Travel Photography

This month’s subject is something close to my heart, and that is travel photography. Travel photography is a niche of the art, and yet it requires the photographer to be proficient in just about every photography discipline there is. How do you tell the story of a place? Well, you set the scene (as one learns to do by taking landscape photos), tell the story (as in street photography), look at the culture (as with performance photography), enjoy the food (food photography) and, of course, take photos of the people (portrait photography).

Over the last year-and-a-half that I have been writing this column, I have covered each of those niches. If you have read them all and practiced, the skill set to make a great travel portfolio should now be available for you.

I have recently left Korea and I am now living in Malaysia. My inner nomad was calling, so it is with some sadness that I leave a great country behind and embrace a new country with a lot of travel photography opportunities. My hope now is to develop an income from photography that is enough to support me and the expenses that come with travel photography.

I wish everyone well in Gwangju and at the GIC. I leave you with photos from Malaysia and Korea, a small travel portfolio to show off both countries.

1,2: Korea: a country with some amazing architecture that fascinates people around the world. The country has a rich food history that is relatively unique, and like Malaysia, there are a lot of people making a living from the fruits of the sea.

Malaysia: a country of amazing tropical beaches, where not-far-away fishermen live in wooden shacks. The country has a diverse mix of cultures with Indian, Chinese and Malay cultures and customs all present.

Simon Bond is a travel photographer from the U.K. who has been published around the world, including the front cover of National Geographic. He has recently relocated to Malaysia to take up a position mentoring Malaysian teachers. He will continue his photographic journey in Malaysia, while looking forward to the day he can return to Korea.