ULAN BATOR

If the myth of the Mongolian steppe -- beautiful beyond description and empty of human presence -- is still alive, it is challenged today, by a phenomenon of hazardous urbanisation. Striking contrasts emerge from the clash between the rural and urban Mongolia. These locales and their inhabitants, symbolized by the capital city, Ulan Bator, bear the history of the slow mutation of the Mongolian social fabric. I returned every year, during a period of five years, slowly expending a series of images in an attempt to render a fragile portrait of an old country shaken by the rise of the modern society. This project focuses on the quest for a new national identity in an urban environment still looking to define and organize itself.