Editorial and Creative Photography | Matthieu Paley

Hectic life and publications

2011-12-05T10:30:00.001-08:00

I was told couple of years ago that a photographer should 1/do editorial work 2/gallery work and 3/books. Not really realizing it, I followed this advice - after almost 10 years living of being almost strictly an editorial photographer, the timing was right. Now life is slightly more hectic but equally as stimulating.

The last month has been a mad scramble between 1/ preparing for a long job in Afghanistan next month 2/ preparing and editing 2 solo exhibitions that will happen here in Istanbul right after my expedition to Afghanistan and 3/ giving structure to a book that will come out next summer. Oh, and I also been working on a completely new website over the last 6 months. I am trying to fill it with nicely captioned / key worded images. This has been difficult - it represent a huge amount of work - I could lock myself for a year now and only do that. It's been difficult enough that I have been on a serious hunt to finding an assistant the last 2 weeks. No luck so far...

Here a couple of publications that came out this month, in December 2011.

My story on Nauru is out in the german edition of Geo. Below is the opening spread, of the Civic center. A long story in the making on the world's smallest republic, that was an exhibition in France last year - I shot the story exactly 1 year ago. This is the opening spread:

In the french edition of Geo, I have a story on Nomadic America - shot last summer as part of my book "Dans les Roues de Kerouac - Portraits d'une Amérique Nomade" Editions de la Martinière- and in anticipation of the soon to be release screen adaptation of "On the Road" by Kerouac - produced by Coppola and shot by Walter Salles. Here 2 chosen spreads from this story:

Also in Tatler, I am the featured photographer of their 10 pages gallery section. Here is one of them...

Finally, I have a spread in the current edition of Conde Nast Traveler in the US. The "Where are you" section. And don't hassle me to ask me where it is... but you can always try to bribe me.

Crazy summer of road tripping!

2011-10-23T20:25:00.001-07:00

Yes, it has been 4 months since I didn't sit down on my blog! Shame, shame, shame!!

Here is a quick recap on an intense summer: early June our second son Timoté was born at the minute the sun rose over Istanbul, our new home. It's apparently called an heliacal birth.
A couple of weeks of family bonding and I was off on a long awaited 4 weeks trip across the US, east to West - "The road to Kerouac; Portaits of a Nomadic America" (published by La Martinière ). The book (208 pages) landed on my editor's lap a few days ago, and should be available in stores soon in France. Here are some snap shots of the book - I will do a proper Blog entry when it is officially available:

An article on this very topic will come out in Géo (French edition) in December 2011.

After this cross-country non-stop adventure, I spent a few days in Washington (meeting with National Geographic magazine), and then 5 days in New York. That didn't help slow down anything, but it was great to see old friends and to just re-immersed myself in this brilliant city. I lived there almost 4 years in the late 90's. 10 years I hadn't been there. The smells, feels and looks haven't changed much expect for this Williamsburg hipster frame-less glasses phenomenon...

I flew back to Europe to re-unite to family and hit the ground driving from Rouen, France, in Normandy, to Berlin - I was close to 9000 Km already from mid-June, my bum was sore. Berlin was really a great feel. About 10 different languages heard in the street every 5 minutes, and just a general good humored feel. To me, the most cosmopolitan city of Europe. Maybe one day I live there.

From Berlin, I drove to Munich in time to catch a plane to Tajikistan - via Istanbul ironically - back to the Tajik Pamir for a story on "seed hunting". Have a look at this guy. We drove much again, I became experimental with my shooting from the window, mainly to kill time.

Back in Munich - I drove to South of France to attend Perpignan's Visa pour l'Image. 3 days was just the perfect amount of mingling, sharing work and yes, partying.
Back in Istanbul, just in time to enjoy the end of summer. The city seduces me and there are interesting stories around. After a trip to Hatay, on the Syrian border, I came back to Istanbul to shoot a story on the geopolitical importance of.... TV dramas in Turkey and the middle east. Great stuff that I will keep on working on for a while I hope.

I am now in Hong Kong for 3 weeks - to attend to my solo exhibition on Mongolia. Here is the link to the gallery, and below the invitation... Opening is tomorrow Tuesday 25th October 2011 at 6pm:
Picture This gallery
Suite 1308, 13th Floor
9 Queen's Road, Central
Hong Kong

If you are in the area, come and catch me!

Book project across the USA: On the road to Kerouac - Sur la Route de Kerouac - Coppola et Walter Salles

2011-06-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

I have been absent of that blog for a bit – one main reason being is I just became dad for the 2nd time and so time sort of stopped around the birth of Timoté, who was born at the exact time the sun rose over Istanbul, on June 4th. There are no words…

Currently in New York, I am about to embark on what should be a great 4 weeks journey across the US. I studied photography in NY in the late nineties, was briefly back in 2001, but not since then. It’s an incredible thrill to be back here in the US– and especially to come and photograph this country, East to West.

What’s the story? Well… the story is the road, the story is itinerant America, the quest for home or the feeling of it, the enlightened, the modern nomadic America – for ideology or by necessity.
This is a book project, commissioned by famed French publisher La Martinière, as well as a 52mn documentary produced by Gédéon in Paris. Preparations have been going on for several months – we were lucky to have a great fixer in New York who helped us organize this journey. It has been quite a puzzle to put together.

What’s the reason for this project? Well, the famous book from Jack Kerouac “On the Road” has been adapted to the screen and will come out as a movie next December, produced by Francis Ford Coppola and directed by Walter Salles.
Writer, director and traveler Christophe Cousin and I proposed the idea to La Martinière of revisiting the “On the road” ideology across the US and make a book out of it – to be published at the time the movie comes out. It’s good to know we both have been fascinated by Kerouac’s writings.
What is the legacy of the Beat movement in nowadays America? We will spend time with the people and in the places that so inspired Kerouac and the other Beat authors. Cameraman Fitz Jego will come along as well, for a documentary that will be aired on Canal + in December.

Of course the work still need to be done and I hope to find time to write a bit about it on my blog now and then – probably from the motel room or the diner that will be my home and kitchen for the next month.
Hobos, wagon cowboys, Christian wandering preachers, Indian shepherds, rainbow gatherers etc. There is a nice interesting bunch waiting out for us.

On a personal note, this project falls right at the time when I have been thinking a lot about “what is home” – especially with my recent move from Hong Kong to Istanbul, which has shuffle my life around quite a bit. Staying “nomadic” with a young family is a challenge that puts you to the test. Should I even consider buy a home? And if so, where? Where is my home? Ubi bene Patria as they say: “Home is where you feel happy”…

The road keep going - Hitchiking along the Turkey-Iran border, winter 2000.

La route continue – tentative d'auto-stop le long de la frontière Irano-Turque, hiver 2000.

FRENCH:
J’ai été absent de ce blog depuis un petit moment – la raison principale est l’arrivée de mon 2eme fils – le temps c’est arrêté autour de la naissance de Timoté, né à la minute ou le soleil se levait sur Istanbul le 4 Juin. C’est incroyable…

Je suis en ce moment à New York, au seuil d’un voyage de 4 semaines à travers les USA. J’ai fait mes études de photo à New York à la fin des années 90, suis revenu brièvement en 2001, mais pas depuis. C’est vraiment stimulant de revenir aux US – surtout dans le but de photographier ce pays, d’Est en Ouest.

Sur quelle histoire vais-je travailler ? ET bien… sur l’histoire de la route, de l’Amérique itinérante, la recherche de sa patrie, ce sentiment d’appartenance à un lieu, les illuminés, l’Amérique moderne nomade – par idéologie ou nécessité.
C’est un projet de livre commissionné par les éditions de la Martinière, enplus d’un documentaire de 52mn produit par Gédéon à Paris. Cela fait plusieurs mois que nous préparons le voyage – nous avons sur place à New York une fixeuse qui nous aide beaucoup. Notre périple est un vrai casse-tête à organiser.

Pourquoi ce projet ? Et bien, le fameux livre « Sur la Route » de Jack Kerouac a été adapté au grand écran et sortira en Décembre prochain, produit par Francis Ford Coppola et dirigé par Walter Salles.
L’écrivain voyageur et réalisateur Christophe Cousin et moi-même proposons l’idée à La Martinière de revisiter l’idéologie de « Sur la Route » à travers les Etats-Unis et en fiare un livre – qui sortira au moment de la sortie du film en salle. Il est bon à savoir que ce livre nous a tous deux beaucoup marqué.
Quel est l’héritage de la génération Beat dans les Etats-Unis d’aujourd’hui ? Nous allons nous attarder chez les gens et les lieux qui ont tant inspiré Kerouac. Et d’autres auteurs Beat. Le Cameraman Fitz Jego se joint à nous pour filmer un documentaire qui sera diffusé sur Canal + en Décembre.

Il ne reste plus qu’a avaler des kilomètres. Je compte écrire pendant notre périple, probablement du motel ou du diner qui seront ma maison et ma cuisine pour les 4 semaines à venir.
Les hobos, cowboys wagons, itinérant prêcheur Chrétiens, bergers Indiens, Famille de l’Arc en ciel etc. Il y a du drôle monde qui nous attend.

D’un point de vue personnel, ce projet arrive à un moment dans ma vie ou cette question de l’appartenance à un lieu me travaille beaucoup – surtout après ce déménagement récent de Hong Kong à Istanbul qui a un peu chamboulé ma vie. Garder un mode de vie « nomadique » avec une jeune famille est un vrai challenge. Dois-je penser a l’achat du maison ? Mais ou ? Ou est cette patrie ? Ubi ben Patria comme on dit : « La maison c’est là ou tu es heureux »…

Nauru, the world's smallest country, once world's richest country, now with world's highest diabetes rate.

2011-05-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

I was on French radio recently. An interview by Régis Picart, the chief editor of France Info, about my assignment in Nauru that was recently exhibited. I like how Regis summarized the situation in his write-up titled "The Eldorado of diabetes". Nauru, once the world's richest country, has now the world's highest diabetes rate.

Hear it and see it by clicking here.

Je suis passé à la radio récemment. Un interview de Régis Picard, rédacteur en chef de France Info, à propos de mon reportage à Nauru, exposé au festival Photo de Mer. J'aime la manière dont Régis a résumé la situation dans son article intitulé "L'eldorado des diabétiques". Nauru, un temps le pays le plus riche au monde, a maintenant le taux de diabète le plus élevé au monde.

______

We passed with a car and I saw that man below in a cemetery in the distance. I walked to him and he welcomed me with a smile. I pushed away a mechanism that was telling me I should look sad for him. He was in fact a happy man, smiling all the way telling me a bit of his and his wife's love history. I love this kind of moments, be it tainted with death or not.

Nous sommes passés en voiture et j'ai vu cet homme au loin dans un cimetière. J'ai marché vers lui et il m'a sourit. J'ai repoussé un de ces mécanismes qui me disait que je devais prendre l'air triste. En fait, c'était un homme souriant, qui n'arrêta pas de sourire, tout en me rancontant sa vie amoureuse, de sa femme et lui. J'adore ce genre de moments, qu'il soit teind de mort ou pas.

Christmas is getting close. Jeffrey Garo uses the opportunity to repaint the tomb of his wife Nebaida, who passed away in 2004. “You know, here we call it the silence killer. Everyday people die on the island. No need to ask, it’s always diabetes…” Arrived from the islands of Tuvalu during the wave of immigration in the 60’s, Jeffrey fell in love and never left the island.

Noël approche. Jeffrey Garo en profite pour repeindre la tombe de sa femme Nebaida, qui est décédée en 2004. "Vous savez, ici on l'appele le tueur silencieux. Tout les jours des gens meurent. Y a pas besoin de demander: c'est toujours le diabète...". Arrivé des îles Tuvalu pendant la vague d'immigration dans les années 60, Jeffrey est tombé amoureux et n'est jamais reparti...

Matthieu Paley sur France 2 - I was on TV...

2011-05-11T04:33:00.000-07:00

I am hard at work trying to find a solution for a new website - as most of us now know, Flash = Satan - so I need to revert to html, only for referencing purposes, so that my entire site can be searchable (it's far from being the case now), so that the site shows up in iphone/ipad etc... To host it, I have been considering Photoshelter, PhotoDeck, Neon Sky, Livebooks etc. It's getting my head in - but it's important I move back to html.

A few days ago, I was on french television (France 2) for an interview on my ongoing exhibition on Nauru and on the festival in general. I am not good at show biz, but Here it is. It gives an insight of the outdoor exhibition space, which was really well done I thought. It's a few minutes.

Je suis passé à la télé, sur France 2 il y a quelques jours - à propos de mon exposition sur Nauru et sur le festival en général. Vous pouvez visionné ça ici.

Supernatural creatures of the mountains - les créatures surnaturelles des montagnes

2011-04-28T02:36:00.000-07:00

They are named Jinn and they often come out at night. They like remote mountain valleys too. My first "encounter" with them was in Kachura village, in Pakistan's Karakoram mountains, during a full moon night.

Here is a two-part edited short story about Jinn's (and epilepsy...) in Afghanistan's Wakhan region by my friend and Afghan Kyrgyz expert © Ted Callahan:

"One night, as I’m writing up the day’s fieldnotes, Orunbai, a son of the Khan, comes to my tent.

“Sorry to bother you, Temir-aka, but my wife is sick. It might be a jinn, but we’re not sure.”

I’ve been wondering about traditional healing practices among the Afghan Kyrgyz, since I have yet to see any evidence of it, and eagerly follow Orunbai to his house. Inside, I find Kyrgol, his wife, keeled over, complaining of severe abdominal pain and moaning as she grasps her stomach.

...They decide that... they will try to drive the jinn out themselves. First, one of the women brings over a loaf of round, flat bread with two candles lit in the middle of it. This is passed in front of the sick woman three times, while chants are muttered. Then, this same woman brings over some embers from the fire and, putting them in front of Kyrgol, fans the smoke towards her. Finally, one of the men takes a rock which has been sitting atop the stove, wrapped it in a red cloth, and moves it back in forth in front of Kyrgol’s stomach, though without actually touching her.

Curious, I feign ignorance and ask why they are doing this. I am simply told, “For the jinn.”

When my turn comes, I give her some painkillers and antacids. The next day, Kyrgol is fine. Opinion is split over whether it really was a jinn or just, as I suggest, indigestion. We agree to let the question of what the problem might have been rest."
______

"One Wakhi shepherd at the Khan’s camp, Mirza, suffers from epilepsy, a common condition in the Wakhan owing to close intermarriage. Often, around dinnertime, he would rise, walk over to a corner, lie down, and suffer an epileptic seizure. I assumed that everyone knew he had epilepsy and that he simply endured his condition because no medicine was available.

One day, I asked Mirza whether he had sought treatment for his condition.

“Yes, I have visited several bakshy ( - ed: in Kyrgyz community, Bakshy are male shaman with healing powers) in the Wakhan but they have not been able to help me.” he answered.

Surprised, I asked, “Wait, what do you think your problem is?”

“I have a jinn” he replied, as if it were obvious. "

Text ©Ted Callahan

Prisoners of the Himalayas - an ongoing film Project

2011-04-22T02:30:00.000-07:00

Last January/February, I went back to the Afghanistan's Pamir mountains to have my first "real" experience shooting film. It's a long story that brought us there, but it was due to the motivation of Louis Meunier (Director of the project). Louis has a long experience in Afghanistan, and he was not the first director to approach me on doing a film on the Afghan Kyrgyz - but his experience, honesty and motivation made it happen. We shared our knowledge of the area and we eventually got last-minute funding from the Danish Embassy in Afghanistan to shoot this film. Thanks so much dear Danes! This last winter was the first session of a 2 (or 3) session-shooting in the Afghan Pamir.

During an interview break, a Kyrgyz looks through my camera.

As far as filming, I was going to be paired up with another cameraman. I was fearing a show-off dude, but instead I was lucky enough to be teamed up with a kind, patient and extremely talented man: Laurent Fleutot (Director of Photography on "The Winged Migration" and "Oceans", among others).
Of course, this expedition would not have been possible without the help of our Wakhis and Afghan friends who supported us all along - it was my second winter trip up there with now famous Malang Dario, our production assistant. He was the first afghan to climb Mt Noshaq in 2009, Afghanistan's highest mountain. See Louis's other project about this here: 24.000 feet above the War.

We walked and walked and slept in dung smoked filled shepherd houses by -30C and this is what came out: Ladies and gentlemen (drum roll), I present to you "Prisoners of the Himalayas":

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You can learn more about the project on our film website : www.theroofoftheworld.com

Afghan Pamir Re-visited

2011-04-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

These past January and February I was in Afghanistan for my second winter expedition (the last one was in 2008, on an assignment for Geo magazine with Ted Callahan ).
This year, it took 16 yaks and 23 days to trek up and down the Afghan Pamir mountains - and reach the end of the Wakhan Corridor and the China border. Abdul Rashid Khan (whom I first met in 2005), the last leader of the Afghan Kyrgyz, passed away last December 2009, quietly in his yurt. We visited a community adrift, struggling in selecting a new Khan.

Below is a sneak preview, the full story is up on my website, under Stories > The Last Khan - presentation text will be up there soon....

Three cups of Deceit - Byliner.com goes live with a story from Jon Krakauer

2011-04-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to exchange e-mails with writer Jon Krakauer yesterday.
Then today his story (an ebook to be exact) we were discussing went live on Byliner website: "Three cups of deceit - How humanitarian Greg Mortenson lost his way". My image of a Central Asia Institute (Greg's foundation) school in Afghanistan is on the cover. You can download it for free for the next 3 days on the Byliner website - so read it if you get a chance and make up your own opinion.

Greg Mortenson on 60 Minutes - CBS news

2011-04-17T05:47:00.000-07:00

I have been following Greg's Mortenson work with the Central Asia Institute (CAI) since my year-long stay in Skardu, Pakistan, back in 1999. I started getting e-mails from various people over the last few days, requesting images from CAI schools in Afghanistan. I didn't know why until a friend sent me that link (aired tonight). Over the years, I have heard few negative stories from various people about Mr Mortenson - it's always hard to know if they are simply jealous of his success or plainly telling the truth. I hope Greg gets on CBS's 60 minutes (or any TV interview program for that matter), to clear the air...

In 2002, Outside got in touch with me to shoot a story on the Siachen glacier, in the disputed Kashmir region - I was put in touch with Greg to get access - the initial story proposal was to cross the Siachen glacier from Pakistan to India, walking over 7000m, with missiles being fired over your head. There was talk about me coming to the US to "train" for glacier crossing etc. I thought it was crazy and declined - a tough choice for a photographer who was just starting up.
I must have been right since the story's angle was later considerably changed: photographer and writer first had a look at Siachen's glacier and its army presence on the Pakistan side, then they went down to Islamabad to legally cross into India, make there way up to the Indian army camps opposite Siachen and complete their story. This seemed much more reasonable. Teru Kuwayama, a photographer friend met in New York in the late 90's, shot the story (great B+W work) with writer Kevin Fedarko. I was later sent to Tuvalu to shoot an interesting story on global warming for Outside, my "compensation" price. I was far from my beloved Karakoram, but that story certainly opened my horizon...

Greg's right hand man is also an old Wakhi friend of mine, Sarfraz - the older brother of my Wakhi "teacher", Alam Jan Daryo. Sarfraz is from Zood Khun, a tiny village at the end of the Chapursan valley, on the border with Afghanistan and a stone throw away (to be exact 4 days walk over a 5000m pass) from the Afghan Pamir, the home of the Afghan Kyrgyz - a story that has "obsessed" me for 10 years now. Anyway, CAI's growing involvement in Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor, building schools, with the help of Sarfraz, has been of great interest to me.
The CAI recently built a school in the Afghan Pamir, at a place called Bozai Gumbaz - a 4 or 5 days walk from the nearest village of Sarhad. It's hard to imagine the remoteness of the Little Pamir - and it's cultural complexity - but all these factors made it hard for me to imagine a foundation would consider building a school there - in fact, the Aga Khan Foundation didn't consider doing it, and they are the most involved in the region.

I went back to the Afghan Pamir in January-February 2011 for my second winter expedition (first was in Jan/Feb 2008, where I collaborated with anthropologist and now friend Ted Callahan, who appears in 60 minutes). During the expedition, via our only satellite phone (who worked erratically as we were close to the China/Tajikistan border), we were asked to shoot images (video + stills) of the CAI school, by an American producer, working for CBS. Strange request to get in such a lonesome place.
The school looked like it was never-ever used. The 2 only Kyrgyz teachers in the Afghan Pamir leave too far off from the school . In fact, by the time the CAI finished building the school, the government had already started sending teachers up to the Afghan Pamir and classes were being held at 8 locations. They didn't have schools, they just used the Aga Khan Foundation tourist yurts or regular guestrooms or tents. But it worked. For these reasons, the school, so far, has never been used - at least not to the degree CAI claims...

Here is the CAI school in Bozai Gumbaz (February 2011), with UrunBai, one of the Kyrgyz leader standing proud in front.
I also attached a picture from a Aga Khan Foundation's school in Zood Khun, North Pakistan - not a CAI school. When the weather is good, students often go outside of the classroom...
And finally, a telling note "Instructions for Life", posted on the wall in that AKF school. Don't forget we are in North Pakistan, immersed in Ismaili communities, a very tolerant form of Islam whose spiritual leader is the Aga Khan.

All images © Matthieu Paley

The Strange case of Nauru - exhibition

2011-04-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

I was recently in France for the opening of my exhibition on Nauru. 46 images and 2 videos are exhibited outdoor at the Festival Photo de Mer, from April 8th until May 8th. Other exhibitions includes stories from Ed Kashi and Chris Maluszynski.

Thanks to a grant from the Festival Photo de Mer, I spent 11 days on Nauru, the world's smallest Republic, far off in the middle of the Pacific. To turn it into a "real" story I teamed up with Geo Magazine (the German edition) staff-writer Markus Wolff. Story will soon come out in Germany.

Nauru has long been on my mind. I first heard about it in late 2001, when Afghan refugees were held in a detention center on the island. I couldn't put these 2 facts together in my head. After some research, they were so many curiously fascinating facts about the island that I just needed to go. It seemed a unique case of middle of nowhere yet middle of everything.

Here is a translation of my synopsis that got me the grant (© Matthieu Paley) :

"Nauru, an island of barely 21 km2, is located in the middle of the Pacific. It is the world’s smallest republic.
Its soil, extremely rich in phosphate, has been exploited since the beginning of the 20th century. The rapid value increase of the phosphate, followed by independence, makes Nauru the richest country in the world at the beginning of the 70’s.
As a result, falling for the temptations of uncontrolled consumerism, the Nauruans considerably change their way of life. Diabetes and the highest obesity level on the planet are some side effects of these excessive years.
End of the 90’s: the Phosphate resources diminish considerably.

Looking for financial solutions, Nauru becomes a tax-free zone, and with this a facilitator for money laundering businesses of the Russian mafia. The government also opens a detention center for Afghan and Iraqi refugees, all paid for by the Australian government...

In 2004, the state goes bankrupt. The government of Nauru decides at last to reactivate its phosphate mining. Official sources estimate that there are between 20 and 30 years left for further exploitation. The Nauruans, an isolated people, continues to look for solutions, keeping all the while their joyful island spirit.

We go to meet these men and women of Nauru, their president, a former weightlifting champion; Gerard Jones, a personal trainer and bird hunter; Lucia, the oldest lady of the country and Scarlet Lucy, the cargo ship that brings goods to the island every 2 months."

Two preview shots, the full story will soon be up on my website.

Lucia dances in her living room “I dance a lot, I pray to the Lord and I play Bingo!”. 85 years old, she is the oldest woman of the country, and the last person to have known deportation, in 1943, during the Second World War. 1200 Nauruans were then sent on the Chuuk island by the Japanese forces, and endured forced labor. Only 737 came back in 1945.

It takes 6 hours flight from Bisbane in Australia to reach Nauru, an island state of barely 21 km2, located in the middle of the Pacific, 42 km from the equator. It is the world’s smallest republic, with less than 10.000 inhabitants. Twenty minutes of driving (19 km) will bring you around the whole country…

Exhibition in Paris - Exposition à Paris

2011-03-04T23:32:00.000-08:00

I will be part of a group exhibition at the Galerie de l'Instant , 46 Rue de Poitou, from 11 March until 11 May, here is the flyer. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend, as I am in Istanbul!

Please clean up that snow if you want to get on that plane - Si vous voulez monter dans cet avion, Merci de bien nettoyer la neige sur la piste d'atterissage...

2011-03-02T01:34:00.000-08:00

I am back since 10 days from an incredible 1 month winter expedition in the afghan Pamirs! It's, of course, a long story - and over the next months I will talk about it via my images (haven't even had time to go through them yet). But, following numerous requests, here is a quick sum up...

I arrived on January 21st in Kabul. On 23rd morning, thanks to good weather, we (that's Laurent Fleutot and Louis Meunier, more about them later...) were in a hired 4 seater Kodiak (not Zodiak!) plane bound for Kret village, towards the end of the Wakhan Corridor (approx. here, where the "V" of Vakhan is written) - but still a long way to the Little Pamir region, our destination - the abode of the Afghan Kyrgyz. It was my second winter expedition there. To my knowledge no one ever went there twice in winter (I was there in 2008 as well). 7 days and many yaks, camels and horses caravans later, we were in the Little Pamir. We were there to shoot a film. You can see more about this here, on the official website (which is being built, so check again later).

We were on the road, walking, for 23 days, at about 4200m, with temperatures between -10 and -30 C, no showers and only rare smoked in shepherd houses as resting places. Of course it was tough at times, but then again, it was incredibly beautiful.

We came back down from the Little Pamir in a snow storm. After 8 days of constant snow, walking over a a frozen river (the only way down), we were back in Kret village. We called in Kabul with our satellite phone to get back on that Kodiak plane. The sky had magically cleared. We were told it's possible but please, first we needed to clean the snow off the airfield. The village head gathered a few manly souls and off we were at the airfield, shoveling off the snow that would bring us back to civilization...

En FRANCAIS:

Me voila rentré depuis 10 jours d'une expédition hivernale incroyable d'1 mois, dans les Pamirs Afghan! Bien évidemment, c'est une longue histoire - et je tenterais de la raconter plus en détail, via mes images, dans les mois qui viennent. En attendant, voici une petit résumé…

Arrivé le 21 Janvier à Kaboul. Le 23 au matin, il fait beau et nous (c’est-à-dire Laurent Fleutot et Louis Meunier – je reparlerais plus tard de mes camarades d’expé…) sommes dans Kodiak, un 4 place en partance pour le village de Kret, vers la fin du corridor du Wakhan (là ou le V de Vakhan est écrit) – mais encore bien loin du Petit Pamir, notre destination. À ma connaissance, aucun étranger n’est jamais allé 2 fois là-haut en hiver. 7 jours et de nombreuses caravanes de yacks, chameaux et chevaux plus tard, nous étions dans le Petit Pamir. Nous étions là pour touner un film. Plus d’info à ce sujet sur ce site, qui est en train d’être construit.

Nous étions en chemin pendant 23 jours de marche, à 4200m, avec des températures entre -10 et -30, pas de douche et comme seul logis des bergeries enfumées. Cela fut dur par moments, mais tellement beau aussi !

Nous sommes redescendu du Petit Pamir dans une tempête de neige. Suite à 8 jours de neige et de marche sur la rivière gelée, nous étions de retour au village de Kret. On appela Kaboul avec notre téléphone satellite, pour essayer de remonter dans cet avion Kodiak. Le ciel s’était éclairci, comme par magie. Le pilote nous dit alors qu’il viendrait nous chercher, mais d’abord nous devions enlever tout la neige sur la piste d’atterrissage. Qu’à cela ne tienne. Le chef du village rameuta les troupes : nous enlevions la neige à grands coups de pelles, nous frayant un chemin de retour vers la « civilisation ».

Djibouti, for a piece of Africa.

2011-03-01T01:08:00.000-08:00

I have just finished uploading my story on Djibouti. Below a few preview images - you can see the whole story on my website, under the link "Stories < Djibouti, For a piece of Africa".

A dwarf-sized country with a giant’s strategic importance, Djibouti lays at the heart of a troubled hot spot in the Horn of Africa. Of prime importance in the world of international geopolitics, it is a country of armies, secret service agencies, refugees, aid organizations and wheeler-dealers.

Djibouti is only as large as the European tip of Turkey. It has no natural resources, agriculture or forests —it barely even manages to feed its own nomads. It could have been a worthless piece of land, were it not for something that geo-strategists prize as much as property agents: its location.

A US diver searches for explosives, fearing an attack on the only US base in Africa.

Daily-wage workers unload dates sent by the UN’s World Food Programme. The destination: Ethiopia. Djibouti is one of the biggest transshipment points in the world for the UN. There, 13 to 14 million people receive assistance through the world’s largest food-aid programme—all transported through Djibouti. This tiny country is absolutely essential for the survival of a nation with the second-largest population in Africa, for Ethiopia’s traditional access to the sea via Eritrea, has been blocked since a border conflict in the late 1990s.

Almost 7 million tonnes are transshipped through the port annually. Every day, 500 Ethiopian trucks pass through, sometimes 200 for the WFP alone.

It is so hot that the beach only comes alive at sunset The old port lies on the other side. Containers are now handled at the new terminal, one of the most expensive in the world. Djibouti’s government hopes to keep capitalizing on the country’s location—and dreams of becoming a second Dubai.

“We’ll fly down the corridor and turn around at the end,” says the tactical coordinator, nicknamed ‘Tacco.’ These German army men are on a mission as part of the EU’s Operation Atalanta. They have 8 hours to locate the wooden cutters and speedboats of Somali pirates.

Setting up the first German embassy in Djibouti. Germany's army presence is there to "protect its foreign trade interests" as well as to partake in the EU's Operation Atalanta.

Somalian refugees fleeing starvation wait at the border of Djibouti for permission to enter - in vain. Only war refugees from central and southern Somalia are accepted. These women and children are from North Somalia.

Djiboutian Police inspecting bodies of recently accepted Somalian Refugee asylum seekers, on the border with Somalia. The presence of scars could indicate a refugee's involvement with extremist organizations such as Al Chabab in Somalia, in which case further questioning is necessary.

Illegal refugees sleeping on the beach. About 100 non-registered refugees arrive from Somalia every day, trying to either find work in Djibouti or to cross the Red Sea to Yemen, on their way to Dubai.

Muna is combing Tina’s hair; the two Ethiopians prostitutes will soon be heading to a club. “The best is to find an American soldier,” says Tina. “The French are the most generous clients; they pay for our apartments so that we don’t have to work. But sooner or later, they all go back to their wives.”

Hoping to prevent the Horn of Africa from becoming another refuge for Islamic terrorists post-9/11, the US has made Djibouti the headquarter of their multinational anti-terror campaign, Operation Enduring Freedom. They are on "B" security alert, same level than for places like Afghanistan and Iraq. This is ‘CLU-Ville’ or ‘Container City’, what the Americans call their living quarters at the US base, Camp Lemonnier.

US military personnel from the Civil Affairs department of the US Army on a trip to Sagallou - a medical camp mission. The trip forms part of the "3D approach" of the US Army: Development, Democracy, Defense.

The Foreign Legion, a unit of the French army, sets off on an anti-guerrilla exercise. Djibouti offers the ideal terrain - it is hot and mountainous, just like Afghanistan.

Sakatz (on top of the jeep), a Romanian man enrolled in the French Foreign legion, goes to take part in the setting up of a Forward Operating Base - an exercise in guerilla warfare in an environment very similar to the one encountered, for example, in Afghanistan.

The capital's main market lies between the European and African quarters. Recently the Chinese, as Djibouti’s most important investors, are wielding more and more influence.

President Guelleh has been in power since 1999. Djibouti may be a tiny state, but he is one of Africa’s richest men.

The end of a wedding celebration of a rich Djiboutian Army Colonel at the Sheraton hotel.

Half the population of Djibouti City lives in slums like Arhiba with little water, work or schools.

An illegal refugee in her "house". The poorest camp of all: a waste dump on the outskirts of Arhiba. It once was occupied by 4,000 huts like these—until their owners were evicted. Now, villas are being planned here.

Back to the Afghan Pamir, dropping out for 1 month - Retour au Pamir Afghan, coupé du monde pendant 1 mois.

2011-01-21T01:09:00.000-08:00

Our world is over-connected, it's a bless and a curse. It's hard to find places without electricity or mobile reception. Without these 2 things, you are pretty much left alone. I am off today to one of this remaining "unconnected" place. My second winter expedition to the Afghan Wakhan - you can see the story I shot there in 2008 on my website ("Forgotten on the roof of the world"). I first trekked to this place over 10 years ago while living in Pakistan.

I spent the whole last 2 weeks preparing the trip, mainly stocking up again on warm gear. I am embarking on a film project, where I will be filming as well as photographing. A story that has been in the pipeline for a while.

I shall be in Kabul tomorrow, meeting up with the 3 other team member (two french: the director and other cameraman and an Afghani sound engineer). Then we will hop in a little chartered Zodiak plane - much like this one below, expect our pilot will look different - with 250 Kg of gear and fly near Sarhad, at the end of the Wakhan corridor.

Then we will trek for few days on the frozen Wakhan river (Pakistan to the south, Tajikistan to the North, China to the east), a caravan of probably 7 or 8 yaks - we will have over 600Kg of gear all inclusive - and hopefully reach the high altitude plateau of the Little Pamir, at 4300m, 4 or 5 days later. Then we will set up camp and start work on our project, focusing on the Afghan Kyrgyz. More about this later. Outside our tent it will be incredibly cold but it seems worth it - that's how it will look on an overcast day:

Of course, this plan is to be taken with a heavy dose of "inch'allah" - too many factors can alter it. But that's the beauty about it: being surprised. And certainly feeling incredibly lucky this is even happening at all!

Over to you, I am off and out, back in 1 month...

"The Forgotten" webdocumentary trailer on Geo website

2011-01-13T03:25:00.000-08:00

Here it is, quite timely as I am heading back up to the Afghan Pamir in about a week, for another winter expedition (this time with a film team): our 5mn trailer on the Afghan Kyrgyz is featured on Geo's website, have a look.

© Matthieu and Mareile Paley - www.paleyphoto.com -

Le trailer de 5mn de notre webdocumentaire est en ligne sur le site allemand de Geo, vous pouvez le voir ici. Je retourne dans le Pamir Afghan cet hiver, départ dans une petite semaine...

Mongolia book trailer - Mongolie, La route de l'Horizon - éd. de La Martinière

2011-01-11T02:44:00.000-08:00

We put together this small 3mn trailer last month, following the publication of our latest book on Mongolia - here it is, hope you enjoy...

Nous venons de monter un petit trailer de 3mn, suite à la sortie de notre livre "Mongolie, la Route de l'Horizon"... et voila...

Mongolie, La Route de l'Horizon - un livre de Matthieu et Mareile Paley - Ed. de la Martinière from Matthieu Paley on Vimeo.

Tajikistan, Passage to Pamir - article in Destinasian magazine, December 2010

2011-01-10T05:40:00.000-08:00

Soon I will be off for 1 month in the Afghan Pamir, only eventually linked by a satellite phone. So I am trying to catch up... This is blog madness.
While we lived in Tajikistan, we also pitched Destinasian for a daring story on Tajikistan. I mean "daring", as it is a bit out of the way for the type of article they usually do (they are in the lines of Travel and Leisure, which will also feature some of my Tajikistan images this month). Destinasian usually does really beautiful layout, as they did for our Hunza story which won a price last year, see it here.

Here is the Tajikistan article, with Mareile's text...

Voila un artcile paru récemment dans Destinasian et écrit par Mareile, avec mes images, sur le Pamir, au Tajikistan!

Nepal, Annapurna trek, Geo publication, "Die Strasse", the road...

2011-01-10T05:20:00.000-08:00

Last July I went for 10 days to walk some of the Annapurna trek for Geo magazine, as part of a special issue on the Himalayas. It's one of the legendary trek of the Himalayan world. I had done part of it over 10 years ago but since then, a jeep road has been built in the western side of the circuit, reaching to the holy shrine of Muktinath - mostly bringing Indians believers, who flew into Jomson village, then took the jeep to the base of the shrine, then horses to the shrine itself... minimal walking involved (question: does that defy the idea of a "pilgrimage"?). They are building a similar road on the eastern side of the Annapurna circuit.
I went with writer Tom Dauer, who when not on assignment, lives in a beautiful farm house at the feet of the Alps, 40Km south of Munich - great place to read, write and chop wood!
Here we are, after a quick dip in the holy spring of Muktinath (which washes from all sins! thanks goodness...) this ended up at the beginning of the magazine, an interesting contributor picture.

Voici quelques images ainsi que l'article publié dans Géo allemagne, suite à mon reportage sur la route qui se construit le long du célèbre trek autour des Annapurnas. Ci-dessous, me voila avec Tom Dauer, l'auteur de l'article... Ici aussi, un diaporama fait par Geo.

Geo did a small sideshow piece, and ask me to lay some words over it. Here it is in English or German, it summarizes the story quite well.

This is the resulting article from that story, came out in December 2010:

And these are some of the images that didn't make it into the story, life along the road...

Tajikistan - the roof of the world festival

2011-01-10T03:25:00.000-08:00

Last year, we (= the paleyfamily = Mareile, our son iluka and myself) spent a few months in Tajikistan- you can see it here. We had a couple of projects planned but most of all, we wanted to spend some time to get to know Tajikistan better - allowing us to complete the picture of this region, having spend so much time in the neighboring countries. We were based in Khorog, at the heart of the Gorno-Badakhshan region. One of the project that we did, is producing a short movie to promote the "Roof of the World" festival. Mareile worked on the design part of the promotion of the festival itself as well as the editing of the short movie. I ran around taking pictures and filming. During the production part, we offered multimedia workshop to various Pamiri Tajiks enthusiasts... This is part of the "capacity building" that must take place while working for NGO (in that case, our client was the Aga Khan Foundation).
Here is the resulting video:

The Roof of the World Festival 2009 - Khorog, Tajikistan, all images ©Matthieu Paley from Matthieu Paley on Vimeo.

Legionnaires also sleep - les legionnaires dorment aussi! - Djibouti

2010-12-17T09:37:00.000-08:00

Last June, I shot a story on Djibouti for Geo magazine (German edition). On any good story, there should be one aspect of it that surprises you, that touches you. The French foreign legion is very special. Most guys aren't french. Theses days, most of them comes from eastern Europe and South America. We joined them on a FOB exercise (Forward Operating Base) in the desert. It must have been 50 degrees and 80% humidity. Legionnaires apparently are the crème de la crème when it comes to killing machines. But at night they sleep - their guns beside them, ready for action. These images (long exposures) were shot in the middle of the night, under full moon.

En Juin dernier je suis parti photographier Djibouti pour Geo allemagne. Durant tout bon reportage, il doit y avoir un aspect qui vous surprend, qui vous touche plus particulièrement. La légion étrangère est très special. La plupart des légionnaires ne sont pas francais, ils viennent ces jours-ci surtout de l'Europe de l'est et de l'Amerique du sud. Nous avons suivis un excercice de FOB (Forward Operating Base) dans le désert. Il devait faire 50 degrés et 80% d'humidité. Les légionnaires sont apparemment la crème de la crème des machines à tuer. Mais la nuit ils dorment - leurs armes à leur côté, prêt à l'action. Ces images (des expositions longues), ont été prises au milieu de la nuit, sous la pleine lune.

It does happen... ca arrive - erratum + en route to Nauru

2010-11-20T17:14:00.000-08:00

French:
Le week end dernier, j'ai une double de ma série sur la Sibérie qui est sortie dans le Figaro magazine, la section "Arrêt sur image". Le problème, c'est qu'un certain Laurent Masurel, spécialiste de photo de surf, a eu le crédit de cette photo. Donc, une erreur a la rédaction du Figaro et hop, personne ne sait plus que c'est ma photo. Cela m'était déja arrivé, une photo dans Time il y a queqlues années, mon nom avait été écorché. Dans ce cas-la, en général, la prix de double est multiplié par 2 et idéalement, le magazine publie un erratum. Il devrait apparaitre dans le Figaro Magazine de ce week end. Mais je suis bien loin, a Brisbane, dans une chambre d'hotel, en transit vers Nauru. Ce soir, je m'envole pour 6 heures au dessus du Pacifique.

Et voila Nauru: here it is, an aerial image of Nauru in 2002 from the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program.

Personally, I think Nauru is a spectacular case of middle of nowhere yet middle of everything. Nowhere to hide on this planet? I think so... Been wanting to go there for years, it's going to be 10 busy days on the world's smallest independent republic.

English:
Last week end, I had a spread from my Siberia series published in the Figaro magazine. Only problem is that my image was wrongly credited, to a photographer called Laurent Masurel, who specializes on Surf photography... A mistake from the editorial room, and there you go, no one knows it's my image. It does happen though. I remember a few years ago in Time magazine, my name had been completely misspell. In this case, what does usually happen is that you get paid double and they publish an erratum in the upcoming magazine. This should get published in this week end's Figaro magazine. But I am far from all this, in a hotel room in Brisbane, en route to Nauru. Tonight, I fly 6 hours above the Pacific...

Geo germany, my feature on Djibouti, East Africa

2010-11-07T06:40:00.000-08:00

Last June I spent 3 exciting and burning hot weeks (= 45 degrees and 90% humidity... nice!) in Djibouti, on assignment for Geo Germany.
The article came out this week, I was very happy with the result - the whole assignment made me love my job. I felt really lucky.
In fact, I have always been really fascinated by all the intrigues of the Great Game = the strategic rivalry between Russian and British Empire that took place 100 years ago in Central Asia - basically spies dressing up like locals trying to gather information and risking their lives on the way. And much more. Peter Hopkirk has written a few books on this, and they are so extremely well written and documented, I encourage everyone to read them.
Anyway, as it turned out, shooting a story in Djibouti was like diving into the Great Game, but the African version, and its taking place now...
Djibouti, Dschibuti, Yibuti, Djiboeti... however you call it, is right on the Horn of Africa, opposite Yemen, north of Somalia, east of Ethiopia and South of Eritrea! Strategically and geopolitically, it is of extreme importance. It's an island of relative peace in the middle of a relative big mess. So, as it turns out, these days everybody wants a piece of Djibouti: US, China, lots of Europeans countries, Japanese - they all have an army presence in this dried up place. Title of the story sums it up "Alle Welt will nach Dschibuti" which translates more or less as "Everyone wants a piece of Djibouti".

At work at the US army Camp Lemonier ©Ines Possemeyer

During anti-piracy reconnaissance flight, above the Gulf of Aden. German army detachment.

I went with Geo staff writer Ines Possemeyer, a great and passionate journalist. She had worked for a couple of months ahead to secure us access to the various military bases, anti-piracy planes, the president, the foreign legion, refugee centers etc.
They are a million things to say about Djibouti - this is a bless and a curse when it comes to stories. What was a real challenge for me was to get an opening image for the article - one that would summarize the whole complexity of the geopolitical importance of Djibouti. I knew it would be impossible, unless I would find something like an army guy in a slum hanging out with prostitutes while looking for pirates all the while having a chat with the president and a few Somalian refugees... tough one indeed.

Here is the article. I will post more images on Djibouti in the coming days as well as explanations. There are many outtakes - a full story will end up on my website...

En Francais:
En Juin dernier je suis parti 3 semaines, en reportage pour Géo Allemagne. L'article vient de sortir, je suis content du résultat. L'expérience m'a fait adoré mon boulot - toujours un bon signe.
J'ai toujours été fasciné par les intrigues du "Grand Jeu" - cette rivalité qui a eu lieu il y a + - 100 ans, entre l'Empire Britannique et l'Empire Russe, en Asie Centrale. En gros des espions qui s'habillent en pélerin pour aller récolter des informations dans les contrées reculée de l'empire. Peter Hopkirk a écrit de superbes bouquin a ce sujet, à lire absolument.
En fait, faire ce reportage à Djibouti, c'etait comme rentrer dans le Grand Jeu, version Afrique.
Djibouti, Dschibuti, Yibuti, Djiboeti... peux importe comment vous l'épeler, est sur la Corne d'Afrique (entouré de l'Ethiopie, Somalie et Erithrée, en face du Yemen), c'est stratégiquement et géopolitiquement très important: un lieu assez paisible au milieu d'une zone dangereuse. US, Chine, beaucoup d'Européens, Japonais etc: ils ont tous une présence armée. Le titre du reportage résume bien l'histoire "Alle Welt will nach Dschibuti" : "Tout le monde veut un bout de Djibouti".

Je suis parti avec Ines Possemeyer, journaliste très passionnée, ce fut un vrai plaisir de travaillé avec elle. Elle avait commencé a organiser les accés divers (Armée, président, camp de réfugié etc) quelques mois auparavant - chose essentielle pour ce type de reportage.
Il y a tellement de choses a dire a propos de Djibouti - c'est une bonne et mauvaise chose à la fois. Cela devient sur place très dificile de trouver une image qui symbolise toute la complexité du lieu. Je savais que cela serait difficile, a moins de trouver une mec de l'armée dans un bidonville avec des prostitués tout en cherchant des pirates et en taillant une bavette avec le préseident et quelques réfugiés somalien... bien difficile en effet.

L'article est ci-dessus (ainsi que qq images, en "action"). Je mettrais d'autres images de Djibouti dans les jours qui suivent avec des explications. En fait, le reportage terminera sur mon site dès que je trouverais le temps de le faire.

Kyrgystan, an adventure in video

2010-10-28T12:20:00.000-07:00

Here it is, © Gilemon Villemin (with his and some of my footages), a man of mystery, who joined me on my second trip to Kyrgystan, in June 2008. I went to Kyrgystan, invited to the wedding of an American friend, met in Mongolia, who was marrying a... Kyrgyz beauty. Yes, we live in a little village.

We hitched ride with these 2 after trekking near Lake Song Kol, starting on Kumis (fermented Mare's milk) early morning. Obviously, I wasn't on assignment.

Gilemon called it a video polygraph. Like a lie detector, you might in fact feel the blood pressure, pulse, respiration, breathing rhythms and skin conductivity of the video. Good luck with that...

Kirghiz Polygraph from gilemon villemin on Vimeo.

France Info - I am on French radio today - and also about turning my house upside down

2010-10-23T03:20:00.000-07:00

Et voila, you can hear Regis Picard, Chief editor of France Info, talking about my recent book, "Mongolie, La route de l'horizon", followed by an interview of yours truly. Just click here...
It is part of a weekly broadcast called "Les Aventuriers".

________

Regis Picard, rédacteur en Chef à France Info, parle de mon récent livre "Mongolie, La Route de l'Horizon", parut aux éditions de la Martinière, suivit d'un interview. Cliquer ici pour lire et entendre...
Cela rentre dans le cardre d'une émission hebdomadaire intitulée "Les Aventuriers".

Here below, the easiest way to really clean your house is to turn it upside down - le meilleur moyen de vraiment nettoyer sa maison, c'est de la tournée à l'envers!... C'est pas un proverbe Mongol mais ca devrait l'être. Me voila in Bayaan Olgii, Western Mongolia, 1998

Long work days, Paris & Munich, Book reviews and upcoming gigs - bref, un deluge d'infos fracassantes...

2010-10-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

Les amis, I have switched the "comment" thing back on I think, je viens de remettre en marche l'option "commentaires" il me semble, please go easy on me...

Last time I wrote it was just over a month ago. It seems like ages. I was in Paris for the book launch of our Mongolia book. Face time, shacking hands, meeting interesting people, even passing on "national" radio (I will put it here when I get the sound bits) - in the middle of the strikes, my preoccupations were indeed futile...

There were recently two nice reviews from our book. Long to translate, I leave them in French. For english readers, just be aware, they are raving reviews and I wish you could speak French! One reviewer talks about his "feeling of euphoria" while looking at the book. And yes, it's only 20 Euros, so you get double euphoria I guess.

I went around a couple of galleries while in Paris (the exhibition in Hong Kong keeps selling, it was and is still a success), and I have a bit more of an idea of what is out there. Couple of leads as well. I will need a second run.

I am in Munich now, catching up. I just filed a story on Tajikistan. I will be going to Hong Kong, to prepare my next exhibition (early next year, in Hong Kong) and for general work, on my way out to Nauru, where I will be shooting a story end of November/December. In fact, I got a good grant from Vannes (Bretagne, France) last March 2010, to exhibit a story I proposed to shoot, in Nauru. Geo Germany, whom I shared the story with, is coming on board and will publish the story. So now I am not going alone on this god forsaken island... I am going with a writer.

Also: a story I shot in Djibouti for Geo Magazine (Germany) last June will come out end of this month - hopefully it will end up in the international Geo, meaning it's then translated in 18 languages I think, including English. I can't wait to share some images here with you: army, legionnaire, prostitution, president, pirates, refugees etc - this story has a lot to tell. I did a story for them in Nepal in July, it will come out in the next Himalaya special, I think next December. Here a sneak preview from Djibouti, Navy Seals in action.

To finish, a quote that got me thinking a lot, from Bruno Barbey whom I like very much: "I am more attracted by beauty, humanity, positivity... I don't feel right when it comes to sordid. I refuse the aesthetic of madness and horror."

I am a bit from that school. I guess I also find it hard to "refuse" an aesthetic, it would mean the visual is analysed first intellectualy, right? not only with a visual "gut" feeling? ahhhh... good food for thoughts anyway...

_________________________________

La derniere fois que j'ecrivais sur ce blog, c'etait il y a plus d'un mois. Cela me parait lointain. J'etais alors a Paris pour la sortie de notre liver sur la Mongolie. Serrage de mains, rencontre de gens interessant, je suis meme passé a la radio "national" (je mettrais cet interview ici bientot). Au milieu des grèves et revendications diverse, mes préoccupations étaient bien futiles en effet...

Recemment, 2 critiques sont parues sur notre livre. Les voila ci-dessous, on y parle meme de "sentiment d'euphorie", dingue ça.

Paru dans "Le Monde de la Photo":
"Superbe carnet de voyage en Mongolie Les Éditions De La Martinière enrichissent leur collection Carnets d’ici et d’ailleurs, avec ce nouvel opus consacré à la Mongolie. Il est l’oeuvre d’un couple intimement lié à l’Asie. Envie de partir loin ? De gagner des contrées sauvages ? Lisez Mongolie, la route de l’horizon. Ou plutôt, laissez-vous porter par ce récit en images. Ni guide, ni documentaire, ce livre de petit format (21 x 15 cm) relate l’expérience d’un couple dans ce pays : Matthieu Paley, photographe, et sa femme Mareille, auteure et directrice artistique. Douze ans De nombreux allers et retours ont été nécessaires entre 1998 et 2010 pour achever le travail. Pas un problème pour les deux aventuriers installés à Hong Kong depuis huit ans. Ils nous font découvrir les conditions de vie si particulières des peuples nomades dans le désert de
Gobi, les immenses steppes vertes ou les décors enneigés du canyon de Yol. Les photos sont magnifiques. L’enchaînement de portraits et de paysage fonctionne parfaitement grâce à un sens aigu de la composition. Pas de noir et blanc. Le photographe ne recherche pas seulement les belles lumières. Il joue aussi avec les teintes grisâtres, qui semblent parfois faire fusionner ciel et terre. Chacun des quatre chapitres (Entre ciel et Terre - La légèreté de l’être - La vie en jeu - La Mongolie est un espace) s’ouvre sur un proverbe mongole, suivi d’un texte signé Mareile Paley. Rédigé à la première personne, le récit, sorte de carnet de voyage, se veut concis. Si quelques anecdotes sont narrées, il laisse la part belle à l’imaginaire, donc aux images. On pense au travail de Daniel et Olivier Föllmi. L’oeuvre des Paley dégage la même pureté, la même sérénité. Ce livre procure un sentiment d’euphorie, un véritable désir d’évasion. Une superbe invitation au voyage, à un tarif très abordable."

Paru dans Trek Magazine, October 2010:
"On aime ce que fait Matthieu Paley, qu'il photographie les vallées Ismaéliennes du nord Pakistan, la Sibérie ou la Mongolie, comme ici On aime la douceur de ses flous, les veloutés Kodachrome de ses tonalités, la nudité crue de ses cadrages On connaît moins sa femme Mareile, auteure des textes qui rythment et instillent une ambiance, un esprit, au fil des pages L'ensemble est à l'image du pays, étrangement vide, immense et dénudé, épure Un simple retour a l'essentiel."

J'ai rencontré quelques galeries lors de mon passage a Paris - l'expo a Hong Kong continue a vendre, c'etait et cela reste un succés -j'ai maintenant une idée un peu plus précise de ce marché à Paris. C'est une affaire à suivre.
Je suis maintenant a Munich... heures de rattrapage. Je viens d'envoyer un reportage sur le Tajikistan qui sera publié en Decembre. Je serais a Hong Kong le mois prochain - pour préparer ma prochaine expo avec ma gallerie et en chemin vers Nauru, mon prochain reportage en Nov/Decembre. J'ai en effet remporté la bourse Pro du "Festival photo de Mer", pour exposé a Vannes l'année prochaine - il ne me resteplus qu'a faire le reportage!... Apres avoir partagé le synopsis du reportage avec Geo allemagne, il m'ont suivit dans l'idée, je fais donc ca en collaboration avec eux et j'irais donc a Nauru avec quelqu'un qui sait écrire. C'est bon ca...

De plus: le reportage que j'ai fait a Djibouti en Juin dernier sort dans Geo allemagne ce mois-ci. Il devrait paraitre dans Geo International, donc traduit dans + - 18 langues. J'ai hate de partager ces images avec vous: armée, legionnaire, prostituées, président, pirates, refugiés etc - ce reportage a beaucoup a dire. J'ai également fait un reportage pour eux au Nepal en Juillet dernier - il paraitra dans leur "Himalaya Special" en Decembre je crois. Une image de Djibouti rien que pour vous... Les Navy Seal au boulot.

Quelques mots de Bruno Barbey pour finir, photographe dont j'admire le travail "Je suis plus attiré par la beauté, l'humain, le positif. Je ne me plais pas dans le sordide. Je refuse l'esthétisme de la folie et de l'horreur". Je suis un peu de cette école-la. Mais je trouve ca aussi un peu difficile de "refuser" un ethétisme. Cela voudrait dire qu'on juge une image d'abord d'un point de vue intellectuel? pas seulement d'abord avec les trippes? Voila matière à réfléchir...

Summer's over - L'été s'éteind

2010-09-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

I left Hong Kong early August and after a trip in Germany (and a projection in the Geo offices in Hamburg of 2 recent stories I did for them - a great experience) and the acquisition of "Limette", our ultimate mini camping car VW, we headed to France.
I have been in Cevennes, in the woods of south of france, for the last month - internet works when it likes and there are no mobile reception. I watched my son's fascination for the insect world, wondering at nature. I built a stone wall and washed in the cold spring.

After a short assignment in Madrid, I arrived in Paris yesterday. I drove on the long lonely highway all the way up here with Limette. It smelled like the end of summer. But it's ok, I don't mind greyness.
Our book on Mongolia, "Open Horizons", is coming out today and I have meetings lined up here for the next few weeks. I will be looking for a gallery as well, an interesting, if daunting task.

Here a short book extract from Mareile's wonderful text (that's her in the picture below), © Mareile Paley:

"A traveling fool is better than a sitting wise.
(Mongolian Proverb)

Your first awareness of the space around you most probably occurred inside your mother’s womb. You stretched your limbs to explore your surroundings – we all did –and already we were confronted with boundaries. Maybe this is the reason why we humans are so drawn to the idea of having space. Space is unattainable therefore we crave it. Space to live, space to think, space to breathe.
The horizon is the ultimate link to our idea of space. Space is unattainable. So is the horizon. It marks the boundary of our tangible perceptible world. A beautiful, unattainable destination.
At home, my horizon ends at the apartment block across the street. In Mongolia I walked and drove and rode for many months with nothing but the open horizon as my guide.
«Most of the day we walk, quietly, side by side, both lost in our thoughts, stopping for an hour or so to rest or to fetch some water from a nearby river. I completely lose notion of time. The endlessly stretching rust-colored hills lead our way. The settling sun beckons to pitch the tent, wherever we are. We go to bed at nightfall and move on as the first rays of sun crawl over the hills in the morning. A dung fire to cook on. I feel enchanted by the might and dignity of the nature around. I feel free. Thoughts come and go. I try to understand who I am in this world.»

_____

Nous sommes parti de Hong Kong début Aout et après un voyage en Allemagne (et une projection chez Geo à Hambourg de 2 reportages que j'ai récemment fait pour eux - une expérience formidable) ainsi que l'acquisition de Limette, notre mini-camping car VW, nous avons pris la route pour la France.
Ce dernier mois, je l'ai passé en grande partie dans les bois cévenoles - internet marche quand il veut et la réception portable ne passe pas. J'ai regardé mon fils se prendre de fascination pour le monde des insectes et s'épanouir devant le spectacle de la nature. J'ai construit un mur de pierre et je me suis baigné dans la source.

Après un bref reportage à Madrid, je suis arrivé hier de Paris. J'ai conduit les autoroutes abandonnées jusqu'ici avec Limette. Ca sentait la fin de l'été. Mais ca va, j'aime la grisaille aussi.
Notre livre sur la Mongolie "La route de l'horizon", sort aujourd'hui. J'ai des rendez-vous qui s'annoncent pour les prochaines semaines ici et je vais me mettre à la recherche d'une gallerie également, une drôle de tâche.

Voila un extrait du livre, du très beau texte de Mareile (la voila sur la photo ci-dessus), © Mareile Paley:

"Mieux vaut un fou voyageur qu’un sage assis (proverbe mongol)
Votre première prise de conscience de l’espace autour de vous a probablement eu lieu dans le ventre maternel. Étirant vos membres pour explorer votre environnement — nous l’avons tous fait — vous étiez déjà confronté à des limites. C’est peut-être pourquoi l’idée d’avoir de l’espace nous attire tant. Si nous avons un tel besoin d’espace, c’est parce qu’il est inatteignable. De l’espace pour vivre, de l’espace pour penser, de l’espace pour respirer.
L’horizon est le lien ultime avec notre idée de l’espace. L’espace est inatteignable. Ainsi en va-t-il de l’horizon. Il marque la limite de notre perception du monde tangible. C’est une destination magnifique qu’on ne peut atteindre.
Chez moi, mon horizon se limite à l’immeuble d’en face. En Mongolie, j’ai marché, conduit et chevauché pendant de nombreux mois, et l’horizon ouvert était mon guide.
« Une grande partie du jour nous marchons côte à côte, tous deux perdus dans nos pensées, nous arrêtant environ une heure pour nous reposer ou aller chercher de l’eau dans une rivière. J’ai complètement perdu la notion du temps. Les collines couleur de rouille qui s’étendent à l’infini nous indiquent le chemin. Le soleil couchant nous fait signe de monter notre tente où que nous nous trouvions. Couchés à la nuit tombante, nous sommes debout quand les premiers rayons du soleil rasent les crêtes des collines. Un feu de bouses pour cuisiner. La force et la dignité de la nature alentour m’ensorcellent. Je me sens libre. Les pensées vont et viennent. J’essaie de comprendre qui je suis dans ce monde. »

"Mongolie, Route de l'Horizon" (Editions de la Martinière) coming out September 16th in France.

2010-07-21T20:23:00.000-07:00

There, for a bit of emotion... Our book on Mongolia (photo: Matthieu Paley, texte: Mareile Paley), will come out September 16th in Paris, at the Editions de la Martinière. It's titled "Mongolie, La route de l'Horizon" (could translate as "Mongolia, Open Horizon") - a recap of our wanderings in Mongol-land since 1998. Below is the cover/back-cover and some pictures (the book is 188 pages).
Watch this space for more upcoming infos on the book, text extracts etc...
____

Séquence émotion: notre livre sur la Mongolie (Photo: Matthieu Paley, Texte: Mareile Paley), sortira à Paris le 16 Septembre, aux Editions de la Martinière. Intitulé "Mongolie, La Route de l'horizon", c'est une rétrospective de nos errances Mongoles, débutées en 1998. Ci-dessous la couverture devant/derrière et quelques images (le livre fait 188 pages).
Suivre ce blog pour plus d'infos à venir, d'extraits de texte etc...

____

Oh yes, and following mild complains of some of my very uber-French countrymen (I still love them very much), I will try to always give bilingual versions of my upcoming blogs. Voila, c'est dit!

Dunhill features me on Day8

2010-07-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

Just fresh back from a 2 weeks assignment in Nepal, more about this later.
Here is something about me on the Dunhill website.

Matthieu Paley holding a lecture and film screening at the Royal Geographical Society.

2010-06-16T21:57:00.000-07:00

Here it is! Extract from the RGS website or you can see it here.

THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY – HONG KONG

presents

“The High Pamirs: the Roof of the World”

Matthieu Paley

Tuesday, 22 June 2010

1F, Duke of Windsor Building,

15 Hennessy Road, Hong Kong

(please note that this building is in a convenient location, about 5 minutes from Admiralty MTR or Pacific Place, next to the HK Police HQ)

6.30pm Drinks Reception; 7.30 pm Lecture

We are delighted to welcome Matthieu Paley to lecture at the Royal Geographical Society on “The High Pamirs: the Roof of the World”. Mr Paley lectures on his work as a photographer in the Afghan Pamirs and its neighbours Tajikistan, Pakistan and China, as well as the history, geographical and geopolitical situation of these countries.

Mr Paley has resided in Hong Kong since 2002, but spends much of his time in the most remote and often highest altitude corners of Asia, as an intrepid explorer and award-winning photographer. Since first arriving in Asia in 1999, he has spent over four years living, exploring and photographing the remote mountainous regions of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Following into the footsteps of explorers such as Sir Francis Younghusband and John Woods, Matthieu Paley explores these regions to seek a better understanding of their remote lands and people. During his time travelling, he has immersed himself in the culture and language of the indigenous tribal peoples of these regions, and is conversant in Wakhi, Tajik and Urdu. By returning repeatedly to these remote regions and, over time, building friendships and trust with nomadic and indigenous communities isolated from the outside world, Mr Paley has been able to take unique photographs captured with the sensitivity of an accepted insider.

Following the lecture, Mr Paley is going to show his multimedia documentary "Forgotten on the Roof of the World", which was recently screened at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival in Colorado. It tells the story of a little-known tribe of Kirghiz nomads in one of earth’s most remote regions, Afghanistan’s High Pamirs mountains. Leading the viewer through this people's stories of struggle, opium addiction and survival, Mr Paley and American anthropologist Ted Callahan tell the story of the film in word and image. Their documentation covers the tribe’ s unique barter trade with a small community in Pakistan as well as their routines and traditions in Afghanistan.

A frequent speaker on the lecture circuit in Asia and at Festivals in Europe and Asia, Mr Paley’s work has been published widely in numerous publications including GEO, National Geographic Adventure, Time, Outside, Discovery, Vanity Fair, Le Figaro and Le Monde, among others. Mr Paley's work has been exhibited at galleries in France, New York and Munich as well as at the Perpignan Photojournalism Fair.

Members and their guests are most welcome to attend this lecture, which is HK$100 for Members, and HK$150 for Members' guests and others. Location: http://www.hkcss.org.hk/image/map/HKCSS-map.jpg

GPO Box 6681, Hong Kong

Tel: (852) 2583 9700

Fax: (852) 2140 6000

Email: events@rgshk.org.hk

Website: www.rgshk.org.hk

Some pictures of the exhibition: "An Ethereal World" - up until June 19th.

2010-05-26T23:28:00.000-07:00

Here it is before I fly off to Djibouti until June 15th. As South China Morning Post suggested, we had about 300 people that came through during the opening, on May 18th.

I just held 2 private viewing on May 25th, and we will have an open day at the gallery on Saturday June 19th, where I will be present all day. If anyone wants to have a chat and listen to more stories, please come!

Today's South China Morning Post, about my ongoing exhibition...

2010-05-21T01:30:00.000-07:00

Exhibition's opening was a great success, with over 200 people that came through on May 18th - a great birthday gift! But more about this later, with pictures etc...

Here is an article that just came out today in South China Morning post, before the day is gone...:
__________

Exhibition: An Ethereal World: Journeys to the Edges of Asia - Picture This Gallery, Until Jun 12th 2010

© Yvonne Teh
May 20, 2010

Matthieu Paley has literally come a long way since working in a provincial town in the north of France "where, if you were a photographer, you'd be working on the main street doing portraits for ID cards". He spent some years in Jakarta and New York before moving to Hong Kong in 2002.

Currently based in Shek O, the Frenchman - who celebrated his 37th birthday two days ago, the same day his exhibition at Picture This Gallery opened - has travelled to, and worked in, several parts of Asia, including remote regions such as the Pamir Knot, the name given to a mountainous area where Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and China meet.

An Ethereal World: Journeys to the Edges of Asia, which is part of this year's Le French May, consists of 17 photographs taken in a part of the world Paley first visited in 1999 after a conversation with a Pakistani man in New York.

"I was so ignorant then," Paley recalls, adding he wasn't even aware there were mountains in the country. But after his first visit to the region, "I got hooked. I have been back there every year ever since."

Paley and his German wife Mareile spent time in a secluded lake village in the Baltistan region of northern Pakistan. "One day we went there and the water was low and my wife was just walking there and I took a picture and that's it, you know? It's a great memory for me when I look at it," the photographer-explorer says of Kachura (picture below).

Another, more famous body of water, Siberia's Lake Baikal, is the setting for other works in the exhibition. The dark blue water in Ice Rider hints at how deep the voluminous freshwater lake is (more than 1,600 metres) and how clear it is. That the ice on the lake is up to 1.5 metres thick and able to support a horse and rider is a sign of how cold and long the winters are. While most people stay away from Siberia in winter, that's when Paley prefers to visit.

"In winter, things slow down and I think that, as a photographer, when things slow down, it gives me more time to see things, to capture them," he says. For another, "I love wintry conditions because it brings [out] something special in people to be able to live in these harsh conditions".

One of them is Marbet, a young Afghan Kyrgyz girl, who thinks nothing of being out in temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius. Paley photographed the red-cheeked girl soon after she came in from the cold, where she had been tending her father's goats. "[Marbet] dropped one of the tiny goats by the fire. And I said, 'Just sit there,' and she sat there, and she looked like this and I took her picture."

Mon-Sat, PictureThis Gallery, 11am-6pm, Suite 1308, 13/F Office Tower, 9 Queen's Road Central. Inquiries: 2525 2820

Taste of Mongolia (that would be mutton...) in this month's Travel & Leisure

2010-05-14T01:58:00.000-07:00

Travel & Leisure features a portfolio of some of my Mongolia images in this month's edition. See it below. Voila!

Exhibition opening on Tuesday May 18th, 6-9pm, PictureThis Gallery

2010-05-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

Almost there! My exhibition will open up next Tuesday May 18th. Here you can see the invitation to the opening of my exhibition. This is supported by the French May, see it here.
And below, extracts from the invitation.

Hope to see you there!
_________________

MATTHIEU PALEY

An Ethereal World - Journeys to the edges of Asia

Opening reception with the photographer - Tuesday 18th May, 6 - 9pm
Picture This Gallery, 13th Floor, 9 Queen's Road Central, HK
At 7pm, Matthieu Paley will make a short presentation about his works
~~~
The Exhibition continues until Saturday, 12th June 2010
________________________________________________________________________________________

Biography:

Living in Hong Kong since 2002, but spending much of his time in the most remote and often highest altitude corners of Asia, Matthieu Paley is an intrepid explorer and award winning photographer. This exhibition comprises 17 photographs taken since 1999 in Afghanistan,Tajikistan, Pakistan and Siberia, shot with a mix of medium format and 35mm film. Paley's work is not easily or simply acquired. Most of these photographs are taken in the depths of winter when the environment is at its most harsh and inhospitable and temperatures drop to 30 below zero, providing the best light and working conditions for Paley's ethereal and inspiring photographs.

Paley's work has been exhibited at galleries in France, New York and Munich as well as at the Perpignan Photojournalism Festival, Visa Pour L'Image and the Banff Mountain Festival, where he won the 2009 Mountain Culture Photography Competition.

Mongolia revisited, Royal Geographical Society, Ulysses, monsters and wonder-woman

2010-05-06T20:48:00.000-07:00

Over the last 5 days, I prepared over 130 images for print in my upcoming book on Mongolia, which will come out at the Editions de la Martinière in France, at the end of September. The color proofs are done in France but the actual book print will be done here in Hong Kong, allowing us to supervise it, which is a treat..
I have attached a few new image scans from Mongolia, including (last image) a picture of a TV screen of a movie that played in a yurt once.

After some YouTube research, I am sure it was Ulysses, from 1954, by italian movie director Mario Camerini. Just the stuff of dream I think. I had to put the link too. In the same lineage, Sindbad The Sailor from 1958, is just fantastic. The beginning of animation, and I think incredibly haunting. I am a big fan!

Text and design of the Mongolia book is by Mareile, my wife, who is a multi-talented wonder-woman, mother, company owner, financial adviser, web designer and... passionate Pilates instructor! As some of you might know, she will be hosting a retreat in Bali from June 19th until June 26th. Have a look here.
I won't be able to join her as I will be hosting a lecture/movie screening of our Pamir movie at the Royal Geographical Society in Hong Kong around this time. Details will soon come on the venue and exact date.

Follow this link for an intrepid travel with Sindbad and the fast moving island monsters.

In exhibition mode...

2010-04-22T23:14:00.000-07:00

If you decide not to just throw some pretty pictures on a wall, there is a lot of work behind an exhibition... I have been at it for a couple of weeks now and it's seriously picking up in this last week. After an initial large selection, we edited down to 17 images, keeping to a theme - in that case, as the title of the exhibition explains clearly "An ethereal world". We did a lay out with small prints, spreading them on a table to get a visual feel. Then we need to discuss sizes, keeping in mind the gallery space, already running editions etc. We created maquette of the gallery space with the images on the walls, to get a better feel.

Parallel to this, we are working on an exhibition catalog, with artist's statement, interesting captions, titles etc. Meanwhile I have drum scanned all the images, got myself an SSD drive to allow my computer to handle 1.5 GB files, brought them to my fine art printer. We looked at the files and started working on them. Today I will visit him to apply the final crops and resizing them for the catalog. We will also decide which paper we finally use.

In between, I have been interviewed by various magazine on this exhibition: it already did get quite a lot of press via the French May. The media release is due out next week. We will do an A0 contact sheet next week with the images and, no doubt, there will be some more retouching involved after that. Then comes the first final prints and then start of mounting and framing.

The team at PictureThis Gallery have been very efficient and productive, so the whole process has been a real pleasure. Looks good and I am indeed very excited! Official opening will be on May 18th, detail to follow!

Planning an exhibition...

2010-04-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

My computer is fuming. It has been handling 2 GB files as I am scanning and retouching for my upcoming solo exhibition here in Hong Kong. It is supported by the French May, who joined in at the last minute following a impromptu meeting with the people at the Alliance Francaise.

The venue will be the PictureThis Gallery, on 9 Queen's road. This gallery recently exhibited Michael Yamashita's work. Here it is, up on the French May website. In due time, I will let you all know about the opening's date etc as it has changed (it will be up on PictureThis website early next month).

And for the German speakers, something else on the web that I just found that's quite interesting, talking about how Geo Magazine and I eventually came about to do that winter Kyrgyz story in Afghanistan. Article translates to "How we came about to do "The Forgotten". There is a picture of me holding 10 Kg of opium. We were at a Afghan dealer's house up in the High Pamir. I promise, I did not consume, too terrible of a drug. There is my buddy Ted Callahan also, the anthropologist who lived up there. For those of you who did not see the 5mn trailer of the movie (using stills...) that resulted from this assignment, here it is.

I am off to Philippines for 2 days, a worldwide book project where some 100 photographers will contribute. More when I am back!

A Portfolio of horses

2010-03-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

Equestrio magazine just featured me in their portfolio section and on their covers, with an interview from yours truly. Click on the first image to read the flattering text...

Horses are probably my favorite in the animal realm, and I have indeed shot lots of them over the years. My first horse story was on the Polo Shandur festival, in Pakistan. More soon followed. Last summer I shot a Kyrgyz horse game on the Pamir plateau, in Tajikistan. I jumped in the scrum (this means "mêlée" for the french speaking... I just found that one out!) ate some dust and here it is, some more horses...

Thank you e-mail...

2010-03-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

An e-mail received yesterday, copied here with the permission of the author.
I do receive e-mails like this now and then, but this one especially warmed my heart because of its spontaneity. Here it is... thanks Ikumi, this gets me going!
______

Dear Mr Paley.

This is my first E-mail for you . Please forgive me sending a mail suddenly .
I'm Ikumi Morooka lived in TOKYO , JAPAN. 27 years old. I'm working as editorial designer.

When I found your site today , I was fascinated by your fabulous Photos. Espesially frozen Baikal lake. the Ice Rider very beautiful nature.

Unfortunatelly I'm not good at English so It's difficult to express my feeling from your Photos.
Asia's photos may catch me or severe nature may catch my heart. I'm not sure but I love your works.

Now I live in material civillization , more and more sience thechnology are developing ,
human is losing animal intuition at the same time. Tokyo is very big city so sometimes I think I might be crazy.

I would like to spend a simple life materially and mentally.

These days I would like to have been thinking climbing mountain. No cell phone No internet and Nothing rely on but myself. I hope I see your works directly in my eyes.

please take care of your health. I am looking forward to see your new work in website .

Thank you for reading.

Respectfully yours,

IKUMI Morooka

_________

Otherwise, I will be uploading a new story on my website within the next few days and I have news about an upcoming exhibition. More soon!

Equipment please??.....

2010-03-02T23:45:00.000-08:00

Back from the Gobi in Mongolia. More about that later. Here below is my dear friend John Bonaccolta, who came along, in one of his many solemn vodka-imbued moments, thinking on how the rising Moon is so magnetically attracted to the Earth... mmmmm....

Ok Tech Geeks... I get asked often: what material do you use? Frankly I don't think it's that important. Some of my favorite images were shot with a small Nikon F3. I get much more excited talking about the psychological approach necessary for taking a good picture. But here we go: I will go from latest to earliest (10 years ) gear I used:
- Contax 645 with 2 lens, 35mm and 85. With this, I like to shoot negative film (160 + 400 ASA). It's easy to use, has a waist viewfinder which can be usefull, feels heavy, I like!
- I used slide film for a couple of years at the beginning, but I can't stand the look of it these days (that deep blue skies drives me nuts...). I love the feel and look of negative, and so far haven't been able to achieve this with digital. Maybe one day, I can't wait.
- In general, if I have done some nice pictures (on negative or slide), I scan them on an Imacon 646 virtual drum-scan. These are the latest versions of that scanner. Great big beast, it looks like Darth Vador sitting on my desk. I love it. I got it in 2004, it was damn expensive... Imacon has been bought out by Hasselblad it seems.
- I have 2 digital cameras, both Canon: the famed 1D MarkII and the famed 5D MarkII. I have 24-70mm lens (2.8), 24mm 2.8 prime lens, longer 105mm lens and a lovely 35mm 1.4. These days, it is my favorite. I am definitely part of the school that says "You are the Zoom!". If you see something you like, get close to it. If you can avoid using one of these big white lenses, much the better...

- I have a bunch of ND filters that I like and a couple of polarizer filter that I don't use anymore these days.
- In the past, and still sometimes today, I use panoramic cameras such as the Hasselblad X-Pan and a funny Russian camera, the Horizon: a swing-lens panoramic camera.
- I also used the Nikon F100 for a while (and the F3 before that), took it on some long lonesome adventures in the Hindukush with the panoramic, was always faithful to me :) . I switched to Canon when it was time to buy digital, because at this time (2005), it was the talk of the town...

What else?
mmmmm, I don't like flash, although I did experiment with ring falsh and it was fun, but the novelty quickly wore off. I usually have a couple of fold-able reflectors with me that I will use occasionally.
I also have a Manfrotto tripod, and I also use it sometimes, but rarely... In general, I always travel very small.
Bags? Well, a good camera bag I think is essential. I have always use the now discontinued Tamrac half moon bag. I even contacted Tamrac to scream at them to keep producing it. In response, they gave me 2 free bags. Thanks Tamrac people.

If going on an expedition, I will take along my mountain Hardwear tent + 800 down sleeping bag, a Therm-A-Rest foam pad, couple of super small Petzl headlights, an MSR stove, Asolo shoes etc. All this fits nicely in my now severally beaten 100 Liters Gregory pack.The Tamrac half moon rests nicely on my belly while I walk up that mountain, my camera easily in reach...

Voila, there would be more to talk about (I should do a section of my good luck charms that I carry around..), but I got scanning to do!

Off to cold things again...

2010-02-09T01:05:00.000-08:00

I first went to Mongolia in 1998, my first big Asia trip. We didn't see any tourist for 3 months, during an epic trip to the west, walking, hitchhiking on coal trucks, camel riding over deserts, anything that could help us go forward. We flew back in a russian airplane, standing and drinking vodka at take off, dodging the luggage falling off the open compartiment. Then, of course, I really fell in love with Mongolia.

I have been back on assignments a few times since then. Once to do a horse story for a german magazine, once for an eagle story for another German magazine, and once for now defunct National Geographic Adventure magazine. That particular assignment revolved around a gigantic salmon called Taimen. You can see some images here, on the National Geographic website. We met a bunch of scientist a few hours drive from the quirky named Moron town. I was teamed up with some "big fish", writer David Quammen. We met over a nice red wine and quickly became friend, a great easy going guy to work with.

But all this time, I was never in Mongolia in the middle of winter. So, I recently got myself a nice full body fleece and I am off tomorrow, to the Gobi desert. I will be back in 2 weeks, hopefully with all my extremities. In fact, Mongolia just got its coldest winter in 30 years, with -50 temperatures.

"Forgotten on the roof of the world" ©Matthieu Paley, trailer is up!

2010-01-31T23:57:00.000-08:00

Back from a month travel. It took, on and off, approximately 1 year in the making but the web-documentary on the Afghan Kyrgyz is done! I recently put up the 5mn trailer. You can also see it right here, better if you have a fast connection.

Here is a brief synopsis: "This multimedia documentary "Forgotten on the Roof of the World" tells the story of a little-known tribe of Kyrgyz nomads in one of earth’s most remote regions - Afghanistan’s High Pamirs mountains. Leading the viewer through this people's stories of struggle and survival, of opium addiction and infant mortality, French photographer Matthieu Paley and American anthropologist Ted Callahan narrate the film in word and image. Their documentation covers the tribe’s unique barter trade with a small community in Pakistan as well as their routines and traditions ‘at home’ in Afghanistan. Beneath the surface, the documentary addresses one of humanities most elementary themes - Homeland - giving a global context to the story of a seemingly insignificant forgotten tribe."

A couple of screen shots below:

It will be aired at various Film Festivals worldwide, I will keep you posted. Back to work here in Hong Kong. I will be in Mongolia from Feb 11th until the 24th. Last I checked, it was -42C in the Gobi desert, where we are heading! This is it, I am buying a full body fleece suit!

The tram-way: going slow while dreaming in Hong Kong.

2009-12-15T21:00:00.000-08:00

A test on a classic picture theme that I love, and that I practiced yesterday while waiting to pick up iluka from school. In a city were everyone always rushes, a slow tram a day shall keep the dream alive!

The Last Khan - work in progress

2009-12-14T23:47:00.000-08:00

Gallery work

2009-12-13T23:28:00.000-08:00

Following up on my last blog I have designed a PDF of my gallery work. These are images that are available at limited editions on fine art paper or canvas.
Below, some excerpts. Have a look at the full 43 pages either in the English version "Edges of Asia" or here, in the French version "Aux confins de l'Asie".

Too many projects...

2009-12-01T22:08:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't been good on the blog front... But for good reason: I was buzzing with interesting projects.

- First, I have sold few prints recently to collectors and privates and the production has kept me busy. The fact that (finally!) a fine art printer established himself here in Hong Kong, allows me to offer high end Archival Prints, museum quality, on various support right at home. The images are printed on Hahnemuhle paper. The photo rag paper (100 % cotton, using pigment ink) gives incredible deep blacks and, to my big surprise - following up on a client's request - the canvas prints (pigment ink, UV coated) look... amazing! The matte effect on canvas is far from my previous experiences on canvas which looked like cheap promotional banner. The large canvas print look like what this medium is intended to look like: a painting.

I have started 3 limited editions:
- the Bus Serie (from Dushanbe, Tajikistan), 160 cm x 23 cm, edition of 30.

- the Ice Rider (from Siberia), 120 cm x 106 cm, edition of 30.
- the Horse Eye (from Siberia), 120 cm x 106 cm, edition of 30.

This is how the 2 canvas prints look like, once hanged and stretched on wooden frames:

- Secondly, following up on more print requests, I went through most of my images to work on a presentation PDF of all my gallery "worthy" images - those images that could go up on a wall for a long time before you get bored of it, those that would look great in very large format. It was at times hard to edit but a very exciting way to look at all my images. Thinking of potential triptychs, or 2 images that would talk to each other, etc.
Titled "Edges of Asia", it's almost finished and I will be sure to put up some excerpts here.

- Thirdly, I finished, (or is it ever finished...), our Pamir movie, retracing my story to Afghanistan's high Pamir and the peculiar story of the Afghan Kyrgyz. It's 28mn and I will be putting it up on my multimedia website link soon. Down the road, we plan to send it around to mountain film festivals around the world.
Here is a screen grab of the title...

Pamir Energy phone interchange = double trouble.

2009-11-05T23:39:00.000-08:00

I was told they will upgrade their system soon - a shame really!

Interiors - filling in white space / part 1

2009-11-02T18:03:00.000-08:00

A white wall rarely stays white for long. Emptiness can be scary. So we fill it up with cheap stuff or cherished frame pictures, tradition and "made in china" clashing away as we eat our food, which strangely resembles our walls. Some interiors from last summer.

Unfortunately, it does happen....

2009-10-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

Russian impression in persian urban landscape

2009-10-14T22:51:00.001-07:00

Booooo, that's a scary title.
Whenever I have time, I keep churning /organizing the mountains of images shot in Tajikistan. I found it interesting to put together a small set of images showing the odd but somewhat attractive (?) urban landscape (the interiors will be another blog entry later). These "things" are all the result of the Russian influence on design, left in Tajikistan, the only Persian speaking country in Central Asia. Tajikistan was the first country in Central Asia to gain independence, in December 1991. But it is still struggling to find an identity.
Enjoy... or maybe not.

New "Portfolio" link on my website

2009-10-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

I have just put a new "Portfolio" link under "Stories" on my website.
Here is a screen shot:

There is a "heavy" quote to read on the opening image, while the rest of the images load in the back: "Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did NOT do that is inconsolable." - Sydney J. Harris wrote this, an American journalist.

I figured, knowing how rushed-up some photo editors are, it would be good to have a quick picture summary, hence the Portfolio link. Tough call of course on the selection of images - it's always hard to judge my own images. I selected them thinking to 1/ show diversity and therefore avoid repetition in the image settings 2/put some new recent material 3/make it short - only 20 images. Voila, so that's done.

I will double the blog today, another one coming up.

A wedding aftermath.

2009-10-06T18:44:00.001-07:00

Feeling hungry? A new wedding regulation took place last July 09 in Tajikistan's Pamir mountains, among this Ismaili community: no more than 150 invited guests were to be allowed and no more than 3 hours shall be spent eating in the big halls that are rented out for weddings. That meant less time to eat the huge amount of food in between the endless speeches to the newly weds... and a bit of waste.
I shot these images in 5 mn running away from the waiters who were trying to kick me out. We were indeed past the allowed 3 hours.

This comes as a compliment to a more orderly food disposal, which you might remember if you click here. Maybe I should do posters for my kitchen.

And here some more random ones - there is much too much to say about Pamiri weddings - some of the traditions are closely link to pre-Islamic practices, such as fumigation of the houses with "Strakhm" (aka Buivekh or Achillea mellefolium), the colors that must be worn by the bride and groom etc. I witnessed all this and I should certainly do a page dedicated to Western Himalayan wedding - from the Karakoram, Hindukush and Pamir.

In the end, cake is always a hit...

Roof of the world

2009-09-20T23:39:00.000-07:00

I have a few big spreads in the current issue of Le Figaro magazine, one of France's prominent magazine. You can see it here. It's titled "les afghans du toit du monde", "Afghans on the roof of the world". Why Roof of the world? Pourquoi Toit du Monde? ... et bien voila: the Pamir, or Pamirs rather, as there are several, is the original Roof of the world. Here from Wikipedia: "The name Roof of the World was first applied to the Pamirs. The British explorer John Wood, writing in 1838, described Bam-i-Duniah (Roof of the World) as a "native expression" (presumably Wakhi)." Also fascinating: Pamir highlands is the nodal point of the mountain systems of Tien- Shan, Kun-Lun, Karakoram, The Himalayas and Hindukush, and therefore called the roof of the world. Here in full.
Ah: I am ready to fight for this one. I know it's a lost battle, but Roof of the World is the Pamirs, it's the traditional, original term, and people should know that Tibet or worth, Mt Everest, is a term borrowed to the Pamir... take that!

A view of the Roof of the world and the story behind:

That's an image shot from the Tajik Air flight bringing me from Delhi to Dushanbe in 2004, flying of the Pamirs. It was in the evening and beside me Russian passengers were doing the inevitable Russian thing: having vodka shots. We were sitting face to face, like in a train, no one wearing safety belt - they were none anyway. We played cards and ended up staying in Dushanbe at the house of the guy sitting across from us.
I planned the same route to get to Tajikistan in 2008 and found out in Delhi that the flight didn't exist anymore... Damn... "Not enough donors" told me the Tajik ambassador in Delhi. "We need people to donate, you should donate so we can fly Delhi-Dushanbe!!!" And then he charged us 620 USD (six-hundred twenty american dollars!!!) for three 3 months Tajik visa. What a steal... To try and find an alternative flight was a total nightmare, I had to pull all my skills as an impatient travel agent - we went through Dubai in the end. See the full story here on Mareile's Blog of our 2008 family trip to Tajikistan.

Hey: I AM BACK IN HONG KONG, CHINA, after 5 months on the road - gotta go back to dusting off the office...

Perpignan, Paris, Munich... et Hong Kong alors??

2009-09-16T05:33:00.000-07:00

A major break on the blog front as I was running around Europe like a headless chicken the last 2/3 weeks.

A propos headless chickens.... do you know Mike?? incredibly, Mike the rooster lived for 18 months after his head got cut off. see that below? and read that... unbelievable but true!

Left Tajikistan on August 25th and after a few family days north of Montpellier, here is what happened:
- first there was Perpignan. Perpignan was great this year for me - my second time there: the first time, in 2002, a bit "green" out of school, was more stressful than exciting, I guess I was a bit too desperate to meet editors and "connect". This time, more laid back, I met some great people and just enjoyed the weird mix, vin blanc and passionate discussions.
- right after this, hitting the steel while its hot, I headed off to Paris and followed up on a couple of meetings, magazine editors, galleries, book publishers... My yearly round in France. It was jammed packed and quite productive: in fact, people are quite approachable. Among follow up on positive meetings, I will get an 8 pages in Le Figaro Magazine next week, coming out on this Saturday 19th 2009. Apparently, it's pretty major, Le Fig Mag as its known rarely does 8 pages anymore on reportage. So I am excited, it will be a great exposure in my homeland.
- after Paris, nothing better than a 4 days climb in North Italy, near Lago di Garda. I lead a few 6A climbs, I was aching, I am utterly out of shape... Tajikistan's heavy russian food is taking its toll.

Currently in Munich, Germany, I will be back in Hong Kong on September 18th, just in the path of a big typhoon that flooded our top floor apparently.

This month, I am also featured in Outside magazine (US), in the "your toughest shot" section. A picture shot in Siberia where I was left in a winter night and almost served as diner to the local bears - it was tough and so I called for mama.. click here to see the link.

Also just in: I will head out to Pakistan's northern areas - probably my favorite place on earth, on assignment. Can't talk about it for now, but an interesting story I have been thinking of for years. I am excited. I should be there the first 2 weeks of October.

Visa pour l'image 2009

2009-08-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

And again this year: a story on the Afghan Kyrgyz that I submitted to Perpignan's international photojournalism festival "Visa pour l'image", will be projected - it should be presented at the evening screening on Sept 1st, during the professional week.
I should be in Perpignan from 1st Sept until 5th Sept, feshly back from Tajikistan...

Banff Mountain Culture photo competition

2009-08-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

Back from a wonderful trek and here it is, just in: a portrait of Marbet with her red cheek won best mountain culture picture for the Banff Mountain Photography Competition 2009. Here s a link...

Away yet again

2009-08-06T05:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I was away for too long - and am about to leave again.
Real quick run down:
- 1300 Km around Eastern Pamir, all the way to Shaymak, the China/Afghanistan/Tajikistan/Pakistan border - among firsts for me: saw wolves , spotted Marco Polo sheep and soaked in an outdoor bubbly hotspring, al the while checking out Afghanistan's Little Pamir.
- shooting of a documentary (video and still images) around the Roof of the World festival (took place on July 25th in Khorog), for the Aga Khan Foundation. Over 6000 people attended the festival, Mareile Paley did the promotion for it. Must have been good!
- following this, held a multimedia workshop at the University of Central Asia, here in Khorog, Tajikistan.
- just shot an image bank for Pamir Energy, the first PPP (Public-Private Partnesrhip) company in Central Asia.

And now... off tomorrow for some trekking over the 5000m Vrang Pass (the trek ends in Vrang village, in the middle of the Wakhan corridor, on the Tajik side of it). Couldn't find anything proper on the net about it and haven't met anyone here who has gone over it. We should have impressive views of Peak Karl Marx (I know... how romantic) and Peak Engel before plunging into the Wakhan.

Should take us approximately 5 days. Catch you then!

End of the valley

2009-07-10T04:04:00.000-07:00

Last week, I went for a trek up Bartang valley in the Pamir mountains of Tajikistan and at the end of the valley, there was this girl swinging on a lone tree.

Karakoram's High Roads - Les hautes routes du Karakoram

2009-07-06T06:44:00.001-07:00

Eric Shipton, one of my personal hero and a famous british explorer once said that a good adventure should be planned on a back of an envelope in 5mn the day prior to departure. This is what we did with Bruno Collard in September 2006. We used e-mail for lack of envelope.

Extract from the K2climb.net website, which pretty much says it all:
Bruno Collard and Matthieu Paley went to the remote Braldu Valley in Shimshal, in Pakistan's Karakoram mountains, to look for traces of a long-forgotten mountain pass that once linked the edge of the British Indian colonies with the ancient caravan Silk Road. On their trek far off the beaten track, the men found what they were looking for and still had time to bag a first ascent on a virgin 6000er.

Here is the the full story

And in French, summary from the small video done by Bruno, on Dailymotion.com:
En 1937, le célèbre explorateur britannique du nom d’Eric Shipton terminait l’exploration de la région la plus inaccessible du royaume des Indes, dans le massif du Karakoram. Il fut particulièrement intrigué par d’anciens passages utilisés par des hommes jusqu’au 19ième siècle et situées à presque 6000 mètres d’altitude. Il écrivait à ce propos: « Quelque soit la raison pour laquelle les cols ne sont plus empruntés, que les voyageurs d’aujourd’hui trouvent les cols fermés et qu’ils ont le plus grand mal à obtenir des informations sur l’existence des itinéraire qui y menaient autrefois est tout à fait exceptionnel. Il serait intéressant d’un point de vue historique d’envoyer une expédition dans ce pays pour repérer les restes des anciens itinéraires, de localiser les ruines, et pour déterminer l'histoire migratrice des premiers peuples de ces régions isolées».
La découverte des restes d’un squelette humain situé à plus d’une semaine de marche de la civilisation confirme nos soupçons : ici, à près de 6000m d’altitude, nous tenons dans nos mains la preuve incroyable qui témoigne du passage des hommes à travers les glaciers du Karakoram. Mais que faisaient-ils ? Pillage ? Commerce avec les vallées voisines situées vers l’ancien Turkestan? Cette migration intéressa des générations d’explorateurs britanniques pendant des décennies.

Les hautes routes du Karakoram – Partie 1
envoyé par blankonthemap.

This second Part (Partie 2) below is quite funny, especially our first failed attempt at crossing the Bradlu river on foot, or that thrown shoe that ended up in the river. I nearly pissed myself on that one!

Les hautes routes du Karakoram – Partie 2
envoyé par blankonthemap.

La Gacilly photo festival, France

2009-06-23T00:02:00.000-07:00

The biggest outdoor photo festival in France - http://www.festivalphoto-lagacilly.com/ - over 200.000 expected visitors.
I am showing my story on the Afghan Kyrgyz. Here a couple of snapshots from "my section", it will be up until mid-September 09.

What to do with rotten teeth?

2009-06-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

Here the answer, at the bazaar today.

Sopa Award

2009-06-19T05:32:00.000-07:00

If that talks to you, I just won the Society of Publishers in Asia's award for "Excellence in Feature Photography". It went to a story I shot in Pakistan, Hunza ( titled "A World Away" ) in Oct. 2007, published in Destinasian in 2008.
They went quite lyrical on the comments: "Simply stunning photos, the kind that leap off the page and invite you to walk into them. Gorgeous images from a far-away land I know I'll probably never get to, but now at least can dream about."

Back to the KGB office...

Fill me up on Central Asia.

2009-06-18T02:26:00.001-07:00

Hospitality is non-stop in Central Asia - it is a constant given in Tajikistan. Salty milk tea, fresh yoghurt, always candies, maybe eggs, butter and all delicious milky derivatives such as cream and cottage cheese and more milk tea with sugar and flat bread to spread cheery jam on, add some fried fish and you better get up and start walk up that mountain again... that is if you managed to avoid the first vodka shot that always somehow comes with the entire bottle.

Have a click on this:

Belly full of flowers: a dead ibex in the river.

2009-06-18T02:11:00.000-07:00

Donkey trekking will come, but for now, a cute memory: in sept. 2003, we were trying to get over an un-previously crossed pass, the Wodwashk pass in a remote valley in Pakistan, on the borders of Afghanistan and China. As the trek might bring a new way between 2 valleys, we had no option but to go with the "Nambardar", the village head - a worryingly inexperienced man when it came to mountain trekking - he would head straight into the crevasse area. As we neared the pass and it started to snow, I got terribly sick: a bad case of diahrrea.
A bit further that day we found a dead ibex in the stream I had drank off the day before. I pointed that out to the Nambardar who responded with a pitiful face "Well that can't be it: ibex only eat flowers, there is just no way to get sick from a dead Ibex!".

The view below Wodwashk pass:

Matthieu is roaming in Gorno Badakhshan

2009-06-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

I am heading to the far end of Tajikistan's Gorno Badakshan region, near the China border, all geared up with tent and powered by an old russian jeep.
I will be back in a week, 10 days. Let's talk about donkey trekking in the Hindukush when I am back: whatchyouthink?

Some links, des liens.

2009-06-01T03:28:00.001-07:00

I make the eventual "Matthieu Paley" google search to see where I am on the web. A few things showed up over the last couple of months, voila:

- I am happy about my recent win of PDN Photo Annual 09, the Marty Forscher price for Humanitarian photography.

- Blog of New York Times magazine, a short text from James Estrin, talking about VII agency and my website.

- And there is another link about La Gacilly festival taking place in France for 3 months (June-September). I have been selected to exhibit outdoor large format images.

- I got honorable mention at the NY Photo Festival, in the Editorial Photographic Series.

- From the "Travel Photographer", a write up on my multimedia "Pakistan Love Parade".

Voila for now, off...

Tasteless crops.

2009-06-01T03:15:00.000-07:00

Please try and enjoy the few tasteless background images on my current homepage.

This one is from Tajikistan, Dushanbe - they were shooting a music video and the model took off her shoe to get her feet in the nearby lake.

This is a funny one: a russian fisherman fishing in a hole on frozen Baikal. It's winter, and in Siberia it means it's probably -20C. I was nicely zipped in my dawn jacket and these guys were heated from inside, bare chested on the vodka: bare chested! This is a couple of other one from that lot.

Tajik fashion - always interesting to see what defines beauty in other faraway lands. Real Tajik beauty must sport unified eyebrows and golden teeth. I guess it's an acquired taste.

In China, trying on the hippopotamus at "Windows of the world" attraction park in Shenzhen.

Last one is a detail from a Mongolian wrestler getting ready to enter the ring.

Of rivers and drugs - Tajikistan/Afghanistan border

2009-05-29T02:56:00.000-07:00

So I have been here in Khorog, capital of the Tajik Pamir, since about 10 days. I am looking around for images. It's always tough to try to do a story on a place that most people know nothing or so little about. You can do the "general" piece (and your head spins) or you can try to find something in particular that will allow the viewer to understand a lot about all the other issues that the country faces. That can be stronger. I am slowly narrowing it down.

Now, a small brief on some lovable subject: Geography. Khorog is RIGHT on the border with Afghanistan. If you have a good throw, you can land a small rock in Afghanistan, right over the Panj river, as it is known here. Up stream, it is the Ishkashim river, higher up again it splits into the Pamir and Wakhan River. Lower, past Khorog, you might have heard of its name: the Amu Daria, or the Oxus as the Greek called it - the greatest river of Central Asia. Oxus probably comes from the Turkish name Ak Su, the "White river".
In 2004, during my first sniff around in Tajikistan, I went with my writer friend John Bonaccolta up the Panj, to its source: the lake Zorkul.
At this stage, it's important to mention that most of the opium and heroin you find in the West comes from Afghanistan. And to make its way to Europe, a great portion of this drug passes over the Panj river into Tajikistan, making its way to Dushanbe (where the war lords drive their expensive BMW down the Rudaki avenue), hops on the train: direction Moscow.

Well, driving and then trekking beside the Panj to the Zorkul lake, it was always a bit disconcerting to look on the other side of the river and realize it was another country. Towards the end, near the outflow of the Zorkul lake, I couldn't help but hop on some gravel in the middle of the Panj (which, at this stage, was only approx. 4m wide). I was in no mans land, waving at some Afghani yak herder, looking at my friend John still in Tajikistan, few meters away from me. Although the last watch tower was maybe 20/30km behind us, I didn't linger. I had heard many scary stories about the trigger happy Tajik guards.

It looked like this: on the right is Afghanistan, on the left is Tajikistan.

In 2008, I was again briefly in Tajikistan, en route to the Wakhan corridor in winter to shoot my story "Forgotten". I already noticed that the KGB guys were a bit more laid back. And the russian members of the Tajik army were gone back in 2005 (these were the not so funny ones). The policemen even laughed at my intentions "We know you can't be a photographer, you are a dealer, like they all are! We shall defrost you in spring". That was Daulat, the nice KGB guy in Ishkashim, on the Tajik-Afghan border bridge.

Now: 2009: I feel more comfortable around these poor fellows. I say poor because they make peanuts. They are paid about 20$ a month. And they are here to try and avoid all the heroin and opium to cross into Tajikistan and makes its way to Europe. Fact is, from having driven and walked along the Panj for 800Km, it would just be too easy to sneak anything across. And with border guards making peanuts, it would again be probably too easy to hand them over a fat check and drive my lorry loaded with any goodies across the border.

Here in Khorog, some of them look like this, and their means of communication.

Ben voila... I will stop that babble. With so little money on both side of the border and extraordinary geographical challenges, I am yet not sure what the solution is to this illegal trade that destroys so many lives (I can witness it daily in Khorog). Grow apricots instead of poppy fields in Afghanistan? I don't think so... Commercialize opium via agreements with the pharmaceutical world, under strict supervision? mmm, maybe?

9 melancholic windows at my doorstep

2009-05-13T23:49:00.000-07:00

I have shot a lot since we arrived in Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan. We are "stuck" here- trying to make our way to the Pamir mountains where we should be based for 2 months. I find this place very inspiring.
I will spare you the details and struggles of trying to get here - you can read the full download here.
It's just raining heavily - so much so that we couldn't get out of our apartment, there was a river (yes: river!) flowing in front of our door and flooding the entrance hall. Apparently it was on BBC and CNN. Bored home, I finally waded (shoes off, rolled up pants, watch for the holes in the street etc) my way to the bus stop 20m away and took some pictures of the windows passing by.

A BIT OF EXPLORISTAN

2009-05-13T23:33:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Dushanbe. After a fiery start I fell behind on the blog front - sorry about that. Few things happened:

- I left Hong Kong mid-april and I will be on the road for 3 months! Finally arrived in Tajikistan. There is a Stan at the end, but do not fear this one, it's fairly tame. Last week, on my way here, I was on assignment in South India, in Karnataka.

- other problem is that I have been struggling to understand how Wordpress (my blog hoster) works! It is definitely NOT a simple blog tool, it's more of a tool to design website - to solve simple issued, I was confronted with insane phrases such as "When I instantiate this twice into two separate object variables, the second just overwrites the first!". Damn.... and I am French remember. So I ended up dumping Wordpress in the end and started using Blogger which is for dummies = good for me.

- Finally, I have been using every spare minute to finish my long multimedia piece on the Afghan Pamir (an on-going project since the last 5 months). It's definitely getting there. It will be more of a short documentary, probably + - 25 mn. So I have been sorting through yak heavy breathing sound issues and some lame Voice Overs. But we are getting there.

I will bring up the big word for this new blog: EXPLORATION.

" Kharab Bakri or a Bad goat in the Karakoram. "

To kick start the engine, here is a FANTASTIC quote taken from Willi Rickmer Rickmers's autobiography, the last non-russian explorer in the Pamir (one of the mountain range west of the Himalayas): "I was impressed above all by things massive and superlative. In this way I became a mountaineer. I was searcing for the untouched, the unsung. And so I became an explorer. Mountains are the most monumental of sculptures, and their counterpart was the desert, the most monumental etching. And so I became attached to Turkestan, where mountains and deserts are inseparably linked."
Turkestan? well, that's where I shot a lot of my stories and that's where I am right now - Tajikistan is a beautiful part of it.

Anyway: Flash back to 1999 - let me pull a picture, see below, we were based here 13 months:

that's Skardu, in Baltistan province, North Pakistan, some kilometers south of K2. Since 1999, year of my first discovery of North Pakistan, I have done my share of long treks - some classics but some unknown passes as well and a virgin peak.

Over the years, I think I walked over 2500 km in the Karakoram, Himalaya, Hindukush and Pamir range - mostly in North Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgystan and Tajikistan. I love trekking in remote areas. I am just sharing my background. I know there are people that have gained more trekking experience in these parts, and this is a good thing, because these places, to be really understood, need to approached on foot as much as possible.

These days, if you got time on your hands, it's fairly easy to find an unclimbed 6000m peak - easy at least in the Karakoram, Hindukush or Pamir regions - but finding an uncrossed pass is another story. Personally, I have always found that trekking back the same way you went was a joy-killer. Climbing peaks (as it often involves retracing your steps), has so far not ben my favorite. I always found that going over a high pass to try and establish a new itinerary between 2 valleys is much, much more exciting.

Chapursan Valley, Afghan-Pakistan border, end of September 2002.
Ghulam Ali was a good Wakhi man from the Chapursan valley, in Pakistan. I had met him several times between 2000 and 2003 while working on a story on the Kyrgyz yak traders. He had been up to a pass previously uncrossed and had to turn back himself because of bad weather. It's difficult to know for 100% that a pass has never been crossed - it could have been 200 years ago. Few factors can help to determine this:
- if there is no trail whatsoever leading to it, that's a good start
- if it doesn't have a name
- if the elders assure you it was never crossed
- if it makes no sense to go up this way (for example, there might be an easy nearby pass that links these 2 valleys you are trying to link)
- if it's technically difficult
-if the valleys you are starting from and ending at are sparsely and/or recently populated, these would reduce the likelihood of this pass having ever been crossed
... there must be more factors, but truth is, you can never be sure 100%. What you can be almost sure of is that it is an "uncrossed pass in living memory".

In 2003, I came back with Mareile and try and hope to go over this unnamed, "uncrossed" pass. We prepared our little expedition in an afternoon, shopping for noodles and more noodles and picking up fuel for our cooker at the Sost bazaar, the entrance of the Chapursan river, on the Pakistan/China border. Staying at Alam Jan's house at the end of the Chapursan Valley, I soon found out Ghulam Ali was no more. He had died in a tractor accident few months earlier - falling to his death in the Chapursan river.
Alam Jan would come along with us - so we would be three. Three being my current maxed-out members for this kind of trip, where tension can easily rise because of the uncertainty of the itinerary. We knew Alam Jan well and so we left in "good spirit".
Followed a beautiful 5-day adventure in path finding, country hopping between Pakistan's Karakoram and Afghanistan's Pamir mountains.

On the third day we came across a mountain flank covered with shell fossils - a reminder of the Thesis Sea that once covered this region. Maybe a beach was up on that mountain pass above? Bended in half, we looked for ages for a fossiled fish, but had no such luck.
That same day, trying to make the right decision on wether we should go over that ridge or this ridge, I remember being duly impressed by Alam Jan's path finding abilities. Pointing to a scree high above in the distance (the lower part of it being obstructed by another mountain in front of us), and then to the moraine of the glacier to our right, he said "See, they have the same color, we should follow this glacier, it will bring us below the scree near our goal...". Simple and logical. Climbing up to the flat area of the upper reach of the glacier, we slept on the ice, blessed with clear sky but extremely cold temperature.

With no rope, we went on carefully the next day and followed the logical exit, the uncrossed pass in front of us, past a last snow ridge. Having no altimeter with us, we felt we were probably at + - 5500m. Little celebratory dance at the top of the pass. Walking steep down on the glacier, past ice sentinels, we all agreed that this pass should simply be named "Ghulam Ali pass". It still is to this day. And I am pretty sure no one has been up there again ever since. A smiling Alam Jan had some good words back then "It's good place for bad goats like you here no??...". I tend to agree!

This story and more was published in Geo France in Oct. 2003 under the title "Secret road through the Pamir".

The Forgotten Ones - work in Progress - edit

2009-05-01T23:39:00.000-07:00

The strange case of Nauru

2009-05-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a grant from the Festival Photo de Mer, I recently spent 11 days on Nauru, the world's smallest Republic, far off in the middle of the Pacific. To round it all up and turn it into a "real" story I teamed up with Geo staff-writer Markus Wolff.

I am just back from France were 46 images were exhibited outdoor, in a beautiful harbor in Bretagne - very fitting for this story.

Nauru has long been on my mind. I first heard about it in late 2001, when Afghan refugees were held in a detention center on this Pacific island. I couldn't put these 2 facts together in my head. After some research, they were so many curiously fascinating facts about the island that I just needed to go. It seemed a unique case of middle of nowhere yet middle of everything.

Here is a summary of the strange case of Nauru (© Matthieu Paley) :

"Nauru, an island of barely 21 km2, is located in the middle of the Pacific. It is the world’s smallest republic.
Its soil, extremely rich in phosphate, has been exploited since the beginning of the 20th century. The rapid value increase of the phosphate, followed by independence, makes Nauru the richest country in the world at the beginning of the 70’s.
As a result, falling for the temptations of uncontrolled consumerism, the Nauruans considerably change their way of life. Diabetes and the highest obesity level on the planet are some side effects of these excessive years.
End of the 90’s: the Phosphate resources diminish considerably.

Looking for financial solutions, Nauru becomes a tax-free zone, and with this a facilitator for money laundering businesses of the Russian mafia. The government also opens a detention center for Afghan and Iraqi refugees, all paid for by the Australian government...

In 2004, the state goes bankrupt. The government of Nauru decides at last to reactivate its phosphate mining. Official sources estimate that there are between 20 and 30 years left for further exploitation. The Nauruans, an isolated people, continues to look for solutions, keeping all the while their joyful island spirit.

We go to meet these men and women of Nauru, their president, a former weightlifting champion; Gerard Jones, a personal trainer and bird hunter; Lucia, the oldest lady of the country and Scarlet Lucy, the cargo ship that brings goods to the island every 2 months."

Some preview images below - the full story will be on my website in the next few months.

A meeting finishes at the Civic Center. On the main wall, the large map of the Pacific world with Nauru in the center. The extremely tiny island state has been enlarged so as to appear on the map. Nauru was in fact the center of the world at the beginning of the 70’s, when the rapid rise of phosphate price, followed by independence, made it the richest country in the world.

Marcus Stephen (middle) is the current president of the Republic of Nauru. A former weightlifting champion, he won 7 gold medals at the Commonwealth Games. The popular president loves to fish in company of his old friends, the Minister of Finance (left), the Minister of Transportation and Communication (center right) and a Member of Parliament (far right)

One kilometer out at sea, phosphate is being loaded into a ship from New Zealand. It takes 24 hours to load the 25 tons of ore. Phosphate is the main ingredient used in fertilizer worldwide. Government sources estimates there is between 20 to 30 Millions tons of Phosphate left on Nauru, representing about 20 to 30 years of further exploitation…

At the heart of the beast: furnaces break down and dry up the Phosphate (also known as "White Gold") to make it compatible with export laws. “We need 3% of humidity in the Phosphate, no more no less” explains Bill Burns, a RONPHOS employee, the “Republic of Nauru Phosphate Corporation”.

Looking for government income, the Nauru Rehabilitation Corporation recently sets up a program to crush pinnacles like these ones, later sold as construction material, in order to create an even ground allowing for reforestation. In the background, clouds of phosphate rejected by the refinery lift up in the air.

Nauru does not have a deep-sea harbor. This barge, a gift of the Japan government, is going to load up containers brought by Scarlet Lucy, the eagerly awaited supply ship, which comes once every two months. In 2009, Nauru recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. The Russian government has since proposed to help Nauru in building a deep-sea harbor. Unfortunately, the construction hasn’t started yet.

A demonstration of hip-hop moves after class. The former detention center for illegal immigrants, today, serves as a school. From 2001 to 2007, Nauru kept Afghanis, Irakis, Yemenites and other nationals here on behalf of Australia. They lived in these barracks located at the center of the island. The center then provided a considerable income for Nauru, representing up to 20% of all of the island’s revenue.

An employee of the Diabetes Prevention Clinic. Nauru has the world’s highest level of type 2 diabetes: 40% of the population is affected. There is also a very high level of kidney infection and congestive heart failure. In 2010, life expectancy is averaging 58 for men and 65 years old for women.

Forty-seven years old and 143 Kg of muscles, Gerard Jones is the official trainer of the weightlifting team, the king of sports on Nauru. Every evening after 5pm, Gerard arrives in the Aiwo Boys Gym with his kids. “Here you can feel the pride of Nauru – if you compare the number of gold medals we won with our population, well, then we are simply the strongest country in the world!”.

The shy Carisma, 14 years old, is one of the few girls at the “Boys gym”. She is training after school. “I just love it. Gerard is a good coach. In 2 years, I want to start competing. Our gym is a bit run down but it’s ok. Maybe one day I will live in Australia, they have high tech gym equipment there… But first I will have to convince my mother!”.

Paul Jones (son of national weightlifting trainer Gerard Jones), 10 years old, is back from a nocturnal hunt for the “Black Noddi”, a seabird from the tern family. “My father hunts at night with a huge net. When he catches them, he passes them on to me and I have to kill them. It’s easy: I just break their neck between my teeth and it crackles. Then I take the feathers out. I also do the accounts: once we caught 223 in a night!” In Nauru, the Noddi bird is considered a delicacy.

Frederick Cannon (left) is an former professional 100-meter runner. He participated in numerous international competitions worldwide. At home in Nauru, he is a fisherman. Every day, he swims out to hunt octopus and fish with his harpoon. “People complain that they don’t have enough money. Me, I have always told my kids to look on the horizon: there is money floating on the ocean, you just have to get into the water…”

The day is starting up at the President’s office. Stephen Marcus, President of Nauru, a former top-class weightlifter, winner of seven gold and five silver medals at the Commonwealth Games, is also holding the offices of Minister for Home Affairs, Minister for the Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust, Minister for Police, Prisons, & Emergency Services, and Minister for Public Service. A busy day lays ahead...

The Forgotten Ones - test

2009-05-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry…which way to the blog?

2009-04-29T03:36:00.000-07:00

Salut tout le monde, cheers to the world,

This is my first Blog ever. I really like the idea of a Blog, of something living that will evolve and shape itself through time. For now I have no idea where to start.

For you to know who is writing all this, here is a fairly recent picture. Having a break at the office. Obviously I still need to practice that blue steel look.

It will take me time to figure out how to organize all this… by date? by subject? which categories should I create? what to include? what to rave at or if I should even get angry at things on that blog? Should I be silly, geeky, both? Oh… and should I write all entries in English or should I spike it up with some french to make my countrymen (and my grand ma) happy? olala…

This below is just something to chew on while I try organizing my thought and understand how to use that Blog software… for now I am just so very excited that my new website is up. So enjoy that while I cook something up proper for that blog.

Matthieu

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FACTS, FACTS, FACTS… AND SOUND TOO.

I am mad about collecting information on places and people when I travel - on assignment or not.

Unfortunately, a lot of people can’t be bothered to read captions. Fair enough… the visuals should tell it all, right! Well, unfortunately it’s not always true.

One way I would like to use this blog is by presenting you some of these facts hidden behind the pictures, maybe in a more interesting way than just a “plain” captions.

Afghanistan, Wakhan Corridor.

Can you see 3 men, a donkey and 2 horses below this gigantic scree?… It’s happening bottom right of the image and they are on their way to a Wakhi wedding, in mid-February 2008, Afghanistan. This is part of my story on “The Forgotten” . I was on my way down from the Little Pamir when I spotted these figures. We eventually joined in for the wedding.

As you enter the house of the groom (the bride is in a different house and her family celebration take place in her house, on the next day -they get united the day after that), you get thrown a bit of flour on your shoulder: this is to wish prosperity to the couple to be (see right shoulder on that picture).

Below, these are the Wakhi musicians inside the groom’s house - listen to the extract of MUSIC they play, it was a poignant moment, the guys turning on themselves, the kids whistling and shouting. Coming down from the lonely Pamir plateau, it was so much human warmth at once. I needed that… very emotional.

HIT THE PLAY BUTTON BELOW

The guy with his arms up outdoor is Alowat, the main singer, showing me his dancing moves - moves that reminds me of some of the traditional American Indians dances.

This below is the groom. Traditional afghan cloak over army pants and cool brand new shiny white snickers. A cool Wakhi dude on snow!

And while we are at it, I recently found this video below. I think a piece of heart of Central Asia (and human kindness) lies in this couple, dancing with quiet smiles, brushing at one another.

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I leave you with these words from Sacha Guitry, the French actor and director:

« Il faut être heureux car lorsqu’on se met à être heureux, l’existence devient une chose tout à fait inouïe »

“You must be happy because when you start to be happy, existence becomes something very special”.

Hard to live on a daily basis, but a good and simple motto to bring up.