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"It was my love of snow leopards and dinosaur fossils that always made me want to go to Mongolia."
I happen to have a rather strange connection with Mongolia. My first visit to the country was when I accompanied Mr. Takeuchi as chief assistant for a photographic exhibition he held there. But long before that, after seeing a snow leopard in Tama Zoological Park, I had always wanted to see this magnificent animal in its natural habitat in Mongolia. And ever since I was a small boy, I'd been fascinated with things like the dinosaur fossils discovered in the Gobi Desert. I think that somewhere in the back of my mind, I'd always longed to go to Mongolia, and thanks to Mr. Takeuchi, the opportunity finally arrived.
The following year, which was 1998, I embarked on my freelance career and immediately set off for Mongolia again. I spent two months wandering around in the desert and mountains, which for me was a truly valuable experience. After that trip I visited Mongolia many times to take photos, and was struck by the plight of homeless children I saw in the city, some of whom lived underground in manholes. I really thought that I ought to take photographs of them one day. Years later, in June of 2004, I held an exhibition of scenic photos entitled "Wandering in Mongolia," and I thought that was basically the end of my Mongolia project. Then my daughter was born and I became a typical doting parent, taking photos of her all the time. But one day I suddenly recalled the faces of those children living in the manholes, and it made me wonder why there is such an enormous disparity between people's lives, even though we're all born on the same planet. So I decided then and there to photograph those children, and set off for Mongolia later that year with an Olympus E-1.
I chose the E-1 because it's very dusty in Mongolia, and I realized that shooting conditions would be bad inside the manholes where the children lived. For one thing, there is a huge difference between the temperature inside the manholes, which have hot water pipes running along them, and the temperature outside. I knew that a film camera wouldn't function under such conditions, and decided to go for digital. After looking at all the models available, I chose the Olympus E-1.
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