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When we say “Nepal,” many recall 2015’s tragic earthquake and associate the country with an ecological nightmare. However, the people of Nepal are moving forward and one photographer wanted to highlight that.

A village that was once a hotspot for trekkers, Langtang Valley has lost much of its tourism after the earthquake. Though over a year has passed since, not much has changed in Nepal in terms of its infrastructure. However, the people are working toward reviving their village.

“People there are desperate for tourists to return,” photographer Benedict Grey told weather.com, but few have ventured to the area since.

“In this project in Nepal, I incorporate the alpine environment with the people who inhabit it,” Grey said. “I explore the implications of living in a spectacular, but unforgiving landscape.”

(MORE: The Last Nomadic Tribe of the Himalayas)

Like many other earthquake victims across Nepal, the residents in Langtang have received scarce help from the government, according to AFP. The country has spoken about their resilience and progression, but have failed to provide the people with the resources to move forward. Political and social unrest put the priority of rebuilding at a halt. 

It’s a grim reality for the residents, so they have taken the rebuilding into their own hands. Though most of the work in Langtang involves removing the rubble, it is still a step towards freeing themselves from the earthquake’s aftermath. That sense of hope and resilience is what Grey wanted to portray through his work.

“I wanted to capture the individual stories of the people of Langtang through portraiture, creating a more personal account of the disaster and those affected than a focus on statistics and, say, ruined village buildings would offer,” he said. “It wasn’t supposed to be another sad message about the hardship of a natural disaster, but a more positive story on how the people responded in such a resilient manner.”

Despite their circumstances, the people have continued to live their lives with courage and generosity. “They were able to rise to enormous challenges in such a positive manner, in a spirit of kindness and generosity,” he said. “To sum up, I was trying to engage people with beautiful images that also tell an accurate story.”

Grey plans to return to Langtang in the future and hopes he’ll come back to a thriving community. Until then, he plans to work on documenting unsustainable palm oil production in Malaysia, focusing on telling the story of what’s at stake for the people who cultivate palm oil.