ANDREA, PHOTOGRAPHER AND STORYTELLER
Welcome to Easy Travel Hosting. Andrea, photographer and traveler. Your photos have a particular intensity, both as regards portraits and panoramas. Could you tell us a little about yourself and how your site was born?
I'm a travel photographer and travel storyteller. I believe I became one by vocation, by a strong need to travel and share my experiences. I started because my life was too tight for me, my daily habits were suffocating me and I felt like I was becoming less and less the person I dreamed of being.
One day, I decided to say yes to an invitation that thrilled and scared me at the same time and my life changed forever. The Capodarco foundation asked me to go to Ecuador to photograph the reality of an orphanage, as well as help rebuild some areas of the structure. At the time I was a young screenwriter with a film in my hands that everyone wanted to produce but that no one had the funds to make…
My life revolved around the idea of building a solid career, emerging and establishing myself. Ultimately, isn't that what we all want, to be successful people? Ecuador blew me away. It swept away my ego, the vainglorious projects, the selfishness that hides behind them. When I returned to Italy, I only had in mind the looks of the children I had met.
I will never forget the sadness I felt leaving that group of brats who were so lively and joyful despite the hardships of life they face every day. I remember that I was unable to say goodbye to a little girl before getting on the bus that would take me back to Rome, I was looking for her but I hadn't found her. As I walked away from the orphanage, I saw her chasing the bus with tears in her eyes to say goodbye to me one last time. He shouted my name and waved. In that moment I understood that to change the world, we need to forge a bond between the people who live in it. Rationality will not save us, but the heart. And this is still what I look for when I leave for a new trip.
I don't wonder so much what architectural or landscape beauties I will see, but who I will be lucky enough to meet and how my vision of things will change.
Ecuador gave me a strong motivation, but only many years later did I have the courage to bare myself and share my photographs and stories on the web. I was in Danakil, Ethiopia. It is a desert depression, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees: it has been defined as the most inhospitable place in the world.
The people who live there are very tenacious and know how to survive anything. I felt the need to create a site that described this reality and I did so using the color changes from Hollywood films. The resulting photos were epic, impressive, and I wanted to give them back to my friends.
Many of them asked me to tell something more about my photos and a travel storytelling blog was born, which is not the classic travel blog because in addition to information on the places I visit, the narration of my experience is central. As luck would have it, some photography magazines took an interest in me, publishing my photos and stories.
I interpreted it as a sign from life that this was the right path to follow.
Let's talk about travel: the routes you followed are not among the most common but they are definitely fascinating and interesting. Myanmar, Senegal, Uzbekistan and others. What elements do you look for in a trip?
When I travel I don't look for comfortable locations, instead I like to always push myself beyond my comfort zone. This led me to camp in Kazakhstan in Mangystau, which is one of the most uninhabited deserts in the world, without being able to wash for days and without a bathroom available; but it also took me to China, towards whose culture I felt a deep distrust that I wanted to shake off.
Traveling is also a way to overcome my shyness and it is a very effective cure, because people have welcomed me in every part of the world. I have always found a lot of hospitality, especially where people have less. It's a cliché, but it's true!
If you could only save one of all your shots, what would it be and why? What story is behind it?
You're asking too much of me! Maybe, if I were really forced, I would choose a photo of a child I met in China, in the Tibetan provinces. I was visiting a very small Buddhist monastery lost in the Ganja grasslands, in Gansu.
Outside the temple, where monks fashioned candles from yak butter, some children played among themselves. I stopped to look at them and they welcomed me as if I were one of the group.
At a certain point, they disappeared behind the monastery, to return a few minutes later with some wild flowers for me. They lined up and brought them to me with huge smiles. A gesture of friendship that moved me.
What do you do to make your travels greener?
There is a saying dear to travelers that goes “take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints”. It is very important for me: I never leave waste as I pass by and I don't take samples of sand, stones or shells.
In the Mangystau desert fossils are found everywhere. Millions of years ago, the area was submerged by an ocean. What if everyone took a shark tooth or shell as a souvenir? I hate to think of the damage that the area would suffer if mass tourism developed there. And I have reiterated it several times in every post on my blog: don't go to Mangystau if you want to preserve it.
Another aspect that I consider "ecological" concerns people's psychology. It is important to have respect for those you meet: I never force your hand to take a photo. If the person I want to portray doesn't want to be disturbed, I never insist. I apologize and walk away. I hate tourists who harass locals, and I believe that the emotional discomfort they generate is a form of pollution in all respects.
Easy Travel Hosting thanks Andrea so much for giving us his shots and his stories.
If you want to find out more, you can follow him on the site by clicking here. And on social media too!
Do you want to tell us your story? Contact us HERE.