Villagers in Kazakhstan's Karaganda region, to the east of the Russian-owned Baikonur Cosmodrome. Andrew McConnell “This little white car appeared on the horizon, and it drove up to us, weaving through these massive Russian Air Force helicopters that were sitting on the steppe,” McConnell recalled. “They were locals who’d come to see this extraordinary thing happening in their backyard. I was just fascinated by this; it hadn’t occurred to me that people actually live here.” Two worlds collide So, while some of McConnell’s images feature renowned astronauts like Tim Peake and Kate Rubins, his new photo book is more about the Kazakh communities whose lives have become inadvertently intertwined with space travel. Portraits of nomads on horseback appear alongside everyday scenes around Kenjebai-Samai, the village in which the photographer stayed before venturing onto the grasslands. The image of a young girl climbing on a makeshift fence made from space debris speaks to the curious indifference McConnell encountered among locals. “They were, surprisingly, unfamiliar with the landings. Some people in the village said they’d seen it once, and had gone out look at it,” he said, adding: “(The kids) are curious what these objects are, and they have a basic understanding that this thing happens somewhere ‘over there.’ But no one’s bringing them over to see it. (The landings happen) 30 kilometers away, but it may as well be 300 miles away.” A girl plays on spacecraft debris on the grasslands. Andrew McConnell Yet, the photographer saw strange parallels between these coexisting worlds: “You have the modern-day nomad — the astronaut — and the original nomads. And that’s sort of the heart of the whole book: a contrast between the two… It’s extraordinary the different lives we lead on this planet, and that these two worlds collide here.” The book’s other protagonist is the steppe itself. McConnell’s photos of this “portal to space,” as he described it, depict a vast, empty landscape littered with the detritus of space travel and scarred with open-pit coal mines. Related article