Chitwan is part of the western Terai in Nepal. Tharuland. Well known for it's Royal National Park where you can explore the wilderness by feet and met easily hundreds of birds species, rhinos, elephants and tigers. Not every encounter will be survived, but mostly people are lucky. When I visited the area in December 2016, I focussed on Rapti-river and the Tharu living there. People are washing themselves, their clothes and cars in the water. Elephants come for a bath frequently. Men are fishing and women harvesting snails. Everyday life. One morning I stood at the riverbank and Salina, 11 years old invited me spontaneously for tea with her family while she and her brother prepared for school. We couldn't speak to each other, I only know some nepali words but we found a way to communicate. It was a very happy start into a new morning.
Bhutan, 2001 Jakarta, 2014 Bali, 2014 Bali, 2014 Havanna, 2016 Havanna, 2016
One of the most impressive documentary film shootings for me was the agency MAGNUM PHOTOS in Paris in 1998. Iconic photographs I have seen a thousand times were down on the table as originals / photographic negatives. Every angle in this kingdom of pictures was breathing the energy of Capa, Cartier-Bresson and all the other big names. One day we were invited by HCB for lunch. I remember a light-flooded apartment above the Tuilleries gardens and a little old man asking me to sit next to him. He was one of the most funny and at the same time decent hosts I ever met. Finally he gave me a little buddhist book and told me to read it over and over again. What I still do, until today. “Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
Germany, Hamburg, 1994 Nairobi, Kenia, 1998 Great Britain, Oxford, 1996 Germany, Hamwiede, 1990 Great Britain, Oxford, 1996 Nepal, Manpur, 2012 Chad, 2005 Nepal, Narti, 2015 China, Inner Mongolia, 2007
Buttertea, 2001 Monks, 2001 Lama Datong Trulku Rinpoche, 2001
These pictures were drawn by children in a refugee camp in 2005. They flew from Darfur / Sudan into Chad and found a place in Bredjing. Unfortunately most of the families are still living here. And don’t see any chance of going back to their villages because of ongoing ethnical clashes. links: Shadows of Fate – a refugee childhood Shake hands with the devil – Romeo Dallaire The Silence – Gilles Peress
