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 country, he became a photographer to give evidence of his odysseys to Mongolia.

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

A seasoned long-distance runner, he is tough enough to power himself and his bike for months long off-road journeys and his mind travelling.

He designs his own maps, navigates with the sun, the stars, and a compass in all four seasons, trading his bike for hiking boots and camels when tackling ice, snow, and blizzards 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 withilluminated 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.

Through his various projects, Marc Progin gives us beautiful testimonies of what his heart sees in nature and human beings.

Marc Progin’s work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, most recently at Blue Lotus Gallery HK, Indra and Harry Banga Gallery HK, the HK Foreign Correspondent’s Club, the HK Heritage Project, and Palais de la Porte Dorée Paris. He also gives regular talks at the Royal Geographical Society, universities, and schools in Switzerland and Hong Kong.