About Qamera
Runaway Trains, '00
I have always been fascinated with people, places and things and this constantly drives me out into the world. It could be an afternoon walking through a market. Or just keeping a camera in the back seat of the car should something interesting present itself. Often, though, “spontaneous life observation” requires some premeditation. For example, spending six months to prepare for an epic train journey from the equatorial South Pacific to the European Arctic. Or two years to organize an expedition of fellow vivants to travel to, then climb, a remote peak in the Chinese Himalaya – only to ski back down from the summit. Or grabbing my four kids, arming them with “point-and-shoots”, and blasting off on a wildly frenetic yet highly orchestrated 28-day sampler tour of the world.
Around the World '05
Spontaneous life observation can also be jump-started by, well, jumping into a car and heading down the highway. We Americans call it the “road trip” but I am more attracted to the Australian aboriginal “walkabout” because of the spiritual component. Either way, there is something primal and purifying about heading out into the unknown or even into the familiar – for both will always reveal a chaotic blend of the ordinary and the strange.
No Exit, '73
It all started in 1973 on the day after my high school graduation, when two friends and I embarked on our own version of On The Road. It was the mother of all road trips – even Kerouac would have declared it “over the top”. Our purpose was singular: to acquire mileage. We achieved this by distilling everything down to two steadfast rules: no stopping for more than 24 hours at a time, and no maps. In just two months we amassed over 25,000 miles. The byproduct was a collage of the people, places and things that make up our country – not photographed, but branded into my psyche.
If only we had digital cameras back then. Instead, my “Qamera” – the portal of observation – was a small portable typewriter. Somewhere in my archives is the manuscript. Excerpts from that and other journeys might very well find their way into the Journal page here as stray snippets, fractured recollections, or more structured philosophical treatises. Okay maybe not the latter.
Tibet '82
The first photo of mine that was published professionally (read: “got paid for”) was the cover of a book by Sir Christian Bonington about his 1982 expedition up the last unclimbed ridge of Everest. I got to tag along with this group of rather serious mountaineers because my employers sponsored the expedition and because I spoke Chinese. The byproduct was a fascination not only about people, places and things – but about capturing their stories for others to see.
And that is what Qamera is all about. I hope that you will enjoy this project. I hope these vignettes will enrich and inspire. Please visit often.
