations INGO, working with Chinese peers on a Beijing bike-sharing project at

Peking University's Environmental Public Policy Research Institute, collaborating with Chinese National Geography, supporting a leading US environmental company's move to China, being an Explorer with the Outbound Collective, and being the first foreigner to document unnamed mountain valleys in Yunnan Province. I’m currently working with Conservation International to document their project sites and nature reserves in China's southwestern Sichuan province. I'm also working with ASEAN and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and Environment to relook at Chinese environmental investment guidelines in Africa, If you want to join or support me in my journey please reach out! I am always looking to collaborate on more environmental and exploration projects! [email protected]
微信：kyleo92

我是一位环境与户外冒险自由摄影师和记者。在华具备两年的学习及工作经验、14年在一所美国文理学院政治专业毕业，并14年到15年是北京大学孔子学院全奖获得者和加入北大环境与国际关系学院。主要与环保有关的研究项目涉及中国环保NGO和政府合作的模式和现状、北京公共自行车租赁站体系开展，以及美国城市的环境公共参与运动。目前在一家生产活性炭油气回收技术美国公司工作，七月份后准备离开本岗位在华进行专职环保与户外探险摄影。

我决定做环境摄影仅有一个原因：国家前三十多年的经济利益为主的发展政策以后，众所周知中国现今的环境存在一个日增退化而腐化的状态。但现在的中国政府在反思之前的经济发展走势，目前便是更注意和解决环境和生态恶化。更有趣是，越来越多民间环保组织正在涌现，和国、省、县、乡政府联手实践环境保护。在此种尚存完好却政府与公众日益参与环境保护的现状下，如今是环境摄影师可以大显身手的时代。

然而我们在媒体上往往仅能看到中国的负面环境报告，譬如：北京的天空有霾无蓝、水资源没管理好、各个省县环保部的腐败、及科学数据不可靠。这些批评有一定的重要道理，但他们不是反应全面的真相或给人对未来希望的理由。因此，在华当一位外国环境摄影师，我拍照的目标则是记录中国西部的民间自然保护运动和机构，即记录他们所做的在地环境守护者努力工作以及他们住在边远山野地方的感染力。我要通过环境摄影将自然保护和主流社会链接，不仅是向中国人民传播生态价值而是令西方知晓中国目前草根环境情况运动的积极方面与中国未探险之处的奇妙性和值得保护性。我要如此使用相机支持中国的老百姓将环保任务担起来，亦如此接近中国未来的良好环境。

08/11/2026

Yading - maybe China's best hike. Horizontal stills from a decade ago, in the fall of 2016.

07/30/2026

This is a water tower. The eastern Tibetan Plateau is source to three serpentine giants: the Yangtze, Mekong, and Yellow. That's in part because of high altitude glaciers, permafrost, and snow. But an often overlooked characteristic of this area is the limestone giants that pierce above the plains and subterranean karst that funnel water below. I often compare this area to the Dolomites and that's because the rock is similar: its sheer, spongelike, stores and directs water to a multitude of springs that burst from the mountains as the water hits less penetrable layers of stone.

So these peaks, while deliciously photogenic (and I will dare say that this is the first photo of this peak that exists on Instagram 😬), also hold the secret to so much of Asia's water. They, like a microcosm for the entire plateau, act as water towers that store and release water slowly down to the lands below.

Shot on a recent assignment with WildChina碧山

07/28/2026

The Garden of Tibet, Nyenpo Yurtse, truly one of the most spectacular worlds within our world; shuttered since 2018 after being ransacked, littered, and defecated on (uh-huh, literally) by too many hikers with zero respect for Leave No Trace or nature.

After 8 years it's reopening again. And I can only pray and hope this time it's cherished and loved by those who enter. One circular mountain massif, 132 alpine lakes, and some of most diverse flora on the Tibetan Plateau.

(It's not actually called the Garden of Tibet, but given how much of a solitary sanctuary for life it is high up on the Roof of the World, it certainly feels like one.)

Have you ever been?

07/02/2026

གངས་དཀར་བརྒྱད། // Ganggeqiaji – The Eight General Summit. This is one of China’s most pristine, hidden, and stunning peaks. Nestled in the spring-filled valleys of Asia’s Water Tower, also known as the Tibetan Plateau, a friend and I completed the first known circumambulation of this 19,000ft behemoth in 2017 on a shoestring budget; on shoestring knowledge. The route took every ounce of strength and route-finding wit we had. At the time, it was one of the hardest things I had ever completed. But it became somewhat of a lifechanging moment for me, and map-changing moment in China.

This is the Eight General Summit’s Patagonian south face, waking from slumber under the angle of a still low, rising sun. Mountains, like humans, have moods; expressions played by the light, feelings shaken to life by lightning. Most people have forgotten that. The scientific method can’t prove it. But those living at their feet and climbing their knees, begging for passage, know this truth.

We begged for passage. To complete the kora, we needed to cross four passes, three of which had never seen a human cross before. Each necessitated a precise formula of alpine starts, route finding, boulder, scree, and talus hopping for hours, hours, and hours, avoiding thunderstorms, speed, and a little bit of luck. The only comfort – or not, depending on how you see it – is that we glimpsed Himalayan bharal traversing the slopes before we did.

But, in that waning summer of 2017, Ganggeqiaji was generous. Through fields of violet flowers and rivers of stone we walked, walked, and climbed. I published a report of the survey in a Chinese magazine back then, revealing the true name of the mountain that had been mislabeled on official Mandarin maps for decades. The name, under which it had been labelled, was completely unrecognized by the Tibetans living around the Eight General Summit. Finally, just by walking and asking questions, this place could be called by its name. This year I went back to revisit Ganggeqiaji’s generals.

Here I am, a few weeks ago and almost ten years later back under its south face. No kora this time, but planning for something else with WildChina碧山. I never thought I w

05/25/2026

Some stills for Ephemeral Mountains, a film about two old friends taking the time to travel and reconnect via running the legendary 330km Tor des Géants. made this one happen and has been filling theaters all across China this spring.

Filming this race took everything. Let's just say there was A LOT of vert involved and unfortunately not an ideal training buildup prior 😬 For the first time in my life, my IT has been a continual problem since DP'ing this last September. Yet, heading back this year again, for the even more monstrous version, Tor des Glaciers.

The art of creation in the mountains is a dangerous, privileged, and hard fought for game. It's a constant balance between preparation, creativity, and risk. This is one of the most difficult jobs out there. How to balance the pieces of the game - your body; your mind - is ever a moving target.

04/25/2026

Why New York? Take a take deep breath; look at these photos carefully and slowly. No buildings, no cars, no other hikers but for a small group of friends.

The mountains aren't so high here. But that doesn't matter much.

Once, after a trip to the French Alps, I went camping in the Catskills. I hiked all day, over 20km, and only broke out of the tree line once. Each break was just a window, framed and pinched by knots of weathered trees. But the vista below? Tremendous. The woods dropped and buckled into valleys, then wiggled and hopped, mounting further, farther peaks.

I wondered why that view was so striking, when many, myself probably included, would rather choose higher ones. The answer was hidden in the clouds that day - on the horizon, they formed the likenesses of great, grey peaks. Squinting, with a blurred vision, I could imagine them to be the 8,000m giants of the Himalaya. And, if they were, I would certainly not be looking at the woods nor the valley, at least probably not have given them much more than a perfunctory scan, before finally resting my gaze on the summits.

Higher summits often become greater distractions. Harriman State Park, just an hour and half's train away from Manhattan where these photos were taken, at a truly pathetic, unremarkable, and wholly shameful highest revelation elevation of just above 400m, reminds me of that.

There is nothing especially remarkable about Harriman, except for the rolling woods, the scent of wet soil and pine, the mother deer guiding her young, waves of youthful fern, and the laughter of friends without phones around a campfire.

Which is to say, you may go quest the world, spar with the bucket list, dream for more, but you can't beat the blessing of a backyard. Keep looking, of course, go far and adventure, but don't consume what social media feeds you at the cost of going blind.

04/08/2026

Super happy for as she leaps into this new chapter with . So many more trails await.

Thanks as well to my friends at (if you want to understand China's trail running scene, this is THE platform) for bringing me out here to shoot with a friend. We've both come a long way since 2018, when it was your first time on an airplane outside China, and I scratched an entire Mercedes' bumper trying to get out of a European parking spot to get you to the start of your debut international race at 6am 😂😂

Lots has changed over the years, but one thing hasn't: my legs always get pretty sore on the first day trying to keep up. Love that feeling.

加油姚妙!

03/13/2026

Well. I finally learned how to deal with frostbite.

Alaska in winter tastes like salt. Not salt from ocean air or running sweat, but salt from my freezing nose, running down into my mouth for 10 hours a day, sealed under a layer of Vaseline and tape, one hand warmer, a nose mask, a balaclava, and a buff outside in -30 degrees F.

The Vaseline-under-tape was a trick a local Native American woman taught me. She was in our lodge one day, cooking meals for the elders. When told her that I got frostbite on my nose on the first day's 55 mile snowmobile journey down across the frozen Innoko River, this was the trick she recommended.

You look like a fool, and it feels like pulling your face off to take off, but wow, I really couldn't recommend it more. It did the trick.

Overall, my week in the Innoko Valley finding and filming the rare wood bison now living there was something unlike I've ever experienced. Life at -30 is perilous, feels as razor sharp as the sword shadows of spruce in the low sun, but beautiful. People make a home here, wildlife make a home here, and the entire valley slumbers and shakes with the resilience and creativity of a life made on this incredible, wonderful planet.

Happy to be where it's 100F warmer now, and if it's cold i still prefer to be at least 4000m above the sea, but man, was that an experience I'll always cherish. Thanks again to and for the trust and invite, and to for tying us together!

It's a big, beautiful world out there. One worth everything we have to explore, cherish, and love it.

02/23/2026

Blizzard in Brooklyn - 2.23.2026. New York hasn't seen a winter storm like this in 10 years. Feeling really lucky to be here today and able to get out there this morning. It was a really magical few hours.

Now, who wants to take bets whether I will make my flight to Anchorage from LGA tomorrow?

01/09/2026

More frames from the NYT story on domestic, feral, and free-ranging dogs in the Himalaya. A whirlpool of interlaced systems - religion, tourism, military, and climate - have brought Lakdah's wildlife to the brink by the new apex predator that has been allowed to thrive here, and elsewhere across the trans-Himalaya (so China, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan too).

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