Mongolia: Golden Promises (from workshopx stories)
Here's yet another photographer and story which was originally published on our website and we would like to share with you here:
With vast, newly discovered gold riches, including the largest gold mine in the world, situated in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia is at a crossroads.
After twenty years of democracy, finally potential for positive change exists, but life for many Mongolians remains difficult and uncertain. Mongolia faces two paths: Down one, fueled by responsible resource development, lies prosperity – the Norwegian model. Down the other is poverty, corruption, stagnation – the Nigerian model.
The tensions at the heart of Mongolia are increasing. Nomadic herders are abandoning their way of life to work in the gold mines or to seek work in the capital. A struggle is taking place between modernity and tradition, secularism and Buddhism, democracy and economic repression – often in unlikely and contradictory combinations. It is these contradictions the project addresses and the complexities of a large country searching for a modern identity. At the moment Mongolia is at a political, cultural and economic crossroads that will define the very nature of the country.
Visually in this project, there exists a sense of alienation which at times can seem to pervade Mongolian society – people not interacting within their world, lost in their own heads. This could be a visual metaphor for what can be the homogenizing and disrupting effects of globalization. This project seeks to address and question the concept of East vs West and the process of modernization, urbanization, and national identity that is happening against the backdrop of gold mining riches.
Timothy Fadek – American photographer who has worked in dozens of countries in order to bring attention to major world events such as the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, wars in Iraq, Lebanon, Kosovo, Macedonia, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, the 2004 civil uprising in Haiti, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the uprising in Egypt. His photographic reporting has been published in hundreds of magazines worldwide and have been exhibited in major galleries. He has been a contributor to several photo books on the World Trade Center attack and the war in Iraq. Named a “Hero of Photography” by American Photo magazine in 2007, Fadek has received awards and recognition from Pictures of the Year (POYi), National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), Communication Arts, American Photography, among others. Fadek has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He currently splits his time between New York and Berlin - http://www.timothyfadek.com
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