Category: Photo Stories
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Cloud City: Rooftopping in Foggy Busan, Korea
I looked out my window and saw fog rolling in from the sea. I couldn’t believe it because it was the first week of March, and fog season here is usually from May to July. I stood there wondering if it was for real, and if I would finally get the shot I’d dreamed of. I…
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Portrait in a Rajasthan Stepwell: My Steve McCurry Moment
I came to Rajasthan to live out my own Steve McCurry fantasy, to travel to the same places and photograph the same faces that he did. So this morning I went to Dhai-Bhai Kund, a 500-year-old step well in Bundi, India. This guy was sitting nearby. I asked him if I could take a photo…
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Taj Majal Sunset River Reflection
I saw photos of the Taj from a boat on the river. As the story goes, there is a guy who will take you out on his rowboat. You just have to follow the outer wall down to the water. When we got there a guy asked, “Do you want a boat ride?” It wasn’t…
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Images of Ulleungdo Island: Korea’s Jurassic Park
Some friends told me there was this island in Korea unlike any they had seen before. They said it reminded them of something out of Jurassic Park or Lord of The Rings. I’d heard overblown comparisons before: the Hawaii of this or Santorini of that. Then the Lonely Planet included Ulleungdo in its 2012 list of…
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Images of Dubai: Cybertron of The Middle East
One of Dubai’s most overused phrases according to Time Out magazine is, “It’s just like Ibiza/Vegas/Paris/New York/London here.” It’s true there’s an endless summer vibe to Dubai, like a Balearic Calvin Harris club anthem when the bass drops. For some the city is an escapist fantasy. “What happens in Dubai stays in Dubai!” And of course there…
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Bridge to Paradise: A Korean Temple Stay at Magoksa
The sound of monks chanting echoes through the forest. Birds chirp in the trees. The humming sound of cicadas lowers and rises in waves. At the end of a tree-lined trail is a stone bridge covered in white lanterns known as Paradise Bridge. It crosses over a lazy stream where water bubbles over smooth stones.…
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Echoes of Jeju: A Photo Essay of Korean Island Life in 1979 (Part 1)
35 years ago my family moved from America to Jeju Island. We lived there for just over a year. I was six then. While we were there, my father took a bunch of photographs. But they got buried away in a pile of boxes, stored along with all the other stuff families collect.
