Travel & Humanitarian Photos
I have a new photographic hero. Well, new to me but his work is anything but recent. Gyula Halász, or Brassaï as he was better known, was born in 1899 and is best known for his photographs of Paris, taken in the 1930s. The images are wonderful and capture something of the essence of Paris [...]
I’m reaching the end of what has been a satisfyingly productive and entertaining week so thought I’d brew up a pot of bergamot-infused Darjeeling tea and take a moment to reflect. A memorable week The week started memorably enough when I witnessed what I’m still describing as a minor miracle when relating the experience to [...]
Sitting in the quiet village square in China, I’m enjoying and appreciating a fresh pot of pu’er tea, something of a tradition in this part of the world. The thing with pu’er tea is that is improves the more you drink it. The first cup out of the pot is discarded, being too bitter. The [...]
As part of my current assignment in China, I was fortunate to be invited to visit the home of one of China’s most celebrated traditional artists. At first glance, these may look like very delicate drawings of characters from Chinese folklore. However, they’re actually incredibly intricate paper cuttings, cut painstakingly from red paper and set [...]
The free desktop wallpaper for August 2009 comes from Wat Si Saket in Vientiane, Laos. Vientiane is a lovely, peaceful city situated on the banks of the Mekong. It’s easy to forget that you’re in the Laotian capital city when you’re there. When I first went visited Vientiane, several years ago, it was so quiet [...]
One of the first things I became aware of when I started working for myself is that losing the daily contact with work colleagues brought with it a risk of becoming isolated. There’s obviously a big difference between going to an office each day where you are surrounded by work colleagues, many of whom become [...]
This is my Auntie Elsie. She’s quite extraordinary. She’s 94 years old, lives on her own, does all her own cooking and cleaning and maintains a very colourful and productive garden. Talking with her is always an uplifting experience and I caught up with her at a family get-together this weekend. I know her next-door [...]