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OPTIMIZED FOR 800 x 600 SCREEN RESOLUTION MODE
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24-BIT TRUE-COLOR RECOMMENDED
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UPDATED: 24/7/98
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Photography on this page Copyright © Ron Solomon 1973. All rights reserved. No unauthorized use or reproduction without prior consent. |
Far Eastern Sojourn
Photography & Music
Twenty-five years ago I set out on what in effect was to be my first photographic expedition. I was
18 years old at the time, it was the early '70's, hippiedom may already have been waning in the West,
but it was certainly peaking in the East. Armed with my first serious camera, a Canon FT single lens
reflex, and 3 lenses - a wide-angle, a telephoto and a standard lens, and an ample stock of Kodachrome, I set
off to try and document my experiences, and the sites and scenes I encountered in my travels across
the Indian sub-continent - India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. For somebody barely out of high-school,
I was obviously destined to undergo a certain degree of culture-shock, inevitable as it was, for even the most
seasoned traveller to the Far East, faced with the stark contrasts and contradictions, the utter poverty and the
opulent riches.
In many ways it was my camera and my dual passions for photography and for Hindustani classical music that kept me intact through those months. On the banks of the Ganges River in Benares, trekking the Himalayan foothills in Nepal and Tibet (no, I never reached the top of Everest!), or riding a rickety bus across the Khyber Pass, I was always aiming my camera in search of a profoundly special moment or an interesting face. Those months in the East produced literally thousands of photos, some stunning, others less so, but each and every one of them, preserved 25 years later with a quality that only Kodachrome can provide, are vivid testimonies to my unique and enriching experiences. |
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