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.

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. 

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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.

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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

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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:

Asia Stories by Flemming Bo Jensen

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.

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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).

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Thanks to Charlene Winfred for helping with sequencing the images.

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.

PS. Yes, I ended up breaking my own rule of no self-promotion rather quickly. And I need to wave my arms around a little less on video!

HOME. It is more than a place, more than a location. It is a feeling and a state of mind. Home is usually associated with many memories. Home can be a place you are very attached to. Home can be filled with stuff that helps you define who you are and your relation to the world. ‘Home is where the heart is’ goes the saying, although I am not entirely certain what this means. ‘This place feels like home’ is another saying, one I have said myself on occasions. In reality it makes little sense as I find we always tend to say this almost right upon arriving. What then is the feeling of home?

The feeling of home is no doubt very important to us. It is a feeling I try to re-create whenever I can. Presently I have no home so I must seek other ways to feel at home. As some will know; I sold almost everything I owned including my home two years ago and am traveling the world in search of, well, many things. Images, people, experiences, places, me. I still live as a nomad.

A sense of security, a sense of my own private space. A feeling of being comfortable and at rest. A place where I can breathe and just be. A place where I can re-charge in solitude. That is some of the things that home means to me. I have found that as a nomad I cannot re-create the entire feeling of home. It is simply one of the things I gave up when I began my nomadic existence. But still needing a home I must be creative. About 50-60 different beds have been ‘home’ the past two years. Some have been home for just a day, some for months. Everything from tents to swags under the stars to hostels to fantastic times living on boats in Australia.

There are days where I love the freedom and the feeling that I can accomplish everything. That impossible is nothing. Days where dreams come true and I truly believe I am building up to something that will end up having meaning and making a difference. Then there are the other days. The days where I long for having my own home. Where the world spins far too quickly and my brain screams for some stability, a 9-5 job and a home. Freedom and life without a home magnifies the highs and lows.

The past two years have taught many lessons, one of them being that I may be a nomad but I must re-create some of the feelings of home quite often. Being a nomad does not mean I always have to travel. It is taxing living on the road and my only way of recharging is feeling secure in my own space, where I can remember to pause and breathe. Just an hour in a park listening to music on headphones with my eyes closed can help immensely. I need these moments of solitude to face the world again. I may become distant or walk away in social situations as I create moments of solitude, moments of home. Home also means a place where I can unpack my things even for just a little while. Living out of a bag becomes somewhat tiring, unpacking my tooth brush is a way to be home.

Naturally I will one day have a home again somewhere. Apparently I said “I could totally live here” so many times in Papua New Guinea it became a running joke. Certainly, I am fond of the tropical climate and can see it as a home. In the meantime my own secure space where I can pause, even just space inside my head, is what home is to me presently. What home is to others is very fascinating to me. My path has taken me to many places in the world and I have the opportunity to document how people live and it is a story that has taken on great meaning for me.

We all call the same planet home yet we live in very different conditions. From luxury mansions to towering steel structures to huts made of cow dung. We are born into very different lives in different parts of the world. The large contrast spans from city life in a hectic mega metropolis like Bangkok to life on a tropical island with no electricity in Papua New Guinea. When I look out over Los Angeles from the Griffith Observatory it seems a vast industrial planet made up entirely of city lights. When I trek through a forest in Laos arriving at a remote hilltop village reachable only by crossing a river on foot, it seems almost impossible I am still on the same planet.

How we live seems to have a profound effect on how we feel and behave. Often in rich suburbia, fences are built and security companies patrol the streets. It appears the more money and stuff we have the more cautious and suspicious we become. We feel we must protect and not share our home. The opposite is the smiles and warm and kind hospitality that I have encountered in poorer countries. People may not have much but what they have they not only treasure, they also share. This has happened in so many places it cannot be a fluke. The people I have met in places like Laos, Kenya, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea have touched me deeply with their warmth and hospitality, smiles and spirit of life. I do not wish to idealize their lives, there is nothing romantic about being poor, I wish to merely reflect on a paradox. In these poorer countries where people have very little and struggle for food and money, there is an amazing spirit and joy of life expressed by everyone. Much more so than is on immediate display in developed rich countries where we have so much but perhaps take it for granted.

We live in entirely different ways in entirely different homes. But I find the more I travel the more I discover that we are all the same. We all share the same planet. We all have so much in common and want the same things no matter where and what our home and everyday life is on our planet. Carl Sagan says: “it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known”.

Our homes and everyday lives is a story I very much look forward to further explore and document.

THE ‘HOME’ STORY IN IMAGES. I chose a variety of images of people and their homes for this story and present them in a new way. Click the image below to load the image story and then scroll right to see all the images, like a book.

EDIT: The HOME story is now available as a magazine, click to read more about NOMAD magazine.
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I want to tell personal stories about me and my present life as a nomad photographer. I always struggle with the idea why anyone would be interested in my life and thoughts, but then again when you read my blog I want the words and images to mean something. These personal stories I also very much enjoy writing, but I have to be in the right (not self-punishing) mood. It is no secret I have and still struggle mightily in getting my groove back after being sick for weeks.

Ch-ch-ch-changes. I will now post less frequently but strive for content with some meaning and quality in personal stories. I hope that will interest you. Next post will be about the concept of ‘Home’, what it means to me, featuring images of people and their homes from my travels.

-Flemming

These two images are straight out of Capture One with only sharpness added in Photoshop after resizing. I am teaching myself Capture One as I’m assisting a friend who uses Capture One for his work including shooting tethered on site. I am quite impressed by the tethering feature, it works really well. As an expert Lightroom user there are quite a few features that I miss in Capture One (or perhaps I cannot find them). The awesome lens correction tool in Lightroom is much better than C1 and I cannot figure out how to split tone a colour image, for example tint the shadows blue. Capture One is also slow as molasses. But the colour module is outstanding and I find the processing engine to live up to it’s reputation as the best on the market. The processed TIFFs have a sharp and crisp very 3D quality and the colour tones are incredibly detailed, subtle and beautiful. For the processing and colour engine alone I may end up switching to Capture One. I shall need it anyway for when Phase One decides to sponsor me a Phase One. That reminds me, I presently live 2 km’s from the office of Phase One, I must go ask for my camera!

I am waiting to get my groove back. There is a storm raging in my mind. I miss the ocean like the deserts miss the rain. Tim Winton’s Breath is amazing. Freediving even for just a few seconds is spellbinding. The sea can scare me. The sea can make me feel strong and calm. Breath. Holding my breath.

EDIT: Neglected to mention the image. It is a late night Photoshop creation of many different layers, waves, clouds, textures and a self portrait. Very dark, should be viewed in a dark environment.