Work Abroad

There’s no one way to tell someone how to take a good photo. Travel photography, like other arts, is all about your subjective perspective and there are also a huge amount of variables. The most basic example is that of color images versus black and white—if the subject is flora then common sense indicates to us that black and white is not the way to go, but on the other hand, when covering a rather bleak theme such as a cemetery or a slum, forsaking color is a rather effective tool.

Blurriness is also another fine example of the varying rules of travel photography. It’s certainly a big no-no for an individual portrait (of a desert Bedouin let’s say), but when dealing with an urban theme, the blurry image of a group of a people rushing in and out of a subway carriage as its doors are about to swing shut, adds just the right flair.

A very important tip for prospective travel photographers is to de-emphasize the obvious. For example, if you’re in India, shots of the Taj Mahal or even the ghats of Varanasi are not really the way to go – they’ve been overexposed by the global media and drained of their visual power. A gallery of photos showing a local eunuch’s daily plight, however, or the artwork featured on the country’s commercial long-distance trucks, would be a sublime theme that would illuminate a whole hidden side to that country.

Just as most successful authors recommend reading as many books as possible as a key to becoming an efficient writer, looking at as many travel photos as possible is a great way to enhance one’s ‘eye’ for good images. Understanding the leitmotifs of other photographers will help you find ways to reinterpret the places you visit. Sublime leitmotifs have a pretty good chance of being swooped up commercially as well.

One very good example of this is a coffee table book by Basil Pao titled “Hands: A Journey Around the World.” It consists of images of various pairs of hands from different corners of the globe and the stories of the individuals behind them. Thus we have a sublime leitmotif put into good use for a thorough photographic and cultural journey around the world.

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