Why I Love the Deutsche Bundesbahn

Nearly thirty years ago. I went off on a Zen sesshin, or week’s retreat, at a Benedictine monastery situated in the hills bordering the edge of Wuerzburg in the winemaking region of Germany. The sesshin ended with an early breakfast on Easter Sunday. I walked down to the train station with my backpack full of …


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They’re Kids, Not Tourist Attractions

Okay, so it’s not the most in-focus, well-composed photo in the world but I took it at night while inside a van with darkened windows. The driver told me I could take pictures, but if any of the pimps on the street saw me, they’d break the window and abscond with my camera. Hence the …


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The Big Apple

For a child growing up in 1970’s England, New York was a revelation. It was shiny, glamorous, attractively packaged.  And there was so much choice.  Take the cereal.  In London we had cornflakes, ginourmous boxes of weetabix from the cash and carry (actually the individually packaged biscuits were quite cool, but weetabix for months on …


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A Day Volunteering in Tijuana – Cementing Friendships

Today I woke before the alarm went off with thoughts of work and what I had to accomplish today. A couple of week’s ago I woke to what I thought was the sound of a cement mixer. It turns out it was simply the snoring of my trip mates. I might be forgiven the mistake …


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My Istanbul Window

I came to love this window in Istanbul …claimed it, in my casual colonial way, as my Istanbul window. I have photographed it often over the years, measuring my progress as a photographer, seeing the instinctive capture become a knowledge-based action. Still instinct-driven but enhanced by a growing ease with the technical realities of each …


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The 860 Turns Of Mexico’s Highway 120

There are 860 hairpin turns on Mexico’s Highway 120 which snakes through the Sierra Gorda Mountains in the Northern Central Highlands. Looking down at the valleys while the bus driver navigated 180 degree turns with skill I couldn’t help but wonder what little a guardrail would do (where there were some) to stop a mammoth …


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