Portfolio of Works

"To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries", British author Aldous Huxley (1884-1963). My first major international solo exhibition was held at Krista Gallery in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast Russia. The Opening was on October 26, 2018 and the exhibit ran from October 25 to November 24. Many thanks to my host, the gallery owner, for giving me this opportunity to exhibit 60 photographs from my travels to Bangladesh and India, and for giving me the opportunity to photograph in rural Russia in order to get a feel for what life is like for the Russian people. An amazing experience: Russia is a poor country, the people are resilient, hard working, love to sing and read poetry after a hard days work, are very religious and so friendly and welcoming to strangers. And I tasted some delicious Borscht!

Bangladesh is a country with a population of 165,466,004, the major religion being Islam (90%). Upon first arriving I found Dhaka to be terribly polluted, noisy, chaotic, crowded and full of energy! The people proved to be most welcoming where ever we travelled and genuinely curious about these foreigners in a country that is not your typical tourist destination. 

The incredibly bright colours, the chai from the street vendors, the delicious food and the friendliest, most welcoming of people make me want to return. A pure delight to travel in Rajasthan, India, nothing but the best of experiences!

It is always a pleasure to spend a few days in Bangkok, Thailand when travelling to this part of the world to visit and photograph with my incredible friends here and to experience new locales near this invigorating city.

Flying over Myanmar/Burma, I was struck by the golden domes of the myriad pagodas glistening in the sun as far as the eye could see. No wonder this is called “The Golden Land”. The richness of all this gold, however, is in sharp contrast to the poverty of the Burmese people, yet their friendliness and kindness were felt wherever I traveled throughout the country. There is a saying in Myanmar that there is no such thing as "stranger" only "friends", and this was evident even in remote villages where outsiders have never visited before. The Burmese culture and themes of every day life inspired me and as a fine art photographer, it was the light, textures, and intense colours all around me that provided such a rich backdrop for my artistic eye and the story I want my photographs to tell.

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In 2015 I attended a Catherine Karnow Photography Workshop in Vietnam, travelling to Hanoi, the Central Coast, Hué and Hoi An. This workshop was not just about photography, but Catherine, along with her wonderful assistant Tricia Cronin, gave us a total immersion into the culture and history of Vietnam. I am so grateful for all the incredible insights and experiences she gave us from dinner with the US Ambassador to Vietnam at his residence in Hanoi to visiting a family with a child suffering from Agent Orange, a horrific hold over from the Vietnam war. 

In August 2013, I travelled with a group of 4 other photographers down the Omo River in Southern Ethiopia to document some of the most isolated tribes on our planet. These tribes have lived here for centuries, and since the discovery of human remains dating back nearly 2.5 million years, the Lower Omo Valley region has been declared a Unesco World Heritage Site. We camped along the banks of the Omo River and during the day visited nearby Dus Village, or travelled by boat further down the Omo River to Suri Village, to photograph members of the Kara tribe. We also visited the nearby village of the Nyangatoms, a small tribe that has some of the most feared warriors in the Omo Valley, often locked in bloody feuds with the tribes that surround them.

We then travelled to Timur Village where we photographed the Hamar Tribe and Ethiopians who live side by side.

I learned so much about the tribal traditions, which at times seemed exotic and at others shocking.  I was a witness to ancient cultures in a land where human life began and which are about to disappear. 

A ladyboy is a male-to-female transgender person who is born male, but lives as a female. Some ladyboys have had gender-reassignment surgery, others have had some cosmetic surgery to make themselves look female, but retain their male organs. Others simply dress as women with no medical enhancements and all are often as beautiful as the Thai women.

This is MeiMei, she is 20 years old and has a grade 9 education. I met and photographed MeiMei and two of her friends when in Chiang Mai, Thailand in November, 2012. I found MeiMei to be the most compelling of the three.  She has had breast implants but her dream is to be able to afford the surgery to become fully a woman. She is tired of living in limbo, being neither male nor female and wants desperately to know what a real woman is like. Wistfully she says she has only girlfriends, no boyfriends.

These photographs depict a typical day in MeiMei’s life. She gets up around 2 pm, puts on her makeup and then hangs out with her ladyboy friends. At 10 pm she goes out on the street to earn her living as a prostitute until 2 or 3 am

This is a country whose architecture and arts are a feast for the eyes, and its history of great interest. But for a photographer whose passion is to photograph people in order to document the culture and way of life, this was very difficult. Fortunately not all people were rude and dismissive, but they were definitely in the minority.