Pax prepped for signing

Twenty-five years ago this week, a Fort Recovery native was preparing for a book-signing in Portland.

The Sept. 27, 1996, edition of The Commercial Review featured a story about Andy Pax’s color photo documentary of his trip to Mongolia that had been published earlier that summer. Margaret Cheeseman of The Corner Shop and Jay County Arts Council were sponsoring a book-signing event as well as an exhibit of some of his photos from Mongolia.

Pax, who was 29, graduated from the University of Dayton in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in photography and began working at Premix, E.M.S. in Portland to save money for a trip to Mongolia.

“From an early age, stories about people such as Ghengis Khan and Marco Polo sparked my interest in the culture and history of the region,” Pax said.

Two years later, Pax had enough money saved. He arrived in Mongolia in October 1993 and stayed for a full year. He attended the University for Mongolian Knowledge in Ulan Bator for a few months to learn some of the language and culture.

Pax said there were times he wanted to come home because of cultural misunderstandings. But, he stayed and learned about language and customs.

He also saw true poverty in person for the first time.

“I was very angry when I came home and would hear people talk about all the people who lived in poverty,” he said. “Poverty here would be rich there.

“It’s not poverty to them,” he added. “They just deal with it and go on.”