Today I have a surprise for you all.
First, however, I’d like to reveal something of the inner workings of The Human, Earth Project.
Over the past eighteen months, The Human, Earth Project has entailed all the demands of managing a business, with none of the returns. The Project has been partly financed by two crowdfunding campaigns yielding some US $15,000 in contributions, which I’ve more than matched, dollar for dollar, from my own pocket.
The fact that our search was such an incredible success has, ironically, only made the Project more difficult and more expensive. In actually locating M and P in China, I’ve incurred a lot of unanticipated and unbudgeted expenses.
Some of these costs are ongoing, and have drained money away from the funds allocated for post-production, which is currently on hold. There was also an unexpectedly large amount of equipment damaged and destroyed during our search.
Over the past months, I’ve been searching for an agreeable solution to this problem. Crowdfunding is unpleasant and highly demanding, taking employment is not currently an option, taking out a loan would be inadvisable, and the very idea of accepting advertisements for the Project website is repulsive.
(A local acquaintance suggested I’d find great popularity and wealth prostituting myself to rich, elderly Vietnamese women, but that’s one road I’ll happily leave untravelled…)
I believe there is better solution and today, perhaps, we’ll see if my belief has been justified.
If you’ve seen the Project website lately, you will have seen it in a state of evolution. Thanks to a lot of hard and much-appreciated work on the part of my brother Nick, the existing photographic galleries – with the original and new portraits from both journeys through Asia – are now both much more beautiful and functional.
Other than those portraits directly involved in our search, I’ve shown very little of my photography through The Human, Earth Project – until now. Today I’ve unveiled a brand new gallery with 50 previously unseen images from both journeys through Asia.
There are images of natural beauty, wildlife, spirituality, and small details of Asia that have captured my eye. There are portraits whose vertical format excluded them from the original portrait collection, and there are several images of Amak Juni, an Indonesian porter who survived three years as a victim of labour trafficking in Malaysia.
On those rare occasions I’ve made them available, large prints of my photographs have been very popular, and now adorn homes on six continents. From today, the photographs from all of these galleries will be available for purchase on an ongoing basis.
What’s more, there are many more images that will be added gradually over the coming weeks.
In balancing the needs of the Project and my own desire to make these prints widely accessible, the 45x30cm (18×12″) prints are reasonably priced, with excellent rates offered on multiple prints.
In addition to something beautiful to show in your home, everyone who chooses a print will receive personal recognition on The Human, Earth Project website, and the satisfaction of knowing their money has been put to good use.
Whether you think you might be interested to buy a print or not, I invite you now to come and explore the new galleries, and see for yourself the Asia I’ve come to know and love.
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