Circular Whimsy

Polka Dot Heaven. My makeup artist, Hilde Marie Johansen, drew inspiration in her styling of this image from Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama, the queen extraordinaire of polka dot glory. Click on Kusama’s link and be utterly amazed. Prolific doesn’t even come close to describing this 83-year-old woman’s life work. Wikipedia elaborates on the roots of… Read more…

Be black. Be jeweled. This is Russian model, Tanya, studded with faux diamonds glued to her skin that perfectly matched her outfit designed by the makeup artist/stylist/fashion designer, Hilde Marie Johansen, who is sitting next to me in the setup shot below. Tanya is tall and my ceiling was low. So she had to sit in… Read more…

Lady in Blue A marvelous, dance-filled evening. This is another of my Stroborati BODYART series styled by Hilde Marie Johansen, who applied blue paint to transform our model, Nardia. For the background I used a 2-meter diameter bamboo picnic table umbrella that I bought at Bangkok’s famous weekend Chatuchak Market. I sawed off the stem… Read more…

The Launch of Stroborati BODY ART I’m starting a new series of Stroborati body-painted images and will be incorporating some very artistic designs on the models in my upcoming images that will be styled by Hilde Marie Johansen, an extremely talented makeup artist/stylist/fashion designer in Bangkok. Hilde hand crafted this headpiece for model, Mara Bee,… Read more…

This is Steven Dasz. A South American actor visiting Bangkok in between Shanghai and Singapore movie gigs. At his feet washed the overflowing waters of the mighty Chao Phraya River, which courses through this thunderous city, and whose waves sometimes splash above embankments during the rainy season. I asked Steven to remove his shirt and to… Read more…

New Chiaroscuro Fine Art Photo Series Akha hill tribe women in northern Laos dress in faded shades of black cloth. Color exists only in their decorative accouterments; old coins add a bit of glinting highlight to their costumes. “Akha Innocence” The Akha have developed interesting cultural mores. At age sixteen Akha lads are encouraged by… Read more…

Dateline Bangkok: (Day 705 with 3300 to go) Wherever I travel I try to employ color, light and shadow within my tight photographic compositions to draw a rather serene order from the often chaotic visual clutter of the world. :: “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” – Henry David… Read more…

Dateline Bangkok: (Day 660 with 3345 to go) I’d like to break away from my usual travel blog pursuits and share a poignant lesson. A few weeks ago I met a young Thai guy named Theerawat. He’s twenty years old. I’ve never met anyone with such incredible perception. And now I often try to “remove”… Read more…

The Red Dzao hill tribe is one of the few in which the women don’t chew beetle nut, which stains ones mouth and lips red. They get their name from the scarlet color of their headdress and not from the color of their teeth. Maybe that’s why Red Dzao ladies of North Vietnam smile more than other… Read more…

Red has long been associated with royalty. The Red Dzao hill tribe women of North Vietnam shave their foreheads and eyebrows. The visual experience (for a naive Western eye) can be a bit disconcerting at first glance. For these women, their crowning glory is a folded red blanket atop their heads. They are a happy people. Manipulating… Read more…

Tubular City The old town of Hanoi can provide visual delight around every corner. I strolled down one narrow street filled with metalwork shops. Most often I walked along the street’s edge since every square inch of the sidewalk was either serving as a parking lot for motorbikes or a horizontal space for workers who… Read more…

Elephantasy For the second time I photographed the awesome painted elephants of Jaipur in the western state of Rajasthan, India. These magnificent beasts possess incredible power yet they are a patient species. Perhaps we humans have much to learn. I could have been crushed in an instant at the whim of this marvelous animal. He… Read more…

In olden days these Naga warriors in the far north-eastern reaches of India collected heads from fallen opponents and they proudly displayed their trophies above the entrance doors of their bamboo huts. I’m extremely grateful I wasn’t part of their collection. I could have asked these guys to smile . . . but that would have… Read more…

Amazing India. Happy elephants proudly strutted their stuff all decked out in their finest attire. Their bodies were covered in vibrant designs. This friendly fellow had his face painted with a tiger on his trunk. Notice how the elephant’s eye lines up with that of the tiger on his nose. The two Rajasthani guys mounted… Read more…

It wasn’t so long ago that tribal warriors in the far north-eastern Indian state of Nagaland practiced head hunting as a favorite pastime. Fortunately for me, this fierce-looking gentleman gave up such macabre endeavors long ago. The remote Tuensang area of Nagaland was a grueling 12-hour journey that refreshed my memory of many other “bus-rides-from-hell,”… Read more…

Drippy Teaser On a recent stroll through the old town in Bikaner, India, I happened upon an old metal door splattered with numerous paint drips. I zeroed in for a close-up view. My guess is that the person who painted the wall up above with white paint had  no idea he was creating a thrilling… Read more…

In Amritsar lies the golden jewel of the Sikh faith: Harmandir Shrine, which rises from the center of a lake at the Golden Temple. Every Sikh strives to make at least one pilgrimage here in their lifetimes for a ritual bath in the lake’s waters and to listen to the sublime shabad kirtan devotional music… Read more…

Camel Fashionista The Jaisalmer Desert Festival is a draw for dressed-up camels and hordes of not-so-dressy tourists. The camels seemed to care less either way. By nature they can be an arrogant lot. Or maybe that’s just the way they like to portray themselves. I like camels. . Laminated Print . Mounted Print . Canvas… Read more…

Magic Axe Street markets in India offer unique surprises. I found this collection of hand-wrought axe blades on display at the Nagaur Cattle Fair in central Rajasthan. Such events attract craftsmen from nearby desert tribal villages who set up makeshift booths along the road to sell their wares to the hordes of cattle merchants in… Read more…

Metallica Art can be found in chaos. Bangkok has a bit of graffiti but unlike most major cities in the world, here this alternative art form is mostly isolated to old buildings in the process of being demolished, which sometimes takes months. In the interim the graffiti artists have added a nice splash of design… Read more…

Dateline Northern Laos: (Day 505 with 3500 to go) Tonal isolation. Akha hill tribe women in northern Laos dress in faded shades of black cloth. Color exists only in their decorative accouterments. Old coins add a bit of glinting highlight to their costumes. While I shot these images in color, I elected to remove the… Read more…

Upward Dreams I walk through narrow streets. Sometimes I look up. I love shadow. I love highlight. Sometimes I lapse into a world enveloped by my dreams . . . then I realize it’s not a dream. (From Udaipur. A rather magical old town in the south of Rajasthan, India.) . Laminated Print . Mounted… Read more…

To reach this Akha hill tribe village from my base in the small Laotian town of Luang Nam Tha, I first had to take a 2-hour local minibus equipped with four rows of twelve seats into which were crammed twenty-one people. Luckily there were no chickens or pigs or fresh fish aromas on this trip. Much… Read more…

Our trek to the top of the mountain had its rewards. It would be my first night to sleep in an Akha village. As with many hill tribes in Laos, UNICEF had helped these villagers install a water pipe from the nearest small river, which provided my trekking team with what turned out to be… Read more…

Got Small Change? The Akha Hill Tribe women of northern Laos adorn themselves with old coins. Read about the unique Akha people in my travel blog post, “Akha Hill Tribes & Bamboo Love Shacks.” . Laminated Print . Mounted Print . Canvas Print . Matted Print . Framed Print . . Photo Print . Greeting… Read more…

Most people travel to the northern Laos hill tribe country via a 15- to 20-hour local bus ride from Luang Prabang, the nearest major town toward the south. A fifteen-dollar bus ticket sure beats going by private chartered car that would set you back about US$230 one-way. Cramped in a tiny bus seat with camera… Read more…

Webster somewhat diplomatically defines the word “gypsy” as: “A member of a traveling people with dark skin and hair who speak Romany and traditionally live by seasonal work, itinerant trade and fortune-telling. Gypsies are now found mostly in Europe, parts of North Africa and North America, but are believed to have originated in the Indian… Read more…

This year the Bundi Ustav Festival in India happened just a few days after the Pushkar Camel Fair about five hours away. Festivities began with the traditional Kalash Yatra parade where sari-clad ladies marched through the narrow streets of Bundi carrying pots on their heads. The action was fast and the streets were jam-packed with… Read more…

Artistic Camel Twenty thousand camels come to Pushkar, India, during the full moon of November each year. Often there’s much competition amongst camel herders when it comes to decorating their camels for the festival. This one had his fur shaved to form this pattern and to serve as a background for a painted design. …. Read more…

Once again I’m featuring Rekah, the gypsy young lady I met in Pushkar, India. Like all Indian towns, Pushkar has a wealth of great old doors that provide instant backdrops for posing subjects. Since this location provided a more controlled environment away from the crowds, I used a 24×24 inch softbox (an unnamed brand I… Read more…