Andrew Califf is an archaeologist, anthropologist, photographer, and storyteller focused on exploring, learning, and documenting how people live and thrive in dynamic environments, specifically mountains and high-elevation plateaus. A freelance photojournalist covering topics such as environmental conservation, Indigenous rights, and archaeology, Andrew also conducts archaeological research himself, exploring how hunter-gatherers first started using the high-elevation areas of Inner Asia.
During his training at New York University in both archaeology and journalism, Andrew split time between excavations and fieldwork during the summer, and writing, photography, and reporting during the rest of the year. For his anthropology honors thesis, he surveyed and mapped stone tool scatters in Mongolia’s northern taiga while also conducting ethnographic surveys and interviews within the Dukha communities who live there. During his graduate studies in archaeology, Andrew “shovel bummed” from caves in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to mudbrick fortresses in Uzbekistan.
Andrew has bylines from six countries and was awarded the Overseas Press Club Foundation Stan Swinton Scholarship to cover conservation and Indigenous rights in Cambodia. He aims to convey the significance of actions and a deeper worldview rooted in the Indigenous knowledge of an environment. These are the ephemeral concepts he hopes to share through both visual and written storytelling, as well as scientific research. Specifically regarding his archaeological research, the significant aspect is about better understanding how Prehistoric people navigated challenging and dynamic environments like the Western Himalaya.
For his Fulbright-Nehru project, Andrew is conducting a specialized survey focused on identifying Prehistoric artifacts and sites in Ladakh. The process involves combining the mapping of previously discovered stone tools with modeling geomorphological features and the topography to inform targeted surveys, thereby expanding the dataset of Prehistoric archaeology in Ladakh. This data will deepen understanding about Prehistoric peoples in one of the world’s most dynamic regions, expand India’s diverse heritage, and help researchers adopt new survey strategies for finding such sites in the mountains.