The Road Ahead

One of the projects I hope to get off the ground this year is the creation of a gallery with iconic images from all over Asia where visitors can browse and order high quality prints to decorate their homes and offices. I have started making a gallery with some of my images first and you can take a look by clicking on the link to the right where it says "order art prints from my images".
The gallery will continue to expand and eventually will include images from other well known photographers aiming their lens at this fascinating continent.

The road ahead is not known and not knowable but riding a faithful steed and illuminated by the last rays of the setting sun who really cares?

Not Here Anymore, Not Quite There Yet.

© Hans Kemp 2010

Dawn

An image for all of you on the eve of Christmas 2009.
The poem is from Emily Dickinson:

Not knowing when the Dawn will come,
I open every Door,
Or has it Feathers, like a Bird,
Or Billows, like a Shore

Not Here Anymore, Not Quite There Yet.

© Hans Kemp 2009

Carrying Not Only Cambodia

It’s been really quiet on this page. Not because nothing has been happening, quite on the contrary, life has been so eventful that at times I felt the only thing left to do was to stick to the Zen Master’s adage: "He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know."

Now I will be the first to admit that generally I do not know much and am therefore condemned to a life of uttering strings of syllables which, with some success I hope, are meant to amuse and confuse you, my dear readers. To bring forth a glimmer of a smile on your countenance would be all that I could ask for my words to produce.

My photos, on the other hand, I hope will have a more profound impact. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words but what an insult to photography that is!

And so without further ado I am pleased to announce the forthcoming arrival of my new book: Carrying Cambodia.

Not Here Anymore, Not Quite There Yet.

© Hans Kemp 2009

Policing Equestrian Equality

Back in Beijing after a 1700 km loop in North Eastern Mongolia. Some impressions from the trip I hope to share a little later, now it is time for a few statistics:
There are about 2.5 million horses in Mongolia. The country’s population is 2.5 million. Roughly 1 million people live in the capital, Ulaan Bataar.
Discarding the urban dwellers, the women and children, there are roughly 5 horses to ride for every man, right?

The conclusion may be correct but the premise on which it is based is entirely wrong. One only needs to spend a short time in Mongolia to understand that gender nor age are deciding factors when it comes to riding skills.



We were not alone watching all the horses race at a village Naadam we stumbled upon during our trip. The entire community came out to welcome the jockeys at the finish line. Came out on horses that is. Young and old, male and female, all on their 4-legged vehicles.

A father proudly showed his 2 year old toddler atop a horse, a young man in traditional dress galloped across the grass all the while eyeing girls, who, accessorized with high heeled boots and mobile phones, gently swayed their hips atop their momentary steeds of choice.






With no equestrian speed limit, no roads, no designated parking spaces, plenty of machismo and inexpensive vodka the rural Mongolian traffic police sure have their work cut out for them.



Not Here Anymore, Not Quite There Yet.

© Hans Kemp 2009

First Contact

Nothing ever goes the way you want it.
In fact, the way it eventually goes is almost always better.
It usually takes some time to see this though.

I spent the last 5 days in Ulaan Bataar searching for shamans and I was getting frustrated by the lack of progress. Contacts didn’t answer the phone, ceremonies that were supposed to take place got postponed, doors that should be open, closed.

Then I remembered my early travels when obstacles like that never used to bother me. I welcomed them instead for the disguised opportunities they invariably proved to be. And so I decided to slow down, to savour what was coming my way and yo, behold, first contact was made. A shaman near the biggest monastery here in Ulaan Bataar pointed me in the right direction and where before it was hard to even identify the pieces of the puzzle now I felt they were falling into place.

Just before leaving I asked the shaman what she saw, looking at me. “ You have the ability to cure people” she said.

My rational self takes all with a fairly large grain of salt but I am considering building an ovoo in my apartment.

Then I wont have to leave to travel.

Not Here Anymore, Not Quite There Yet.

© Hans Kemp 2009

S(e)oul Station

I like stations. Train, subway, bus. Airports as well, although I sometimes wonder why they are not called airstations. Are we not able to think that big?
I like them because they are the essence of transit. Of being neither here nor there. Notwithstanding their name, there is nothing stationary about them.
I have been in transit in a lot of stations and they each attract me for their own reasons. The old Moscow stations with their fabulous murals, Paris because it was my first Metro experience, Tokyo because of its size – rush hour sees the population of a medium sized country on the move, New York has Grand Central.

Earlier this week I found myself in Korea photographing some shamanistic rituals in the port town of Incheon. I stayed in Seoul and took the subway to reach my destination. One station along the route always brought a smile to my face. Not because of its decoration, its design or other visual treat. No, my affinity to this station was entirely auditory.

Seoul Station. Who wouldn’t want to go there?



Many people don’t like the transit experience, they’d rather be home, failing to understand that being home is being in transit on a different level.



On the other hand the two elderly gentlemen in the final photo seem to get it: life is transitory on every level, you may as well pass through it with some Soul.

Not Here Anymore, Not Quite There Yet.

© Hans Kemp 2009

P.S. Sometimes reality needs a little help to get in the right mood.

Speak Up!

There are times when you start doubting the ability of your own words to convey the true meaning of what you are actually feeling. We all know how paralyzing it is to be misunderstood, misheard, misread, misquoted and misrepresented.
It is like having stepped straight into “Lost in Translation”
Yet quite often we ourselves commit the same offense and fail to truly hear and see what is being communicated.

Another film I remember seeing is Leaving Las Vegas with Nicholas Cage, one of my favorite movies. There is a scene when he is going to check in into a motel. Intoxicated as he is he looks at the sign of the place called ‘The Whole Year Inn’ but he reads it as ‘The Hole You’re In’

Visiting the Wat Bang Phra tattoo festival this Saturday I realized that before we get down the hole we'd better all do one thing:

Scream!

Not Here Anymore, Not Quite There Yet.

© Hans Kemp 2009