Bolivia. Santa Cruz. Tropical heat and humidity. Wandering around possibly the largest and craziest market I have ever seen. Thousands of Bolivians, a few mennonites and 1 gringo. Woman selling mirrors wanders past. Reflection catches my eye. One shot from the hip.

Six soles and a hasta lluego later, I have arrived. I look for el boletero, where do I buy my ticket? Confounded, I look at others and reverse engineer. A tiny hole in the wall, not much bigger than my hand, holds the secret to getting in. 30 soles and a ticket are exchanged. All I see is a hand, I wonder what is at the other end. I forget about my stomach ache and my cold and excitedly enter the Coliseo. The coliseum houses a famous and infamous Peruvian tradition – cockfights.

Hover over the image for navigation and full screen controls

It appears to be a quiet day, the coliseum is barely half full. It is an overcast cold Summer day. Still, the air is filled with anticipation, laughter and a thirst for action (and Cusqueña cervesas). I am the only gringo, I circle and become familiar with the place, the people, the action. I capture a few images on the edge, easing my way in. A fight is about to start. The roosters are fitted with the long sharp silvery spurs. “Izquierda”, “derecho”. Bets are made on the left or right side rooster. The tension builds. I ask for permission to enter the arena and shoot the preparations, am granted a “si si amigo” with a friendly smile and waved into the arena. Everyone reminds me “sin flash sin flash amigo!”. Claro, no problemo. No flash shooting for me, I do not wish to see a rooster in a blinded-by-the-flash freaked out rage chase me around the arena with a silver knife strapped to it’s leg (others might find that idea quite amusing though).

We leave the arena, the fight begins, the roosters circle each other. First fight is non dramatic, the roosters do not want to engage despite much egging on by the crowd and managers. “This was not so bad” I think, not really liking the whole concept of humans making animals fight. Next fight, different story. Rooster Derecho is violently slain dead in 30 seconds by a vicious rooster Izquierda. Crowd is excited. Stunned, I stop shooting. Loco. That was insane, dramatic, violent and bloody. The whole place is insane. And very interesting. Steeped in tradition, culture, violence, betting, life death and anarchy. Loud music is pumped out between the fights. Beer, lots of beer is inhaled. I must keep shooting and pick up the camera again.

The music is muted. Anticipation is high, tension can be tasted in the air. Final bets are made. New fights begin. Working the scene is a joy as it usually is in Peru, everyone allows me to go where I like. And get in close. This is intense, this odd micro cosmos contained within the Coliseo.

Two hours pass quickly, I walk out the gates and re-enter Cusco, insert myself into another tiny taxi, taking me to an Indian restaurant to meet Adam Weintraub and family. Loco. This whole day has been insane. And rather awesome. Started off the day in the Amazon jungle, returned to Cusco, experienced a very Peruvian event, the cockfights, and am now at an Indian restaurant with my Cusco friends. Only in Peru.

Thanks to Adam, Carlos and Maria for the Coliseo de Gallos experience.

Meet Glenn Baker. Glenn arrived from the 50s in his time machine wearing white sneakers, blue jeans and a black T-shirt. Glenn has seen a bit of mileage, so has the old cars and trucks that Glenn restores. Glenn breathes new life into them, takes them to a level of artwork. Glenn has looks and character to even outshine the cars.

Glenn is a friend of my friend Mark Stothard, I assisted Mark on a night shoot Mark was doing of Glenn and his treasured baby, his blue truck. Paul Pichugin showed up with some nice Bowen lights adding to the arsenal. An arsenal that includes umbrellas to shield from the rain. Using a combination of flash and light painting in an industrial setting we lit up Glenn, the truck and the factory. My portraits are however captured in natural light. View the final image from Mark here.

Gallery of behind the scenes images from a brilliant evening, cut a bit short by the rain but a part II is already scheduled:

An adventure it was, an adventure featuring classical elements. Lows, highs, challenges, disappointments, adversity, darkness, light, sadness, solitude, tears and smiles. Got a bit bumpy in the middle there, but it all sort of worked out in the end. The story of my life. But let me backtrack some.

July 2011, Copenhagen. I talk to Daniel Milnor and Adam Weintraub and soon after excitedly sign up for the PhotoExperience.Net workshop in Peru in December. The thought then becomes, with no other plans and since I am going to Peru, might as well inflate the trip into a couple of months of exploration of this, for me unknown continent. In my mind are day dreams of a South American adventure, jumping around the continent in my ‘time machine’ from country to country, capturing the lives of the people of América Del Sur. Dreams that have nothing to do with real life as we know it. Story of my life. Tend to day dream out loud and then get bruised as dreams meet reality head on.

1st of November 2011. The day has come, it is time for take-off. Time in Copenhagen stretched and warped, simultaneously feeling slow and fast. Now, sitting in the airport, time ran out, ran much too quickly. Not ready to go, not ready to stay, not prepared.

Argentina. So begins the Adventure of South America. Splashed down in Buenos Aires in my time machine. Big city, not at all my thing and not expecting to like it, but liked it even less than I expected. Saving grace was the fantastic Valentin and Ava, their brilliant B&B and the wonderful fellow guests. Finally meeting longtime acquaintance, adventurer and photographer extraordinaire and member of The Explorers Club – Daniel Fox – was also a true pleasure.

My mind balked at traveling again. Had been stalling for months meaning I had prepared nothing for this trip, apart from learning Spanish. Any attempt at preparation depressed me. What I do is not even really traveling, having no home means I am always, and I am never traveling. Just living in different places in the world. A lifestyle I no longer wanted, could no longer justify to myself. No purpose, no direction, drifting and feeling I was not much to anyone. Or not enough, anyway. Not really ready to leave Copenhagen, yet not really ready to stay. Living out of a bag, the constant transport and instability was not something my mind wanted any part of again. Buenos Aires served a purpose, it made it crystal clear what I did not want. To live as a nomad anymore. And made it crystal clear what I wanted. A home and everyday life again in Copenhagen near old friends and family. This decision gave me some much needed inner peace and strength. Somewhere in my mind a few gears clicked and started working. I finally knew I was going to be ok. In that respect I thank Buenos Aires. So I came close to giving up right away, as I saw no purpose anymore, but escaped to Salta in the Andes Mountains, hoping I would make it to the workshop in Peru.

Landing in Salta, this warm, dry and dusty desert town instantly appealed to me. Decided to find a place to hole up for a spell. Or I would go crazy, or go home – or both. Fortunately I found a nice house to rent. A house in an interesting poorer and very non-touristy part of Salta, me being the only gringo on the streets. Dusty dry streets and run down houses, cobwebs could blow across the street while gauchos slowly ride by and it would fit right in.

It was an interesting experience living in Salta for 5 weeks. Having the house and the very warm dry Summer of Salta calmed my mind. The surrounding areas and landscapes are very special and beautiful, the villages and people very interesting. Ultimately though, also a very frustrating and very lonely experience. Did not want to move, did not want to stay. Tired, the kind of tired sleep does not cure. Been on the road for too long. Really, just wanted out of my nomad lifestyle, but now that I was here in South America, must make it to the Peru workshop. Photography in Salta proved very hard. Explained in Spanish who I was and what I was doing and got to know some of the neighbors – but most people did not at all like the fact I was on the streets making pictures, and refused portraits. Sometimes drawing accusing and suspicious looks and not many smiles. Being much too sensitive to ignore this tension I grew disillusioned with my work and the nomad life I no longer wanted. Told myself that sometimes it takes a while to ‘get going’ but nothing really ever got going, running the time machine on an empty tank.

When time came to move, my mind broke down at the looming prospect of new instability. The very same day of packing my things, the last day in Salta, an acquaintance of mine in Copenhagen committed suicide. Not a close friend, but an amazing person and it affected me very deeply, sending me to a dark and lonely place. Came within a mouse click of going home to Copenhagen.

Instead, arrived in tropical Santa Cruz of Bolivia. Spent a few days and ultimately decided to weather the storm in my mind. I desperately wanted to make it to Peru and the workshop, the purpose for going to América Del Sur. My otherwise quite awful hostal had a nice swimming pool and tropical weather agrees with me. The food was much better than Argentina and cheaper, so I tried to be good to myself.

Next stop was La Paz. The first time that I actually let out a ‘wow’ in América Del Sur. The airport is located at 4km altitude in the Andes mountains. After landing, a drive down the mountainside suddenly and dramatically reveals La Paz. Mad, impossible La Paz, desperately clinging to the sides of a steep valley. Only the discovery of gold could produce a city in such a surreal location. La Paz takes your breath away. Literally. The 3.7km altitude, thin air and very steep streets are a trying combination. The ‘wow’ was short-lived. It rained an awful lot and was extremely cold, my mood was dark. Working was even harder than in Argentina. What little inspiration and energy I had left for photography, and travel, I lost.

Arriving in Cusco, Peru, and meeting me amigo, the awesome Adam Weintraub was a great relief. The workshop with Dan Milnor and Adam was now only a week away, the reason for going, the reason for not giving up. Stayed at Adam’s B&B enjoying the great hospitality of Adam and his family, and recharging internal batteries. Cusco is a fascinating and cool city full of great people. First time I got a ‘si si!’ to making a portrait of a person I was so surprised I screwed up the image. The cold weather took it’s heavy toll but the workshop was now very close.

The PhotoExperience.net workshop I have already spoken highly of in previous stories from Peru. It was a phenomenal experience and also a million laughs, very sorely needed. The workshop was worth the wait and even surpassing expectations. The fact I ended the workshop quite ill does not diminish of a fantastic time with fantastic people in wonderful Peru. The workshop challenged and rekindled my drive for photography, and especially documentary photography. My thanks to the whole workshop gang, the ‘giggle crew’, have not laughed that much that hard for that long. Peru and the workshop was a great high, a great end.

My Aventuras de América Del Sur ended in Santiago, Chile. Really just a few days of pit-stop waiting for my flight to Australia. Disliking big cities even when I am not sick, time was spent in the garden of my nice B&B recharging and recovering in the lovely warm Chilean Summer. Feeling slightly better, I boarded the plane for 24 hours of time travel to Perth, Western Australia.

So it ended, the América Del Sur adventure.
Got a bit bumpy there in the middle but it worked out in the end. The story of my life.

Postface

Not quite sure why I am even writing this post, except I feel I need to. My time machine has now brought me from the Amazon jungle in Peru to the other side of the world in a matter of days, to the sunny and warm Western Australian summer, visiting wonderful friends. Healthy again and re-charged, I look back with a different perspective. I realise that despite of, perhaps because of the hardship, América Del Sur very much crawled under my skin. Especially Peru affected my soul. The anarchy, chaos, energy, life, landscapes, villages and most of all wonderful people of Peru with their smiles and incredible hospitality left a deep impression. I feel drawn back to Peru.

Waves of homesickness hits me presently, and I seriously look forward to being home and creating the next phase in Copenhagen. Awfully exciting actually. I have traveled enough, for now. Seen enough, for now. Though, as much as it can hurt, I am not sure I ever want to stop daydreaming out loud. Only moderate it some. Questions enter my mind, with all I have seen, all I have done, can I just go back? Will it drive me crazy? Perhaps, but a life in Copenhagen is now what I want.

Whatever happens, it will be exciting. Whatever happens, I will be ok. Whatever happens, it will be another adventure, probably featuring all the classical elements.

Two and a half month I traveled and worked in América Del Sur. Having the opportunity to shoot almost every day I made a fair amount of images, street and documentary photography and some portraits. Images that I am now just starting to look at. And there’s nothing like prints to edit, sequence, select and judge images. So I very loosely selected a handful of images that looked interesting, turned out to be 185 images, about 3-4% of what I had captured. I made small prints of all of these and now I can play with them. Spread them all over the floor of the boat, touch them, shuffle them around, sequence, select them. Prints just speak to me in a way pixels on a screen do not. I can sequence and edit them over and over, creating a new creative result every time.  I am wanting to bring the physical process back into my photography and am looking forward to hopefully soon be shooting and processing black-white film myself with a Leica M6.

Looking at these images, do I have a body of work? I do not really know. There are some good images. A few greats. Lots of mediocre ones, good intentions, poor results. Forcing something out of nothing. Do I want to do something with these images? A new book? Books? A much smaller book, say concentrating on stories of Peru? Question everything? Yes. I do not know, that is part of what the prints are for, I can get to know what I have captured and see what (if anything) I want to do with these images. What do they tell me, what do I feel looking at them? Prints, even tiny ones like these, are a very important part of the process.

The Andes. Ancient and majestic mountains, windy, cold and unforgiving. The road snakes through the desolate and uninviting landscape. The sky is white, the wind fierce and colours are muted to a stark monochrome mood. Yet, here in this extreme environment people live and make their lives.

More a mood than a story, these pictures were made in the Andes mountains of Peru driving from Arequipa to Chivay. This was the third story I submitted for the group reviews in the brilliant Adam Weintraub PhotoExperience.net workshop with Daniel Milnor.

The solitude spoke to me instantly. I know it well having mapped out that feeling intensely. I chose black and white as I wished to do a different story at this time in the workshop, and it enhances the mood of the harsh environment. The 2nd to last image is easily omitted but I wanted to bring the traveler into this environment, 4 kilometers altitude, unforgiving, uninviting, fascinating.

“Stop!!!!” – I am quite sure it was Amy who first screamed what we all wanted, to stop the car. We had just spotted these wonderful people dressing up in the ‘barrios’ neighborhood of the town of Arequipa. Out jumps 9 photographers, like a task force, causing quite a stir. Fortunately the incredibly cool and nice people loved having 9 photographers documenting their small intimate Christmas festival, one of my favourite events in the entire workshop and unscripted, entirely by chance that we happened to be passing by. They invited us to stay and partake in the festivities, wanting to share their food and beer. What incredible hospitality, 9 photographers show up and they instantly invites us in to dinner. Peruvians are cool.

This is the photo essay I submitted for our second review, day 3 of the Photoexperience.net Peru workshop with Daniel Milnor.  Slightly modified version, featuring Dan’s suggestions for sequencing. Quite happy with this essay, the first two images are two of my favourites from Peru and good images do not happen often and require a lot of work. I am very excited about working this way, always thinking of an image series and a story. Documentary photography, storytelling and bookmaking was the reason for doing the workshop and is where my focus and interest is, exciting and challenging.

First, merry Christmas and happy new years. Somewhat late, apologies, but it is a new year somewhere in the universe. Been absent from my blog for a while as I knocked about South America in my time machine. Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and now Chile. Spent the past 3 weeks in Peru. Christmas in Peru equals massive fun filled festivals full of colourful costumes, food and beer, lasting days even months. One of my favourite photos from our workshop in Peru: Two boys from the ‘barrio’ neighborhood of Arequipa in Peru, ready for the Christmas festival party.

Argentina and Bolivia were very bumpy roads indeed for me. Fortunately Peru was quite the opposite and super. The 16 day Adam Weintraub PhotoExperience.net workshop in Peru; with Daniel Milnor as our teacher + Dan’s wife Amy Kawadler and Adam Weintraub as co-instructors, was absolutely phenomenal. Exceeded my high expectations. A million laughs round the clock, have not laughed that much for a long time, very needed. Great locations, lectures, reviews, one-on-one sessions, photo-shoots and . Learned a lot and captured some nice photo essays which I shall share soon. We ended with 5 days expedition in the Amazon jungle, simply brilliant. Thanks to the whole group, the giggle crew, for an outstanding time. Our hardest moment was attempting not to laugh during a night walk in the Amazon jungle where we were supposed to be quiet. We lasted all of 10 minutes before chatting, laughing. Special thanks to Adam, my great amigo, photographer and organizer, thanks also for having me at your place in Cusco and you and your family’s great hospitality. I shall return, I trust you Adam to fix the weather in Cusco for me! Special thanks to Dan for the inspiration, ideas, help, reviews, and many, many laughs. Anytime you want me to quote the entire Star Wars movie from memory, just let me know – “you’ll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy”.

Possibly need to regenerate like Doctor Who soon. My once healthy body is also in need of a home, immune system needs fixing. Caught a vicious stomach bug and a bad cold in Peru. Hoping some Summer in Australia will help, taking the time machine for a spin again and splash down in Perth on Friday.

More to come, till then, be well.

Presently I am in South America, working on my HOME project. Capturing the people and their environments and living conditions, attempting to show how there’s much more than unites than divides us–no matter where we live.

I spent a few days in Buenos Aires, which, like any big city, I did not like much, the La Boca suburb (not the touristy part) was interesting though and I met some great people at the splendid Ada & Valentyn’s B&B. Also, I finally got to meetup with longtime acquaintance, the rather awesome, Daniel Fox. Now, I am in Salta in the North West. Surrounded by mountains, with a dry 34 degrees heat, underneath a dusty blue sky this desert like town and the surrounds are very interesting and promises good opportunities for my documentary HOME project. I may end up staying here for quite a while. Certainly, moving again has little appeal, until I am meeting Adam Weintraub and Daniel Milnor in Peru in mid December.

Travel, especially the moving part of it, I have now overdone to the point of causing an allergic reaction in my mind when I think about moving, not having a home. Waking up, not knowing where I am. I must be rather thick as here I am, one very last endeavour. I look forward to settling down when I am home again, a home, a job, a life. Had to go around the world three times to figure out where home was, who I was–and am–and want to be and that I am going to be ok. Like I said, rather thick!

It is a relief to relieve myself of the pressure of producing and constantly publish single-image photos for now and just work on my own long term project. I am presently very much into documentary style story-based work, learning this as I go by shooting an awful lot of ordinary images but the process itself is as important as the result. Work like there’s no audience. Therefore I will not be posting much either, this is slow journalism and a long term project for upcoming books and magazines.

Till that day, be well.

Charlene Winfred, a dear friend of mine, has a great long running photo series on Nightwalking featuring some awesome images of Perth at night. Long have I promised her to do a similar shoot in Copenhagen. Long have I had plans to wake up at 2am in Summer and go night walking – at Summer darkness does not win over light until around midnight. That never happened, so instead I spent two freezing evenings in October roaming the city and I have finally captured a few images of Copenhagen by Night – read on.

Copenhagen by Night

The first walk was on the annual “Night of Culture” (awful name) event in Copenhagen—meaning the city was lit up like on no other night, and thousands of people take to the streets to partake in events and visit museums, castles, all places stay open till midnight.

Having attempted nightwalking photography in Copenhagen, I am even more in awe of Charlene’s work. It would take many walks in Copenhagen at night before I had a series I would be truly happy with. Charlene has a great eye for details in her night shoots, something I do not. I tend to look for the big picture and several of these images tell too much of the story, does not leave enough for the imagination. Actually, mostly I was looking for a way to get indoors again, quick, before my fingers froze.

Night walking and shooting is interesting, I am now bringing the camera on all future night walks.

I am driving in the desert. Just driving. The road runs straight as an arrow to infinity. Makes me feel safe. Feel less. The desolate nothingness is overwhelming and pleasingly numbing. Calms the storm. The hypnotic hum of the wheels mix in with the music. Drown out the voices. The car has become an extension of me. I feel in control.

Driving the car pauses just enough brain cells to halt the free fall. A fast moving car turns out to be a perfect place to forget about my problems. The desert is my sole companion. My only conversation for a month was provided by border patrol officers–pulled me over near Mexico. I pass small towns. There is a world happening somewhere but I cannot participate.

Tired. The sort of tired sleep cannot fix. Broken. Everything I know is wrong. Must drive. I stare at the edge. Pushed to the edge of insanity. Perhaps I already went over. So I guess I should climb back up. But life–and the world–never will look the same.

The road promises new experiences. Empty promises perhaps, but something to believe in; now all faith seems lost. A promise of a better tomorrow? An illusion? I must keep moving. When I stop the shadows catch up.

Maybe this road goes on forever? This road will never end. Still have a long way to go.

.

THE ROAD in images. To see the visual story, click below, scroll right on the new page to see the images like a book.

NOTE! This short story is based on some personal experiences and is also an homage to great stories by Jack Kerouac, Douglas Coupland and Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho. I have borrowed–well stolen really, sorry–freely from these masters and their amazing stories.

.

If visitors arrived from another planet and took an overall view of our common problems, I presume they would tell us “overpopulation, lack of drinking water, lack of food, and you are ruining your own home, your planet”. Now; it would be naive to think we can do without the natural resources of our planet such as natural gas, but we must act in a sustainable way, and not succumb to greed and short sighted solutions – such as placing the world’s largest gas hub right in one of the world’s few remaining areas of wilderness.

Having previously blogged about James Price Point perhaps you are already familiar with the campaign to save James Price Point and have the world’s largest gas hub built in a better alternative place – not on top of sacred James Price Point, home to whales and endangered species. Crunch time for the Kimberley is now, get involved or this pristine wilderness is lost forever. The strong Broome community is presently campaigning and fighting everyday against the Woodside drilling equipment and vehicles. A group of photographers including among others, Nigel Gaunt, Christian Fletcher and David Bettini – and yours truly – have been invited to participate in an exhibition in Broome in October, I am proud to be part of it.

Featuring footage from Michael Fletcher and my own self, I have created this video that will play at the exhibition. Be sure to watch in HD and fullscreen, click the fullscreen icon on the video player below (between HD and vimeo logo)

These are my 5 prints for the exibition. The prints are for sale, all proceeds go directly to the campaign.

The last image in the video is a Photoshop creation of mine, two images combined, that you can view here:

Get involved, read more about James Price Point: Environs Kimberley, Wilderness Society, Save the Kimberley

-

I am proud to present my book Asia Stories featuring stories from Papua New Guinea, Laos and Cambodia. The images in this book contain some of the stories that have affected me deeply during the first two years of my life on the road. The experiences I gathered, people I met, places I visited, and lessons I learnt, changed me almost completely. Little exists of the person I was before. The books is 138 pages, hardcover with dust jacket and printed on gorgeous thick Mohawk uncoated cotton paper with a lovely textured art feel to it. Watch a video about the book:

Asia Stories is for sale via Blurb.com, you order the book directly on the Blurb website and the book is shipped to you.

I also presently have 25 signed copies for sale directly from me, presently I have about 8 or 9 left so contact me quickly if you are interested. The price for the signed book is 500 DKR – 70 EUROS, 100 AUD/USD + postage.

Here is a preview of the entire book:

The book was a collaborative effort between me and my editor and friend Charlene Winfred and is the result of 3-4 months of work. Charlene tirelessly edited, sequenced and curated my images and words, nursing the stories into something special and improving my book to no end. Thank you so much Charlene, and I highly recommend Charlene Winfred if you need an editor – or a damn good photographer!

I hope this has piqued your interest in Asia Stories. Any questions regarding the book, do please contact me.

~

All my sensory inputs are experiencing firsts. My nose detects a unique mixture of tropical humidity, heat, people, teak wood huts, spices, fried meat, fish, vegetables, sewage and diesel exhaust from boats. The colours are vibrant and rich. Everything is painted in saturated tones, longboats, huts and clothes. Colourful advertisement posters are utilised as decoration. It seems all the colours of the world has gathered to party in this town.

The river is life, the river is where the children swim, where the laundry is done, where the sewage floats, where the longboats’ engine puffs black smoke, where fishing is done; the river is the source of all activity. The river is alive with sounds, children laughing, people talking, cooking food, hanging out, water splashing as longboats pass each other, engines sputtering. The river is home, the teak tree wooden huts sit right on the river, connected by a organic network of intertwined walkways, planks and jetties. I am invigorated by this tropical town bursting with life and energy.

I am in Pangkalan Bun, a town in the Southern part of Indonesian Borneo. I am being driven up and down the river in a longboat with three friends, we are here to shoot a corporate video. Smiles split our faces as we take in and connect to this interesting town. There are no tourists here, we are creating a spectacle whenever we are spotted, had we landed in a spaceship I doubt we would have caused more commotion. We arrived here from Kuala Lumpur and it feels as if we travelled back in time; my friends tells me this is as seeing Bangkok from 100 years ago. The temperature is pushing 40c degrees and the humidity is close to 100%. Later as we walk the streets, somewhat red-faced and sweaty, children laugh, point at us and offer advice in Indonesian. “What are they saying?” I ask my Indonesian speaking friend Georg. He laughs and translates their words: “go to air condition!”.

Borneo and Pangkalan Bun left a massive impression on me, kindling my love for Asia and in retrospect it was a large factor in my decision to sell my home, my belongings and become a nomad photographer. It also marked the first time I became very excited by capturing people, their lives and homes, something that has now turned into my main passion in photography. It has been more than two years since my visit to Pangkalan Bun, and as we were on a tight production schedule shooting corporate videos, we had only one free afternoon for a river trip; an afternoon etched into my mind. These few days on Borneo were special. Of course; most days are not like this, a fact I was blind to at the time. My memories of Pangkalan Bun are possibly warped, I was drunk on karma and a distorted perspective that boomeranged. Life is still just life wherever I live it.

Yet when I close my eyes I believe I can still hear the people by the river, smell and feel the air, inhale the tropical climate and taste the food. Asian life and tropical climate ignites me, breathes life into me and ultimately totally exhausts me forcing me to recharge elsewhere. However I always feel compelled to return. When I close my eyes I dream of the day I will return to Pangkalan Bun. Not to re-live these memories, but to create new memories, to experience and capture more of the people and their everyday life in this tropical river town.

PANGKALAN BUN IN IMAGES. To see the visual story, click the image below to open a page that loads the images, then scroll right to see all the images, like a book.

PANGKALAN BUN IN VIDEO. Below is my video of Pangkalan Bun and the nearby Tanjung Puting National Park. Do watch it in fullscreen (click the symbol with the 4 arrows next to the vimeo logo in the player below).

~

Thanks to Charlene Winfred for helping with sequencing the images.

I am presently (with great help from my editor Charlene Winfred) putting the finishing touches on my upcoming photo book, something I am very excited about. The 138 page book has been carefully edited, sequenced and written and features 4 stories from Asia, essays and more than 60 images, from Papua New Guinea, Laos and Cambodia. The book will be 25×20 cm in size and printed on gorgeous professional Mohawk heavy fine art paper. To the right is a sneak preview from the layout in Indesign.

The book will be available via Blurb.com and available to order in 2-3 weeks. I am considering selling a batch of limited edition signed copies and would like to hear if there’s interest in this. The price for the limited edition signed hardcover version will be roughly 500 DKR (100 USD or AUD) plus shipping. Comment here or email me if you are interested, this is a non binding agreement of course, I just want to hear how many are interested.

UPDATE: At least 10 people have expressed interest in a signed copy, so it will definitely happen. If you are interested leave a comment here or email me.