Artist's Statement September 22, 2013 Looking back now, there's little doubt that the busiest year of my photojournalism career was 1999.  During the course of that historic, final year of the 20th century, I traveled thousands and thousands of miles on a variety of assignments, all in the pursuit of photographs. I went by jet, car, beat up pickup truck, floatplane, helicopter, jet boat, canoe, horseback, and of course by foot! Oh, and there was also that limousine in China! The year began with the approval of a book idea I proposed to National Geographic: Yellowstone to Yukon, a large project to document the progress of conservations groups to preserve the Northern Rocky Mountains Ecosystem, a corridor 2,000 miles long that stretches from Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park in the south, to Tombstone Provincial Park in the Yukon Territories of northern Canada. National Geographic gave me six months to travel, experience and shoot this huge area. As I was planning my western adventures that begin that spring, continue through summer and conclude at the end of fall, from out of nowhere came an invitation to participate as a photographer in the 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of the People's Republic of China! I was one of two photographers chosen from the United States along with 45 other photographers from around the world to be invited by the China International Cultural Association to photograph my choice of locations throughout China for twenty one days! Not long after that thrilling news, I received another assignment from National Geographic to do a lengthy photo story on the Apostle Islands National Seashore, Lake Superior, Wisconsin. My calendar for 1999 was now jam packed full of photography that spanned much of the world. I had many moments of anxiety and panic wondering how I was going to keep up with the pace, as well as all the logistical details, but as life usually goes, you take one day at a time, and by November I had completed all three assignments with great success! In September of that year, I was still traveling and shooting my Yellowstone to Yukon project, and found myself hundreds of miles from the nearest civilization, deep in the Canadian wilderness of the vast Northwest Territories. Earlier in the summer I had been asked by the Chinese government to write an essay about my experiences in their country. While camped on a high rocky plateau in the North Nahanni Wilderness, enduring a cold, black night with my tent being pounded by driving rain and wind,  the inspiration finally came to write my China essay:

I am writing this essay on China by flashlight, nestled in my tent deep in the heart of the Canadian wilderness, in the Northwest Territories. Within this wild land of more than a million acres, there are a grand total of three people: myself, and two native guides. I am here to photograph the rugged, pristine landscape and wildlife; grizzly bears, wolves, foxes, caribou, eagles, mountain goats and Dahl sheep.  This is how I spend most of my photographic energy, on assignment for National Geographic, documenting vast, wild places. Yet when I was offered a chance to photograph in China, a land of billions of people, I jumped at the opportunity!  Finally, I thought, a chance to visit this great, historic country, to experience the fabled Chinese culture, to see a corner of the world I had never seen. And what an incredible experience it was be! My gracious hosts, the Ministry of Culture, were familiar with my photographic work, and quite obviously thought I would want to see and photograph China's great mountains, forests, and rivers. But after my first day of traveling through Beijing, and then the increasingly smaller country villages, I quickly realized what I truly desired to photograph in China: the people, their villages, and the land upon which they worked and devoted their entire lives.   This ancient, traditional culture truly captured my imagination, and I felt more inspired to document this amazing country than anything else I have ever experienced! My eyes (my most valuable resource!) were constantly filled with moments of genuine, honest life. Everywhere I looked, every way I turned, there was something happening, little stories unfolding, vignettes of hard-working people involved in their busy daily life. I don't think I have ever been so consistently inspired and driven to make pictures as I was in China. There was always a hum of activity: bicycles weaving through traffic, taxis and buses pulling in and out, horse-drawn wagons carrying everything imaginable, from vegetables to firewood, from rocks to animals, from children to grandparents. Shops, markets, and restaurants were all bustling with activity. In the country fields, entire families were out working together, husbands and wives plowing over a rice paddy, sons and daughters planting the new rice stalks. Everything caught my eye, and everywhere I focused my camera, there were great, timeless photographs to be made. I decided then that the entire realm of the Chinese landscape and their ancient culture was as picturesque as any pristine mountain wilderness I had ever seen! Some of my favorite memories and experiences include: BEIJING: Driving through morning traffic, there were cars, a multitude of other wheeled-vehicles, and people everywhere, sometimes so close, I could have reached out my window and plucked a plum from a basket on a passing bike! (Though I didn't!). A complete sensory overload, those Beijing mornings were, so to get a handle on all this chaos, I found myself photographing the passing human parade from the car window. I'm sure I went through at least ten rolls of film this way! CUANDIXIA: An ancient 17th century village, we arrived there just as the sun set behind a mountain, casting the hillside village into an eerie, shadowy scene. Twilight and a rising moon helped us find a local man who graciously toured us around the village, up and down steep, narrow stairways and passages.  The village was surreally quiet except for a couple of dogs barking, and it was easy to imagine the year was 1675. Cuandixia provided one of those indelible memories, and it is one place I definitely want to return to someday, with more time and light! HEBEI, THE GREAT WALL "JINSHAN LING":  Two days after leaving Cuandixia, we arrived at "Jinshan Ling" as the sun began to descend in the west. Sections of the wall stretched out to the horizon in all directions, illuminated with warm, golden light. You could almost see the soldiers on the walls fighting back the Mongols! The magnitude of this structure, the amount of effort it must have taken to construct, the grand aesthetic of this stone serpent slipping over the land, all overpowered me. I realized the sun was setting, and light was getting better by the minute, so we rushed around trying to photograph it all. Then, just as we were about to climb down, a great full moon came over the horizon, directly over the wall! Out comes the tripod, and the camera's motor drive starts humming! PINGXIANG, GUANGXI AUTONOMOUS REGION: This was a memorable experience for me, because Pingxiang is close to the Vietnam border, and as a U.S. soldier in 1971, I lived in fear of being sent to South Vietnam to fight in the war (I was sent to Germany instead). So it was intriguing to at last get a look at this country, from China's Friendship Pass. Later that afternoon, we walked down a small street toward the market. As we entered the open area of the main market, I saw every head there turn toward me. There must have been 500 pairs of eyes focused on me! That was a disconcerting feeling, being on center-stage like that, and I thought, "It sure will be hard to get candid photographs around here." But the reality was that the people were so busy bartering, they soon forgot about me. GUILIN, AND THE LI RIVER: Guilin was the one place I knew I had to visit during my trip to China, and it was well worth it. We took a cruise on the Li River on a rainy, misty, very moody day. The local Chinese photographer who accompanied us thought it was perfect weather for photographing the famous limestone Karst Mountains.  I would have preferred a little less rain, but nevertheless, it was an inspirational trip. Clouds swirled in and around the mountains, their light shapes contrasting against the black rock. Then, at my request, we spent one day in the Yangdi Valley, outside of Guilin. It is a beautiful, long, lush, verdant valley, surrounded by those famous Guilin Mountains. Almost every inch of flat land was covered with emerald green rice paddies, and families were out working everywhere. It was a sparkling, clear, sunny day, and my guide Mr. Tong Xu and I were dropped off along the road, and we proceeded to spend the next 4 hours just wandering through the valley. I finished twenty rolls of film there, which caused some concern with Mr. Xu, because he kept warning me we had many more days and many more places to see in China, and not to use all of my film at once! But I can honestly say, once you get your working rhythm going, and you have good light and great subject matter, you don't think about numbers of rolls, you just keeping reloading your cameras! GUANGDONG: This was the last province we visited, and by now I was beginning to get tired, the weather was very hot and hazy, and I was beginning to run low on film, so some of the days began to run together. But there were still some amazing highlights: savoring the best lunch I've ever had in Guangzhou;  photographing the dramatic Yang River Canyon with its steep, terraced villages high on the mountain sides; and hiking through Red Stone Park, known for its 50 million year old sandstone and dramatic landscapes. Finally, we visited the serene Star Lake and Seven Crags Park in Zhaoqing, where in the evenings we watched a large water fountain dance to colorful lights and music, a very magical sight to close our trip! September1999

China

HEBEI PROVINCE, THE GREAT WALL "JINSHAN LING": The full moon rising over the mountains as the setting sun illuminates The Great Wall offers the perfect balance between day and night.

HEBEI PROVINCE, THE GREAT WALL "JINSHAN LING": The last rays of the setting sun illuminate a large, intact section of  The Great Wall. The wall was built to stop invading armies of Mongols.

HEBEI PROVINCE, THE GREAT WALL "JINSHAN LING": The setting sun is framed by a tower portal in The Great Wall.

CUANDIXIA: Just a short hour's drive from busy Beijing, one can find the ancient 17th century village of Cuandixia. Smoke from the evening's kitchen fires drift by the entrance to a small home.

HEBEI PROVINCE, CITY OF CHENGDE, TIBETAN POTALA TEMPLE: Built in the 17th century, the famous temple served as the sanctuary of the Dalai Lama.

HEBEI PROVINCE, ZHANG'S VILLAGE: My visit to this small, remote village brought a smile to this young boy's face, who thought I was King Arthur because of my six foot plus stature and long silvery hair! My visit also brought out a village elder with carved wooden staffs to show me.

GUANGXI ZHUANG AUTONOMOUS REGION, YANGDI VALLEY: An old man stands in a shaft of warm afternoon sunlight in the doorway of his home in a small rural village.

HEBEI PROVINCE, CITY OF CHENGDE: One of my favorite moments that I've captured comes from a stop for breakfast in a busy market place. My interpreter, at right, accompanied me for the entire 21 days, while my driver, at left, was with me until I traveled to a new province.

HEBEI PROVINCE, CITY OF CHENGDE, TIBETAN POTALA TEMPLE: Built in the 17th century, the famous temple served as the sanctuary of the Dalai Lama.

HEBEI PROVINCE, MIAO FENGSHAN BUDDHIST TEMPLE: Located in the Rose Valley a couple of hour's drive from Beijing, this old temple was my first shoot in China. Disappointed by the gray, dreary sky and drizzling rain, I put an 81B warming filter on my lens and used the pop up flash to bring some light and color to this blossoming plum tree growing against the temple wall.

GUANGXI ZHUANG AUTONOMOUS REGION, The Li River: A villager poles his raft across the legendary Li River, surrounded by sheer, tall, karst (limestone) mountains. The river is located near the city of Guilin, a popular tourist destination.

GUANGXI ZHUANG AUTONOMOUS REGION, YANGDI VALLEY: A young woman plants rice stalks in a paddy in Yangdi Valley, a beautifully verdant farming valley surround by karst mountains, located outside the city of Guilin.

GUANGXI ZHUANG AUTONOMOUS REGION, YANGDI VALLEY: Sunset paints a warm glow over the valley as the sun falls behind the dramatic limestone karst mountains.

GUANGXI ZHUANG AUTONOMOUS REGION, YANGDI VALLEY: The small figure of a farmer walks across a dike as the setting sun illuminates the flooded rice paddies. The Guilin area is famous for these limestone karst mountains.

GUANGXI ZHUANG AUTONOMOUS REGION, The Li River: A cormorant fisherman poles his raft into position, and will then let the cormorant dive for fish, which he then puts in his basket. This ancient method of fishing is dying out, and is mostly performed for tourists now.