I’ve seen thousands of historical images of Mongolian people.  It is rare to come across a photo which I haven’t seen it.  A couple of days ago, I was looking for an image of a Mongolian woman in a traditional outfit to use it in my next photo shoot. Flicking through images on Google can be pointless exercise  but not this time. I’ve found this photograph and completely struck by it.

The photo is sourced from: http://erikrecendez.blogspot.com/2008/09/concept-artist-iain-mccaig-and-costume.html. The blog’s last post was dated on 13th of September 2009. And I couldn’t find contact details of the blog author.  I would love to find out more information about this photograph.

At this point, I can only speculate about it. The subjects are carefully positioned (could be accidental as well), the composition is good and gives me an impression that it must’ve been taken by a photographer or good amateur photographer (most likely by an anthropologist or ethnographer). The photographer seems to have tried to include as much details in the photograph which makes it even more fascinating.

The most interesting factor about this photograph is that it has a narrative to it. What these two Mongolian ( likely to be people of Mongolian origin based on the their outfits, the way she is sitting down and a saddle shape on the horse) women doing in a forest by themselves? I am not even sure whether the teenager is a girl or boy. A middle aged woman sat down; smoking a pipe while looking ( Is she is actually reading?) at a book. I believe the photograph belongs to people who lived  in late 19th or early 20th Century of Mongolia or somewhere in Central Asia. So much to explore…

If anyone out there, knows the origin or any information of this photograph, please contact me.

Have a good day!

T. Tsegmid