Disco Lorry
These garishly decorated trucks in Lahore, Pakistan were used to mainly haul marble, but would be laden with any number of burdens as they noisily clambered down the crowded Grand Trunk Road. In a strict Islamic Republic, such transports become an outlet for artistic expression and flare. Armed with hand carved wooden masts, custom paint [...]
Arnhem Lands
Asiatic water buffalo wander the flood plains of Northern Australia, creating an intricate highway of migratory paths. This northwest territory is called Arnhem Land, and is the traditionally sacred and governmentally sanctioned lands inhabited by the Aboriginal tribes of Australia. A vast, lush habitat, teeming with exotic bird life, reptiles, and a horde of mosquitoes [...]
Sadhu Sadhu
Both mystic and ascetic, Sadhus renounce a life of visceral and carnal pleasure to pursue the highest levels of Hindu spiritual life. Adhering to an ancient ritual, they must attend and witness their own funeral, dying unto themselves and the State at large.
Forsaking their friends and family, they wander as ochre clad ghosts in a [...]
Ssese Island Sensitivity
I am aboard a “barge”, (as the word ferry is sometimes, well, too fairy) flotsaming across the great Lake Victoria in Uganda, towards the Ssese Islands.
Having the time to ingest numerous books and films in my African wilderness isolation has brought to my attention how affected I can be by music, literature, and film, and [...]
Surviving the Swine Flu
At 4 am, we were awakened by the mechanical roar of the generator being coaxed to life, oil and tainted fuel running through its ragged and chapped veins. It was a deafening clamor compared to the peaceful sounds of the jungle. Luckily the lights are delayed in their incandescent intrusion by the length of wire [...]
Uxpanapa Expedition
I arrived in Mexico via Ciudad del Carmen, an airline’s maximum weight allowance worth of photo gear in tow, and was greeted by the damp and sticky handshake of the Yucatan Peninsula’s humid breath. As all of the passengers waited to pass through the one customs officer, sweat started to bead on our foreheads and [...]
Overnight Train to Enlightenment
With so many places highlighted by television and film, you begin to develop mental models of them, and form an ideal experience in your head that represents your fantasies of that place. For India this was certainly the case, and an overnight train was one of those things we felt we had to do.
Arriving at [...]
Love in the Air, God on the Road Side
We awoke to meet our driver, a man who spoke absolutely no English and had the cold demeanor of an army general, and left towards Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Along the way, we stopped sporadically to photograph a few things, including a lavishly tattooed camel, a trick monkey dyed red, and badly translated [...]
An Older Delhi is a Better Delhi
After our brief but memorable stint in Kashmir, we returned to Delhi to meet up with our friend Chad, arriving from Dallas that night, to continue our journey on from there. We had a hefty dose of Delhi traffic on our way to the hotel, which still shied in comparison to the seething mass of [...]
All Things Kashmir
We arrived in Delhi, greeted by thick heat and humid air, and the peaceful vibe that only a nation full of Hindus could create. We met our fixer JP, who had organized most of this trip for us, and he took us to our hotel. After a hot shower and full meal of local cuisine, [...]
Marooned in Pakistan
This story is a comedy of errors, a day where all that can go wrong did, and an experience that only being an experienced traveller gets you through. A day worth so much trouble and hassle, that only Pakistan could dole out.
We arrived in Abu Dhabi from Cairo without incident, and passed the 7 hour [...]
Trash Dwellers & Sufi Mystics
As we had already organized a guide, and the guide had already organized a rigid itinerary, we were caravaned around a few of the more popular tourist attractions, the Citadel being one of them. As I was busy photographing, and not paying attention to what our guide Lina was saying, I cannot give you much [...]
The Great Egyptian Hustle
After a lifetime of wonder and anticipation, I finally arrived in Egypt. What followed in my short time there was, as is with most places you imagine going to, very different then I expected. Experience varies greatly with the company that you keep, and I always manage to meet someone who shows us something hidden [...]
School’s Out for a Photo Shoot
We awoke at 6 AM to the usual clamor of our kind, but clumsy kitchen boy fumbling with the tin cups and metal utensils on the thin metal table. While laying exhausted in bed, it seems as if he is dumping everything out of a bucket from a considerable height, and then scraping and slamming [...]
Quibla Bandi Boar Hunt
We are now in a small village in a mountainous region near northwestern Pakistan, an area called Quibla Bandi. We have commandeered a house on a hill overlooking a small lake, and the green sprawl of wheat fields and farmsteads below. There is something that is ultimately more peaceful about the countryside, and the sound [...]
Leaving Lahore Behind
After such an eventful day yesterday, and a dead of the night panic stricken dream of intruders in our hotel room, I slept in a bit, and caught up on editing and writing. Being all packed up once again, we left Lahore to get back to Islamabad, where we are meeting our next guide, and [...]
A Terrorist Attack
Today we awoke to news that there had been a terrorist attack less than 3 kilometers from our hotel. We were already going to switch hotels, so as not to be in the same place for too long, but now it was very clear that we needed to change locations. The Sri Lankan cricket team, [...]
Mosquepade
We started a little later today, as the writing and editing backlog kept me up a little later than expected. But good headway was made, and hopefully you shall see the results soon, if not right now. So many photographs to choose from, as Lahore is such an interesting place, and editing becomes a very [...]
Greetings, Ancient Lahore
On our drive into Lahore, we witnessed a complete transformation of the landscape and climate. There were vast green fields of crops and flowers, livestock, and homesteads that exuded serenity as they zipped past our hired car windows. As we approached town, a fruit cart on the side of the road was glowing with [...]
Fear and Loathing in Karachi
Today we finally slept in a bit, at least until sunrise, and then started packing for our trip to Islamabad. Even though I have travelled frequently with a lot of photography gear, it is still always a daunting task to re-organize and pack for airplane travel after 4 days of filming.
After our breakfast and tea [...]
Days in Duriji
I have been in Pakistan for 4 days now, and to say the least, it has been an eye opening experience. I have been hiking up very steep and unforgiving Baluchi terrain, and have been burnt and cooked under the intense and relentless Pakistani sun. In the company of local Patan people, we were never [...]
All nighter in Karachi
To say the least, my first night in Pakistan has been a very interesting one. It started with our flight being delayed from Dubai on Pakistan International Airlines, because 4 passengers had checked into the flight, checked 4 pieces of luggage, and then disappeared. So we spent the next 45 minutes watching the “ground crew” [...]
En route to Pakistan
So I find myself once again aboard a jet, flying halfway across the world to a remote region. A familiar feeling that a few months in American society can easily make you forget about. The days leading up to this trip were dizzying, gathering all of the necessary photography and filming gear, checking, double checking, [...]