Brent Lewin is a Bloomberg photographer based in Hong Kong. He recently completed a “road trip”-style photo shoot in Mongolia, where he traveled around the country to shoot in various locations, urban and rural and everywhere in between.
In Depth spoke with Brent to discuss his recent work and what it’s like to shoot for Bloomberg across the Asian continent.
What are some challenges that you faced shooting in remote locations in Mongolia? For your shots in Ulaanbaatar, are there any challenges you faced specific to working in a less-developed urban area (than, say, Hong Kong)?
Two main difficulties were getting to places on time and keeping my camera sensor clean. A lot of the “roads” in the South Gobi, and even outside of the capital, are a patchwork of barely discernible trails that branch off in all directions. It’s mind-boggling. Even with an experienced driver we got lost a few times. As for the camera, I was shooting with prime lenses, so every time I wanted to change a lens, I had to rush back to our vehicle because of the amount of dust in the area.
I understand that your experience in Mongolia was more like a road trip than just attending locations, shooting, and leaving. What was that experience like? What advantages (or disadvantages) do you think come from this kind of experience?
It was definitely an adventure. The shoots I did were really fun and interesting, and I met some great people, but it was the journey between locations that was the highlight. Most of the time spent in the South Gobi was on the road passing barren land speckled with nomads, camels, horses and trucks carrying coal. It was pretty surreal.
For foreigners, though, Ulaanbaatar is a bit more rough around the edges and intimidating compared to Hong Kong. Constantly haggling with taxi drivers was to be expected, but foreigners have been the target of some violent crimes, so I had to take extra care, especially at night around the rougher districts.
You shoot a variety of subjects for Bloomberg in Asia. What do you hope that Bloomberg’s audience gets from these photographs?
Covering financial news in Asia, my assignments vary a lot. We often get great behind-the-scenes access, and I try to present the subject to our audience in an interesting and creative way. My favorite shots have always been subtle images that are layered and illustrate a larger story of the Asian economy, looking at such issues as income inequality and the effects of globalization and consumption.