STORIES IN IMAGES AND WORDS
Awake
I, embryo, frozen in space
Waiting to be born with another face
Darkness as far as my eyes can see
Silence as far as my ears can hear
Memories of my Self
Boundless, transparent
In the sky, a sparkle of life
Awakens me, beckons me
From the womb of night
Once more I emerge into light
PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA, 2001
1
Spiritus
Mundi
My journey began thousands of years ago.
It shall continue long into the future. This is where my spirit dwells — the forest, the mountain, the sky — where I wander, where every part of me has always belonged. Our passage through life is a hectic temporal journey shadowed by the tick tock of a clock until we return once more to our source. Life begins and ends in the same place, and all that exists in between is a space to learn and evolve.
BOLIVIA, 2003
I think, therefore I am
A figment of
My own imagination
BALI, 2015
2
The Cult
of Culture
We often forget that the culture in which we live, which has conditioned us and determined who we are, is the product of millennia of human thought, endeavor, conflict, and suffering. Each one of us is that culture, and whether we realize it or not, each one of us has the whole past of all mankind rolled into our consciousness. We think the thoughts of our culture, we feel the feelings of our culture, and we experience the experiences of our culture.
INDONESIA, 1998
I seek something timeless
In a world so full of speed
PALAWAN, THE PHILIPPINES, 1999
3
A Beautiful Mess
First impressions are sometimes so vivid they leave an indelible imprint on the mind. My first day in Calcutta was an unforgettable initiation into chaos. Calcutta is a loud, dirty, congested city — a beautiful, random mess of bodies, cars, shantytowns and crumbling historic monuments. In all my travels, I have never seen a place so unorganized and backwards, lacking even the most basic public services, yet at the same time so oddly unique and fascinating. A dizzying barrage of colors, sounds and smells assaults the senses immediately upon arrival.
BANGLADESH, 2008
I often wonder
What footprints I'll leave behind
And how long they will endure
In the sands of time
MOROCCO, 2013
AMAZON JUNGLE, ECUADOR, 2001
Journey Inside
4
Far beyond our hectic modern lives, there exists an undiscovered world where people still see and feel things in their purest and most innocent forms. It is a way of experiencing the world that is perhaps as old as human consciousness itself. When I first heard of this place, I wondered how such a pristine place could possibly still exist. Where the Amazon meets the Ecuadorian Andes, is a place called El Oriente — the dark womb of the earth. This mysterious place was protected for years from explorers and missionaries by impassable mountains.
As organic beings, we're inseparable from nature. We originated from nature, we exist because of nature, and when we die, our bodies will return to nature.
AMAZON JUNGLE, BRAZIL, 2001
5
Wah Wah Wah
Death motivates me. In nearly three decades of travel to some of the most remote and inhospitable corners of the planet, I glimpsed its face on four occasions. Each time, it whispered the same promise into my ear: "Live now, for I will return". It told me I’m not unique or special, that I’m just a decaying organism like everything else around me. Its ruthless indifference forced me to redefine my priorities. Now death follows me like a shadow — not in a morbid way — but as a constant reminder of life's fragility, and of the value of each moment that remains.
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PAPUA NEW GUINEA, 2004
I am a wave
Propagating ⠀
Through time and space⠀
⠀
I am the momentum ⠀
Of every droplet ⠀
Of thought and feeling⠀
⠀
I am the culmination ⠀
Of my own foreshadowing ⠀
⠀
I am exactly where⠀
I’m supposed to be⠀
Right here, right now⠀
⠀
Until I’m not
SUMBA ISLAND, INDONESIA,, 2004
6
Haute Future
Since childhood I've been creating images in one form or another. As a kid, much to my parents’ discontent, I produced countless Crayola masterpieces on the walls of our house. Then I set out to become a painter, so unconsciously — even before I got into photography — I trained my eyes to perceive everything in terms of geometry and light. In a sense, you could say photography was a byproduct of painting.
ATACAMA, CHILE, 2003
The mind fears the unknown
The mind itself is unknown
Does the mind fear itself?
PATAGONIA, 2002
7
Constructed Gods
We are living in a unique transitional time in history, at the crossroads of technology, culture and nature. As old paradigms continue to break down in every dimension, computers and nootropics are merging mind and cosmos, dissolving limitations, and setting the stage for a whole new way to experience the world and to celebrate the imagination. We already find ourselves in this brave new world, slaves to the machine, shackled by our own appetite for information and mis-information.
MONTREAL, 1988