Spirits and Ghosts: Journeys Through Mongolia

by Julia Calfee (Photographer), Antonin Kratochvil (Introduction)

These photographs were taken over  a four year period, many months of these years were spent in different and difficult conditions. This analog photography using only high speed black and white film, produces deliberately blurry and gritty photos that do not describe actual situations but evoke the emotional side of life such as a woman shaman singing and beating her drum to the sounds of spirit voices that only she can ear or the desperation of the prisoners who appear almost like living ghosts, crouched down on the pitiless freezing stones of Siberia for the daily count or even the thrill of a young herdsmen practicing for his first horse race by galloping in a swirl of dust next to a four wheel jeep. They are a testimony of the extreme conditions in this place.

168 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003