Small yellow flower growing among rocks
Lens-Artists,  Nature and wildlife,  People,  Themed galleries

Gallery: the resilience of people and nature

January 13, 2025 / 68 Comments

Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.

Nelson Mandela

Is resilience something we are born with, or can it be developed? The answer seems to be, a bit of both. We all have an innate level of resilience, but our attitude to life and the knocks we receive along the way can strengthen or decrease it. Perhaps surprisingly, many people who have faced the toughest challenges demonstrate the highest levels of resilience; they have needed to.

I often look at the lives of people I see on our travels and admire their resilience. How they cope with tougher living conditions, bounce back after setbacks, even endure persecution.

Anne has chosen resilience as this week’s Lens Artists challenge theme. She reminds us that ‘we will need it as we face a troubled world’. It may seem a hard thing to photograph, being intangible, but my archives threw up plenty of examples of people surviving in much more challenging circumstances than my own. I think that travel helps us to appreciate what we have and also to see that whatever their situation people tend to make the best of it and find ways to survive and often even flourish.

My feature photo, not squared, is of the church in Socorro

Elderly man posing with a book featuring himself

Chum Mey, survivor of S-21 (Tuol Sleng), Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Chum Mey was a mechanic before his imprisonment in Tuol Sleng, just one of thousands who were imprisoned here. He is also just one of a very few to have survived the experience. He now spends his days here telling his story to visitors, in the hope that such atrocities can be prevented in the future.

In Taumadhi Square, Bhaktapur, Nepal

This stonemason is carving new sections for a temple damaged in the 2015 earthquake.

Man chiselling stone
Man with Rasta dreadlocks and a beard

A souvenir seller on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

The people of Rapa Nui have had to show great resilience. A guide there told us how his grandmother lived in a cave in the days when the island was really isolated and desolate, before tourism had revived its fortunes. Growing crops was a challenge, there were only one or two ships bringing supplies each year. Life was very tough.

In Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

This man will have pushed his laden bike across the border from neighbouring Zambia, via the bridge at the falls. Farmers there are able to come into Zimbabwe without a visa. They do so on a daily basis as they can get a better price for their crops and produce here.

Man pushing a bicycle laden with sacks
Elderly woman in a sari by advertising poster

In Kovalam, Kerala, India

I don’t know this woman’s back story but she certainly looks resilient.

Making baskets, Oteros Canyon, Mexico

The Rarámuri people of the Copper Canyon area are endeavouring to balance a traditional lifestyle with the benefits that increasing tourism offers.

Two women siting on rocks weaving with grasses
Woman with two donkeys on stone steps

In the Colca Canyon, Peru

This is another place where traditional lifestyles are being impacted by tourism. The challenge is to ensure that local people, like this woman, feel the benefits rather than multinational companies. We always prefer to stay in locally owned and run hotels where possible.

On the floating islands of the Uros people, Lake Titicaca, Peru

The islands are made from aquatic reeds called Totora. The Uros first adopted this way of life to protect themselves from attack by the Incas. Today they have modern conveniences but many still choose to live here, despite the challenges of constantly maintaining their floating homes.

People around a fire on an island of reeds
Man holding newspapers

Selling newspapers in Havana, Cuba

The economy of Cuba is dominated by state-run enterprises, but people are allowed to engage in private enterprise and most need to do so in order to live with any degree of comfort. We were told that even professionals such as doctors don’t earn enough from their state employment and often run a small business on the side.

In the fishing village of Djiffer, Senegal

This village is located on a constantly eroding spit of land and the inhabitants know that their homes and livelihood could be washed away at any time.

Men unloading a painted wooden boat in shallow water
And what about nature?

When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure

Peter Marshall

If people can be resilient, nature is perhaps even more so. Give the smallest of helping hands from us, animals can recover from near extinction. And plants can grow in the most inhospitable of places, like the one in my feature photo taken way above the tree line on North Korea’s Mount Paektu.

Green plant on rocks

On Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

This plant has, like the one above, found a foothold in the most unlikely of places.

In Chile’s Atacama Desert

These tussocks of grass survive in what is commonly described as the driest desert in the world, thanks to their extraordinary ability to adapt to this extreme environment and the presence of a few saline lagoons.

Scrubby plants on rocky soil
Fallen tree trunk with ferns growing on it

In the Founders Grove, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California

This mighty giant may have fallen but opportunistic plants such as ferns have quickly found footholds in which to seed themselves and thrive.

On Brean Down, Somerset, England

The winds may have distorted this tree in an exposed position on the cliff top, but it does its best to grow and produce leaves.

Small tree bent by the wind
Dragonfly on a twig

At Dante’s View, Death Valley, California

We didn’t expect to see dragonflies in the driest place in the US! But I’ve read that a few species of wildlife were isolated, left over from the time when there were lakes here, and have adapted to the drier conditions.

Land iguana on Plaza Sur, Galápagos

The endemic land iguanas of the Galápagos Islands have developed a unique ability to store water in their bladder. This remarkable feature allows them to efficiently conserve water and thrive even in arid, dry environments where water is scarce. 

Large yellow lizard
Rhino in long grass

Rhino in Chitwan National Park, Nepal

The rhinos of Chitwan are a conservation success story. Although poaching hasn’t been completely eradicated, in recent years the number of rhinos has increased thanks to strong policing in the park, from around 300 in the 1980s to 605 when last counted in 2015. This constitutes the second largest population of single-horned Asiatic rhinoceros in the world.

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