This series, made during the Mongolian summer of 2009, explores the consequences of rapid modernisation in Mongolia. Two decades after the democratic revolution which brought an end to communist rule, Mongolia is today more prosperous yet more fractured politically and socially. As in any society, some of these fractures present themselves visually, as clues rich with suggestive potential.

Being more interested in suggestion than description, I am naturally drawn to signs. Concentrating on the capital, Ulaanbaatar, and its surrounding area, I focus on those things that begin to suggest the complexity and contradictions of contemporary Mongolia. We see urbanisation yet decay and neglect, nationalist symbology yet the re-emergence of religious belief, and a growing middle class which has turned its back on a nomadic past. A closer look also reveals a more sinister underside to daily life: urban poverty, sex trafficking and political conflict.

Here I explicitly reject the didacticism of traditional documentary photography. While the images are often formally straightforward, they are not necessarily easily read. They have no intention of ‘telling a story’, rather, their strength lies in their suggestion of a complex political and social environment, without offering a definitive ‘problem’ or ‘solution’. I acknowledge (often explicitly, through the return of the photographic gaze) the photographer’s position as an outsider, yet maintain that outsider status can often provide insights not otherwise readily available.