Conrad's comment on last week's story made me think. "I love that you always have accompanying images." In the beginning I borrowed my Dad's Mamiya 35mm SLR and set out, without any particular conscious plan, photographing what was in front of me, or so I thought. In fact, the limitations of film and money meant that each shot had to be chosen. There was no machine-gunning of a subject, each frame had to be leveraged along with a thumb before the next one was lined up, a slow process. Neither was there any possibility of altering a colour transparency afterwards. And that choosing of subjects necessarily drew on all the attitudes, aspirations and prejudices that the 1960s and 70s had managed to bury inside of me.
Hi Kevin. You have a brilliant writing style that makes my travelling experiences seem superficial and touristy compared to the authenticness of your travels. You inspire me to change the way I travel. Your photography is complementary to the stories. I've also travelled through Sudan but never got close to your camel photo. Just stunning. Keep up the stories - you are doing all the countries in my bucket list .
A wonderful read as always, making me reconsider if my finely posed portraits and mundane landscapes are really worth the effort...
A point to the article: I Googled “Azande talking drum” and saw nothing like what you described, nor anything resembling the photo of the carving. Lost to history?
You mentioned getting your first break as a sort of stand-in mistaken photojournalist. I take it you always travelled with a camera. Was the photography a crucial part of your career as a journalist or could you have done without?
I'm going to have to search for a photo of that drum. Some of them were so huge they could accommodate more than one drummer sitting on top. When I started travelling I thought the camera would create the essential record that I would look back on, but now I know it was the notebooks. Not that I'm encouraging you to stop taking pictures: "finely posed portraits" sounds interesting and worthwhile.
Hi Kevin. You have a brilliant writing style that makes my travelling experiences seem superficial and touristy compared to the authenticness of your travels. You inspire me to change the way I travel. Your photography is complementary to the stories. I've also travelled through Sudan but never got close to your camel photo. Just stunning. Keep up the stories - you are doing all the countries in my bucket list .
A wonderful read as always, making me reconsider if my finely posed portraits and mundane landscapes are really worth the effort...
A point to the article: I Googled “Azande talking drum” and saw nothing like what you described, nor anything resembling the photo of the carving. Lost to history?
You mentioned getting your first break as a sort of stand-in mistaken photojournalist. I take it you always travelled with a camera. Was the photography a crucial part of your career as a journalist or could you have done without?
I'm going to have to search for a photo of that drum. Some of them were so huge they could accommodate more than one drummer sitting on top. When I started travelling I thought the camera would create the essential record that I would look back on, but now I know it was the notebooks. Not that I'm encouraging you to stop taking pictures: "finely posed portraits" sounds interesting and worthwhile.