The best trips are the ones where plans go to shit on the first day. In 2004, a group of skaters and photographers learned this lesson firsthand. Inspired by photos of a massive skatepark in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbataar, the crew arrived to find the park had been leveled just three weeks prior to their arrival. Unfazed, the resulting book "Dirt Ollies" and film "Mongolian Tyres" would go on to capture the stark juxtaposition of modern skateboarding and a country largely untouched by time.
Fast forward to 2014. The natural resource wealth of Mongolia is global knowledge and the corporations have come a knockin'. What was once a country of mostly dirt roads is now littered with construction sites (i.e. fresh concrete). "Dirt to Dust" captures globalization in Mongolia from its urban capital to rural outposts via the most photogenic anthropological tool: the skateboard.
Part photography book, part ethnography the 192-page hardcover — released by 19/80 Éditions — comes with a DVD documentary "Out of Steppe" from filmmaker Stephen Roe.
