When In The World: World Photography & Travel Writing

Not all who wander are lost, in fact they invariably come home and write all about it... When In The World sets out to provide an alternative, mildly eye-brow raising and occasionally sarcastic retelling of nearly four years of adventures and mis-adventures from all over this pulchritudinous World.As a photographer, this book also seeks to show some of the abject beauty found in every single corner of the globe, whether well-known or just little-known. Scenic landscapes, golden beaches and sunsets over the water tend to unite us all in awe, and though there are plenty of those in the following pages, I was keen to find intrigue in less obvious places too. Beauty is in the eye of the person holding the camera, after-all. This is not a travel guide so much, though it will likely provide some tips for places to travel to and things to see and do. But what this book does do however, is provide a unique perspective on each country visited, re-count and remark upon interesting encounters and occurrences, and describe and convey physical and historical details about many landmarks and locations. This is by no means a fuddy-duddy, fact-a-sentence book but what I did notice when researching, was just how many websites have almost identical travel information to one another. The copying and pasting from one travel article to the next quickly became apparent, some even using the same facts and phrases, often word for word.So I was keen to delve a little deeper; for example, using maps to provide exact distances, corroborating information with science or religious journals and at one point, even finding an original construction record, which helped me to debunk some of the hearsay that was being purported by numerous online travel guides. Researching and finding information was painstaking but an essential and rewarding part of the process. Adding extra weight through the history I discovered to many of the places I visited, made them even more memorable. So I hope that this careful and fastidious ground-work has unpacked some more compelling tidbits about the various locations featured in the book, and goes beyond a cosmetic smattering of factoids. I was also indefatigably keen to avoid a book that would even remotely resemble a travel diary. If you happen to discover anything close to the following phrases, I woke up and brushed my teeth, or, my Uber was really late, or worse still, it was a sunny and nice day, then please, immediately dispose of this book in the closest rubbish receptacle to you. As briefly touched on, this book is illustrated throughout by my personal photography, which accompanies many of the featured places. These are highly edited photographs so are hopefully not your bog-standard holiday snaps. I have attempted to add a graphic quality, as well as sometimes playing with the colour and light in the images, in order to create something a little removed from the original. There are thousands of wonderful photography books out there, and indeed, travel books for that matter, so I can only hope this book adds in its own idiosyncratic way to that panoply.The original idea for creating this book was to be able to display my World photography and travel writing in one convenient and accessible format. And moreover, for it to exist in the now prehistoric domain of physical media. For this book is actually tangible; its pages can be crumpled or torn, coffee- mug-ring stained or doodled on, it can fall down the back of the bookcase, gather dust or be lost after a house-move. So very much not digital, and combining my passions for photography, travel and writing, this is, When In The World.