Last Places on Earth.

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up Eric Meola's from the national library. It was borrowed with Jaime's card as I was unwilling to pay the $7.80 fine.

"Photographer Eric Meola masterfully blends portraits and landscapes in this exploration of the disappearing beauty of various cultures, customs, ceremonies, and wildlife in remote areas of the world. An abstract look at the surviving remains of unique physical and spiritual beauty, this book features photographs taken in countries such as Burma, New Guinea, Africa, India, the Galápagos Islands, Mongolia, India, and Tibet."

I agree wholeheartedly with the book description. The photos were truly amazing. I look at them and then I look through photos I have taken so far and I feel so inadequate. 9 out of 10 of them now appear amateurish in comparison and I almost feel like trashing them away. Meola's photos are an inspiration to me. I must continue to learn and improve. Staying humble, one day I will take photos like these.

I also enjoyed Eric Meola's introduction.

Theisiger talks about this contradiction in Arabian Sand. " I wondered if he(an old man)....sensed the threat which my presence implied, the approaching disintegration of his society and the destruction of his beliefs. Here especially it seemed that the evil that comes with sudden change would far outweigh the good. While I was with the Arabs I wished only to live as they lived and, now I have left them, I would gladly think that nothing in their lives was altered by my coming. Regretfully, however, I realize that....I.....helped others, with more material aims, to visit and corrupt a people whose spirit once lit the desert like a flame."

In February of 1995, while on a personal trip, I photographed a young boy in Rangoon named Lwin Aung as he kneeled befroe a monk and had his head shaved. In this ceremony know as "Shin Bu" that marked his initiation as a monk, he"became Buddha". At that moment of his transformation, as a witness to this most sacred and intimate even, I felt that I, too had crossed into another place and found the key to these other worlds I had imagined. I was no longer an outsider. I had been to one of my last places on Earth, and it was as much a spiritual journey as it was a physical one.

I should think, reflect and write more on the subjects I photograph. On a sidenote, I bought Jaime a crumpler laptop bag today, she was happy and so I am :)