Horses Drinking. Photograph Enzo Obiso, courtesy Museum of East Asian Art

Mongolia: Images from the Steppes, a photography exhibition by Italian photographer Enzo Obisio, runs at the Museum of East Asian Art until December 10 2006 as part of the year long festivities in 2006 marking the 800th anniversary of the Mongolian statehood.

Comprising 25 shots taken amidst the vast and arid landscape of the Mongolian Steppe, the exhibition seeks to explore the visual dialogue between the environment and the people who inhabit it.

A harsh setting, with an extreme climate, Mongolia suffers long sub-arctic winters that see snow lingering in the Gobi Desert as late as April whilst some lakes remain frozen until June.

Two Horses and Saddle. Photograph Enzo Obiso, courtesy Museum of East Asian Art

It’s a land that, for many, has connotations of being wild and untamed, but Obisio’s photographs attempt to transform the static grasslands of Mongolia into an inspiring display which is full of symbolic references.

At the centre of the work is the idea that the human being can be represented through landscape, places, objects and the body. Thus the photographs feature images of clouds, hills, horses, motorbikes and people in equal measure.

These images were taken during the summer of 1991, at a time when Communist dictatorship had only just ended and the Mongolian republic was preparing for its new constitution and liberation. The photographs accordingly capture a world in transformation.

Wrestlers. Photograph Enzo Obiso, courtesy Museum of East Asian Art

Founded by Gengis Khan in 1206, Mongolia was once the centre of a huge Eurasian empire but today it sits again on the steppe between the borders of Russia and China. Long known as a country with a history of violence, it is also a place with a way of life that has been traditionally based on herding.

Obisio depicts the enduring connections between man, history and nature that have existed for centuries in this part of the world and his images reflect the traditional nomadic lifestyle and culture as well as the encroachment of modern customs that can be found in today’s Mongolia

Enzo Obisio was born in Sicily in 1954 and studied photography at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Turin. He has been exhibiting since 1974.