Photographer Phil Borges: The face of a Pakistani animist

In order to encourage them to better continue the custom of communicating with the spirits of their ancestors, animals, forests, lakes, mountains, and other elements of nature, I have spent the past three years visiting and photographing many tribes and peoples that are being marginalized. These people are often called "animists" or "pagans" by the outside world, and their spiritual mediators (the coordinators between man and God are called "mediators" in religion) are called shamans. My documentary images from Pakistan represent just such a culture.