The Amazon
In my portfolio I have illustrated aspects of the Amazon that inspired me and show life in a very remote part of the world. I have included pictures of the natural environment, people fishing, villages and market places. I chose to present the images in monochrome as I felt that it shows the life and activity much more graphically and allowed me to better explore the essence of the subject matter.
I love visiting exotic places, and the Amazon is one of the most exotic. So when the opportunity to travel there came along I jumped at the chance.
It is a still quite remote place of natural and wild beauty teeming with exotic wildlife like pink dolphins, caiman, piranhas, anaconda, sloths, macaws and jaguars.
One illustration of the remoteness of the area is the available means of communication. Communication with the rest of the world is carried out by satellite phones and walkie talkies. Mobile phones and modern development have not come to this place as yet.
Our travels started from Iquitos, Peru that is only accessible by air or water. It is the gateway to the Amazon jungle, an area that has been described as the "lungs of the world". Using Iquitos as our launching pad we boarded a small cruise boat for a four day cruise along the river. Each day we got off the cruise boat and into a small runabout to explore the river and to gain access the river banks for close up exploring.
Photographically I was inspired by the environment, the wild life, the people and their daily activities and they way in which they live.