Portraits. Tradition. The Path. This photo project was created during a journey through Mongolia in the summer of 2006. The camera became a tool for observation and respectful dialogue with people, culture, and a land deeply connected to ancient rituals, nomadic life, and spiritual heritage. 

At the heart of the project are portraits of local people: elders in traditional dress, young riders preparing for races, a monk in a mountain monastery, children inside yurts, and families living in the vastness of the steppe. These are faces of openness, strength, calm, and deeply rooted tradition.

The images were taken during the Naadam festival, a national celebration centered around the “three manly sports” — wrestling, archery, and horse racing. Particular attention is given to the horse races: long-distance rides across the open plains, with child jockeys whose tired, focused expressions speak volumes, captured in the quiet tension before the race begins.

A key part of the project also documents Buddhist practices: morning prayers, monastery interiors, the weathered faces of monks and pilgrims, worn stone steps, and rows of prayer flags fluttering in the wind.
Mongolia in 2006, as seen in these photographs, is neither exoticized nor treated as reportage. It is an attempt to preserve a moment shaped by stillness, rhythm, and deep respect for space and spiritual path.