Ten years ago my view of the world changed. I knew how life was lived in Norway. I had visited the States and seen the gluttony at the Old County Buffet. But in February of 2000 I got to see something different. The other end of the scale, so to speak. Together with some friends I visited Tanzania and Ethiopia.
Growing up I was an avid fan of National Geographic. I browsed every magazine I found and watched all the 20-or-so NG videos my grandparents had (some of them several times).
This was back in the day of film, before digital photography conquered the world. The thought that for every image printed in the magazine, the photographer would take a thousand pictures just mesmerized me. No wonder they were good!!
(Note to myself: It's all digital now. All you have to pay for is hard drive space. Why are you not taking more pictures?)
Packing for the trip I made sure that my dad's SLR (no "D" in front of that) Minolta was in the carry-on, along with several rolls of film (slide film to be accurate). And I truly felt like a real National Geographic photographer the day we drove through a game park.
I recently scanned some of those slides. They have been laying around for the last 10 years collecting dust. The colors didn't turn out so good, so I decided to convert them to black & white. Here are a few glimpses from the early beginnings of my "career" behind a camera.
Mt. Kilimanjaro
No, not our bus...
The family I stayed with:
Up next: Pictures and thoughts from Ethiopia.
6 comments:
if these are your pictures from before you truly are gifted. They look amazing, I love the black and white and especially the field picture with the dog and two people. Good job. I'll buy a copy of your first book.
I hope your assessment of Americans includes more than just the "gluttony at the Old County Buffet." Not all of us subscribe to such a lifestyle! :)
Nice pictures. I taught in a school in Tchad that looked very much like that classroom, except for my kids had to sit on the floor--no desks or chairs.
Yes, I know not all Americans subscribe to such a lifestyle :-) I just had to include it as I have very vivid memories of seeing the dessert section at an Old County Buffet for the first time as a 14-year old.
What do you mean, "not Tanzania"? Kili IS in TZ, man! The Kenyans have tried to make people think otherwise, but check it out on Wikipedia or any (non-Kenyan produced, perhaps) map of Africa! Nice pictures by the way, Joar. Keep it up.
Hm, the Kenyans got me...!
Fabulous!
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