WHY? 

This site is an attempt to show and tell via ‘Blogs’, in part, the beauty and humanity encountered during journeys taken at times that now seem and feel like old history, in places not yet entirely embraced by everyday tourists traveling with all the comforts of home, and now mostly viewed for the frustrations and dreadfulness of conflict and misunderstanding.

We will look back and present images taken at a time when photography was a more involved process. When taking photos was not a fast, and easy, instant occurrence. The objective of this is not a commercial one, but just a reminiscence, with pictures, of personal journeys at a time when the world started to go thru an accelerated change. It’s not meant to be a political, just remembrances of the places, art and people encountered in those journeys.

Photography in the 1970s was many things, it could be ‘snaps’ of the baby’s birthday party or pictures taken by professionals to commemorate personal events like weddings. Or, they could be photos taken for journalistic purposes in newspapers or magazines. They also could be photos taken by famous, highly paid renown artists to sell anything from cosmetics to Coke (the drink), for marketing or advertising. One thing in common: each picture taken, whether on a roll of film or as a sheet of film, had to be chemically processed either by yourself or by a lab, before the resulting image would eventually see the light of day, but not the instant when taken. Polaroid was the exception, with images developed after a few minutes, but these images (96 percent of the time) were too small to be usable in consumption for public media. One did not take a phone out of a pocket, or a digital camera, that can give you an instant version of the color space that you point it at, yielding images of such high quality that anyone, and everyone, can be a master photographer. The skills and equipment required in the analog days of yore are mostly relegated to the memorabilia pile next to cave paintings. Most of the time there was only one chance in which to capture that image, that “Decisive Moment”.

This is not to denigrate modern day photographers, for the skill required to take good photographs on a consistent basis, and which tell a story, still require dedication, planning, a high level of technical ability and, most important, being in the right place at the right time.  Just like now, working in a studio then was a completely different experience, more expensive and formal than 'street photography' or journalistic pursuits. 

 The sixties and seventies, now almost faded memories, were as vibrant to those of us who lived them in our youth as the instant gratification of Tik Tok, and other social media, is to modern influencers and followers.  The time of peace and love is now remembered mostly by the music, the bell-bottomed jeans, the Manson murders, the drug culture, and, internationally, somewhat by such as the time and crimes of Charles Sobhraj along the “hippie trail”, (as presented in the TV series “The Serpent"),  crossing paths with flamboyant or unsavory characters could happen anywhere between Istanbul and Saigon, should you go that far. This latter tale of deadly endeavor was a revelation, even back in the seventies, to those of us who made the long trek overland from the European continent to India and beyond.  Istanbul, Kabul, Delhi and Bangcock were key epicenters.

Most of the thousands of us who made that journey had our own agendas, usually not related to drugs or hedonistic pursuits. At a time when the travel industry as we know it was in its infancy, and mass invasion of historic and cultural treasures by hordes of digital camera-wielding tourists was not the norm, one would find, even in the most rigid or unfriendly places one could visit, that visitors were welcome, even embraced for their differences and interests. 

To most of us the sheer joy of the travel experience alone was worth the effort. For myself, there was also purpose or objective that had educational, artistic and even altruistic basis. The interaction with the varied people and cultures along the way more than often proved impactful, sometimes life changing, and usually gave reason to have faith on our fellow man. 

 How one traveled, and the routes taken, made the experience unique, yet universal in result. Whether one took trains, buses or other local transport, or drove your own conveyance along the way, it made the journey itself a major part of the experience. Most of the photos which will appear on this site, as time goes on, document and are part of journeys which, now viewed with the telescope of time, represent a simpler, friendlier epoch and in so doing, reflect the core of the human spirit. 

 One more caveat... So much time (over 50 years!), has passed since most of these photos were taken that revisiting the same locations, either in person, or via Google maps or other ways, if possible, the same view or places will show improvements, modernization and other changes that, more often than not, illustrate the drastic population changes and resulting social and commercial influences. Tourism and travel as a whole have been major influences in that change. 

More information on the technical and practical side of photography as well as travel, from my perspective, can be found in the respective pages. 

So…