New York-based photographer Frédéric Lagrange first heard stories about Mongolia as a child from his French grandfather, who was liberated by Mongolian soldiers from a German prison camp in 1945. Lagrange has been fascinated by the region ever since.
A Mongolian family stands outside a yurt near Lake Üüreg, western Mongolia.
Lagrange first visited the "steppe land" in 2001: "The country was exactly as I had imagined: wild, with spectacular landscapes including vast deserts, majestic mountain ranges and seemingly endless green plains."
Lake Tolbo in Bayan-Ulgii, also located in western Mongolia.
Altai, one of Lagrange's first Mongolian friends, rolled his own cigarettes with newspaper.
Over the past 17 years, Lagrange has made 13 month-long trips to Mongolia to document rural life, experiencing the harsh and varied seasons of the land.
A marmot hunter on a motorbike, near Lake Üüreg.
While driving across the frozen Lake Khövsgöl in the north of the country, Lagrange saw two men lying on the ice, about 20km from shore. “It was early in the morning, and both men were drunk on cheap vodka. They didn’t say a word to us. We didn’t know what they were waiting for.”
The ice is usually strong enough to drive across Lake Khövsgöl in late February, but warmer winds suddenly arrived and caused the lake's surface to collapse, sinking this truck.
The hospitable nomadic families Lagrange met allowed him to join them on horseback hunting trips.
Pictured is a shepherd drinking tsai, a traditional tea made from milk, sugar, water, black tea leaves and salt.
"Wherever we stopped, we were welcomed into people's homes. Often, the presence of guests was the only way people here could get news from other parts of the country."
In the picture is the shepherd's daughter.
During an early morning departure, a local friend told Lagrange: "When the Mongols set out on their nomadic journeys, they know for sure when they will leave; but they never know when they will arrive," emphasizing the unpredictability of nomadic journeys.
Pictured is an eagle hunter near the Altai village of Bayan-Ulgii.
"Shooting with a film camera and using negative film in the extreme cold of winter was really difficult. My camera would often jam or stop working after a few minutes of exposure to the cold air."
Pictured is a family being evacuated during a snowstorm, near the village of Tsengel, Bayan-Ulgii.
“Once I let go of my rigid expectations, things started to flow more smoothly. I went to places that were not planned, and those unexpected moments gave me the opportunity to capture some really impressive images.”
These two photos of Altai demonstrate the impact of time on people over the past 17 years in Mongolia.
Altai worked as a forest ranger all his life, protecting the Lake Üüreg area from Russian smugglers and spending much of his time outdoors riding throughout the seasons. His vigorous aging was a result of exposure to harsh weather and his love of Mongol vodka.
