2015 Photo Contest, Daily Life, 1st prize

Mongolia, Black Gold Hotel

Photographer

Michele Palazzi

Contrasto

27 December, 2012

A cloud of coal dust rises over the road built by Energy Resources Mining, to facilitate coal delivery from Mongolia to China.

Mongolia’s economy has been growing at an unprecedented rate, with an average annual increase in GDP between 2011 and 2013 of well above 10 percent. The new ‘Mongolian Wolf’ economy is based primarily on mining, and has attracted considerable foreign investment. The traditional way of life, which relies on ancestral nomadic herding, is undergoing a crisis as people leave to seek work in urban centers. Development has been largely unregulated. People who still follow a traditional nomadic lifestyle have to cope with increasing levels of pollution, deforestation, and overgrazed pastures.

About the photographer

Michele Palazzi

Michele Palazzi was born in Rome in 1984. After getting a three-year Master’s degree in photography at the Scuola Romana di Fotografia, he started working as a documentary photog...

Technical information

Camera
Hasselblad 500 C

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