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Author Topic: Travel magazines  (Read 4821 times)

Rob C

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Re: Travel magazines
« Reply #20 on: May 12, 2019, 02:55:12 pm »

Ah, a man after my own heart!

Comfort and luxury all the way! In my early childhood we had an outhouse. No desire whatsoever to go anywhere near that again. Worked all my life to get away from that. I leave it to those born with a silver spoon.

We were once in a Shangri-La hotel in Singapore (five star) and in a momentary lapse of reason succumbed to that mantra "do as locals do" and asked the cab driver to take us to an authentic Chinatown restaurant. The moment we stepped out of the cab and looked inside, we realized our mistake and started running back to catch the same cab. For those who've never been to Singapore, it is a part of town where sewage can still be found flowing in the middle of the street.

My one time in Singapore was in '84 for part of an '85 calendar. My client demanded we go to Raffles and have a "sling", which we did. The drink was expensive rubbish, and the hotel, at that time, reminded me of an Indian railway station. I'm told it has since been renovated - possibly more than once.

Two things that made Singapore special for me: no chewing gum on the streets; no-tipping policy encouraged in hotels and bars. I have always felt awkward about tipping, feeling it demeaning to the recipient and annoying to myself, for I'd rather pay the same total without the pressures and the real or imaginary sense of obligation beyond the call of duty! People should be paid a proper wage.

The single thing about that trip that rankles still is that the calendar didn't use any of the shots made on one of those fishing hut structures built out at sea on stilts - I think they were called keelongs. For me, the best shots of that entire trip were made there, even if I did rip off Sam Haskins for one series by being unable to resist using some coloured fish on a string held over the model's shoulder. Sadly, the trannies were not used, and I never got any back. That was a pretty goddam miserable thing to do to any photographer.

Regarding doing what the locals do: most of the ones I know here go to the same restaurant I do: the French guy's. His rapport prix qualité is unbeatable. You won't get in for Sunday lunch unless you have booked. I have tried the smaller, cheaper restaurants and I know why they are cheaper. Forgeddit! The more expensive are for tourists who get what tourists expect and pay through the nose for the opportunity.

Rob

P.S.

Guess what - just spent ten minutes scraping gum off the sole of my shoe - must have happened when I went for my walk yesterday afternoon; it was covered in dry grass, which tells me I must have stepped onto the lawn, too, or picked it up feeding the horse who appears to have freed herself from the rope that kept her away from the fence for a week or two...

Filthy habit.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2019, 05:48:21 am by Rob C »
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jeremyrh

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Re: Travel magazines
« Reply #21 on: May 13, 2019, 05:41:55 am »

There are actually photographers who do only travel photographer like described above and make it work full time.  What they make is not great and it take a fair amount of time to make the connections and library to pull in good money, but surely an adventurous lifestyle to say the least.

I've been following travel photographer Brendan Van Son on YouTube recently. He is travelling more or less 365 days a year, and shooting photos every single day. I'd imagine it can get pretty old researching, planning, shooting, selling and all the while living out of a suitcase. Now he has a social media presence, and is coining it on the workshops circuit, but before he built up an image it looked like a pretty sketchy existence!
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Petrus

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Re: Travel magazines
« Reply #22 on: May 13, 2019, 01:20:04 pm »

  Ninety-nine percent of making money is to get your ass out of poverty and all the stuff that lives alongside it.

I have always lived in a (relative) comfort of western European middle class, but my best travel memories are from pre-wealthy China, Tibet, Nepal, Yemen, Amazonian jungle, war in Iraq (!) etc. Outhouse? Try a semi-round brick wall, from which you take two loose bricks, throw it on the sh** and step on carefully to do you thing (communal toilet in China, mid nineties). Am I crazy to use my "wealth" to experience those things? Please note I write "experience", not "enjoy"...
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Travel magazines
« Reply #23 on: May 13, 2019, 01:28:11 pm »

... my best travel memories are from pre-wealthy China, Tibet, Nepal, Yemen, Amazonian jungle, war in Iraq (!) etc. ... Am I crazy to use my "wealth" to experience those things?...

You used your "wealth" to experience war in Iraq!? Sounds more like a professional assignment, like probably all the rest above, no?

Petrus

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Re: Travel magazines
« Reply #24 on: May 14, 2019, 11:30:34 am »

You used your "wealth" to experience war in Iraq!? Sounds more like a professional assignment, like probably all the rest above, no?

Nepal, Burma, China, Tibet with my own "wealth" (but in the eighties Kodachromes from those countries sold quite well...*), yes, Iraq, North-Yemen and Yanomami/Garimpeiro stuff in the Amazon were assignments. 5 weeks in Brazil, good old eighties again. Mosul, Iraq was in 2008, Yemen in 1986, got into a semi-friendly shooting match against beduins. I won.

I did visit China and Burma again on assignments later also, several times.

*) actually selling the chromes paid both my and my wife's 7 month trip + those 270 rolls of KC 64 Pro in full. Even though I did not photograph in an organised manner and trying to optimise anything. 5 large magazine articles, stock sales to travel agencies, even some international sales (Paris Match, Outside etc). I can not not see it happening anymore.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2019, 02:33:15 am by Petrus »
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Rob C

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Re: Travel magazines
« Reply #25 on: May 17, 2019, 07:46:17 am »

On the luxury trip vs the roughing it on Amex:

Galliano talks about Indian experiences in a part of this old interview; take it or leave it as you see fit.

https://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/peter-lindbergh

Rob
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