TIFA 2021 Editorial / Photo Essay

Five Years Apart ; A Boy'S Grow Up In Mongolia

  • Prize
    Gold in Editorial/Photo Essay, 2nd Place winner in Editorial
  • Photographer
    Kevin Shi
  • Technical Info
    Black And White Photography That Spans Five Years To Make
  • Photo Date
    2015-2020

In 2015, I visited a nomad family in Western Mongolia. Lived with them at the summer camp side for few days. I developed a good relationship with their son Semeer and his family. Semeer was about 7-8 years old then. He'd like to follow me everywhere and were very curious my camera. I had such good time then and decided back there to visit again. Five years late, I made another journey to visit Mongolia. This time I joined Semeer's family for a winter migration. We walked 150 kms in 5 days and under -20 degrees. Semeer is a teenage now and helped his family to herd the animals during migration.

I am trained as an engineer but love photography. Three years ago I decided to quite my engineering job to focus on my photography passion. I love travel photography and would like to documenting the quickly vanished traditional lifestyles around the world. In additional, I do some portraits and still photography when I am not traveling.