Emily Ainsworth

Photographer, anthropologist and National Geographic Young Explorer Emily Ainsworth has hitchhiked her way over the Mexican highlands, pitched camp among Mongolian nomads and worked with midget bullfighters, Indian spiritualists and the London Pearly Kings. After graduating with a degree in literature from Oxford University, she joined the Mexican circus as a dancer under the stage name Princess Aurora. Returning to England, she studied anthropology at Cambridge and then photography at Central Saint Martins. Her work has been internationally recognized: She has been awarded the Winston Churchill Exploration Fellowship, the William Wyse Scholarship and the BBC and Royal Geographical Society Journey of a Lifetime Award. Ainsworth is currently based in London, where she is planning her next escape.