mongolia

One mile under the earth

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Labeled as the one of the most remote places on earth excited me. What didn’t was the knowledge that in the morning I’d be put into a wire cage no bigger than myself, and for a mile I would dangle and descend into darkness.
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With my kit pushed in on all sides I filmed the whole way throuhh the descent to distract myself from fear. I don’t like confined spaces.

I was commissioned over two trips to do a series of video portraits of the Mongolian Olympic team and also the building of a hyper-mine of gold and copper. I was desperate to use any spare time to see what I could of Mongolia. These pictures are what I could grab on my journey, from Ulaanbataar by prop plane to the Gobi, and then off-road to the border with China.

I’d also heard there was a wild place called the Coal Road and spent some time convincing my driver to take me there.
The coal road feels like a cross between Mad Max and Dune. More to follow...

best viewed in landscape mode

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I have no idea who this man was. Dressed in a full length Chinese military coat he ambled alongside a truck, silent and alone.

A driver begins to dismantle his trailer after spilling his entire cargo on the Coal Road from Mongolia to China.

Fully laden HGVs, in their hundreds, create an elevated road of coal as a driver inspects his cargo.

Some of the 1,500 trucks a day that push through the desert in the race from Mongolia to China.

Flying across the Gobi Desert from Ulaan Bataar.

View across Ulaan Bataar from my hotels terrace.

Speeding across the Gobi.

Sunrise walk to get water and fuel

A girl boxing training, ulaanbaatar Mongolia.

Mongolian olympic wrestling team.

Miners driving in the Oyu Tolgoi, copper and gold mine

Wild horses roaming the Gobi

Traditional gathering in Sukhe-Bator square, Ulaanbaatar

Telegraph wires in a rural village

It was somewhere between 0 and -5 degrees when I saw these boys playing topless and scribbling on each other with felt tip pens, by a shanty dwelling truckers pass through.

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