Why do I photograph, write and publish books?
To surprise, delight, enlighten and enrich your life, by revealing and depicting aspects of the world and the people in it that might go unnoticed.
No one else in the world has the exact same viewpoint you do. I value other people’s viewpoints and appreciate it when they share them. And I believe my unique viewpoint is valuable and is worth sharing.
If your views can add to someone else’s experience, knowledge and enjoyment of the world around them, then you want to share them.
Perhaps the best way to share your viewpoint is through your art.
My passion
What I love to do the most and what I can get totally absorbed in, is to go somewhere away from my usual surroundings with my camera gear, explore, meet the people, get a feel for the place, take photos and video of what I find unique, remarkable and different, and then go home, edit the photos and video and put everything together in a multimedia book that captures the essence of the place and people from my viewpoint. Then make that book available to anyone who would find it interesting.
The details
There’s more to the process than that, but those are the mechanics. It is not a travelogue. It is not a guidebook. It is not a personal memoir. I have a definite aim in mind. I want to show you aspects of your world that you might otherwise miss and give you a new, expanded view. For people who have never visited the place I am in, I want to provide a sense of what it’s really like there: not which bar serves the best cocktails or which hotel is most like the hotels at home, but what you can expect to find in that location.
Before I go I research the place and the people, try to see what photographs, books and other media already exist: what are the clichés; what has everyone already seen. Then when I am there, I look for…not that. I look for what has been missed, the viewpoint that is not usual or clichéd. It’s not that I object to the same shot of Machu Picchu over and over again with prehaps slight differences in the cloud cover. It’s just that everyone has already seen those. So adding yet another similar photo of Machu Picchu or Venice or Paris that everyone has already seen is not my way of contributing to or enriching anyone’s life.
This is not necessarily a single, quick visit proposition. It takes time to get to know a place and its inhabitants, to dig below the surface and not just pay a quick, superficial visit and “cross that one off my bucket list.” Usually it’s several visits and living somewhere for some time before I can produce any work that I consider representative and valuable.
Some examples
Venice
Let’s take Venice as an example. When you look up Venice online or in a travel guide you see photos of the Grand Canal, St. Mark’s Square, St. Mark’s Basilica, the Lagoon, the rows of colorful houses in Burano (usually the same row) and lots of gondolas ferrying tourists around the canals. I wanted a different view of Venice. Eventually I found it. Reflections! The city seen in the water. It rises out of the water. It is crisscrossed by canals, surrounded by water and in winter it can be totally flooded with water. So my version of Venice is that wonderful city reflected in the water. It’s a beautiful, rapidly changing view that largely goes unnoticed.
Bhutan
Or take Bhutan. The little Himalayan kingdom, land of happiness, is not well known, but if you have seen pictures of Bhutan they always include the amazing Tiger’s Nest Monastery clinging to the side of the mountain above Paro. Next in line are the masked dancers and religious festivals, monasteries and Dzongs (fortified combined secular and religious centers of each district). It’s all beautiful. But what struck me the most about Bhutan was the people and particularly the children. They are what makes Bhutan unique in my mind. So when I produce my book on Bhutan (it is well under way) it will focus on the people, their life, their traditions, and will obviously include the environment they have created to live in, which can also be quite spectacular, and which they take the greatest pride in and care of.
I love the whole process of venturing forth, finding what’s there, capturing it in pixels and memories, editing, choosing the photos and clips and words that will portray the place and its people accurately and will resonate with reader/viewer to the point that they want to go and see for themselves.
I am aiming for a new view.
Why I concentrate on the positive
There’s another point. Hundreds if not thousands of my photos have been published along the way. I have written hundreds of articles, ghost written two biographies and a full length fantasy novel as well as a number of non-fiction titles, created videos, photographed and written for international magazines and major corporations. But I have never considered myself a journalist or a reporter.
I have never been interested in stressing the negative side of life. It’s not that I don’t recognize that it’s there or that I am trying to minimize the downside of the human condition. It’s just that it already gets so much publicity. You’ve probably noticed that what one puts attention on becomes larger and more important. If you stress the negative, it only increases in size and significance and you get a more negative condition. Of course some attention to undesirable conditions is needed in order to produce change. But there is already a glut of that around. So I prefer to stick with the positive, the beautiful, the aesthetic and stress that – the truth of what is there, but with emphasis on the good rather than the bad. You can always dig out misery, disease, war and poverty and advertise it. It’s not what I do.
I hope that some of my work will appeal to you, perhaps enlighten you, and certainly surprise and delight you.
