Marc Progin

Marc Progin (b.1945) is a Swiss adventurer, photographer, and writer often travelling in space, mainly the one of Mongolia, since retired from time and being a watchmaker.

Struck by the light and the beauty of the deserts he became a photographer to give evidence of his journeys to Mongolia. 

But it is from his physical performance that the artistic one is generated. 

A seasoned long distance trail runner, he is tough enough to power himself and his bike, that he uses as a mean of transportation for off-road journeys and his mind travelling.

He designs his own maps, navigates with the sun, the stars, and a compass in all the four seasons, trading his bike for hiking boots and camels when tackling ice, snow, blizzard, and temperatures of minus 40 during his winter trips.

Endurance leads him to a more fundamental, inner, and cultural quest. The exploration of Mongolia, the original nature where the nomads live differently, without possessions, gives meaning to his life. He travels the deserts with minimal logistics. He explores its history and its paleontological treasures. At this cradle of dinosaurs, he borrows what becomes his nickname: “velociraptor”, named after a species of which he found fossilised remains. Lover of words, erudite, the traveller fills page after page of notebooks with illuminated poetry. His “Alexandrine” verses celebrate the beauty of Mongolian landscapes. They also tell of the spiritual quest of a man tired by the superficiality and illusions imposed by business, consumption and “connected” society. Marc Progin photographs to convey what he feels. In the bareness and the effort, in contact with emptiness and immensity, he clings to what he is, a being reduced to its vital needs: light, a little water and food.

Marc’s collection tops 15.000 images and more than 20.000 km of bike and on foot odysseys across the land of Mongolia. 

Through his projects, Marc gives us beautiful testimonies of what his heart sees in nature and human beings, and an honest message though his eye of the nomadic life reality.

Marc Progin has had solo exhibitions at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondent’s Club, Latitude 22N, Blue Lotus Gallery and La Galerie Paris 1839 as well as shown work with Hong Kong Heritage Project, Indra and Harry Banga Gallery, Palais de la Porte Dorée, and Children of the Mekong. He also gives regular talks at the Royal Geographical Society, universities, and schools in Switzerland and Hong Kong. When he is not behind the camera shooting both for his own artwork or as a press photographer, he is often on the other side being interviewed numerous times by the RTHK, TVB, and for radio.

For more information about Marc Progin 

www.progin.com

Instagram @marc.progin

Further inquiries

For further information on Marc Progin, please contact Julie Progin or Jesse Mc Lin at info@latitude22n.com or +852 2480 1182