When I was seven, I had an inch-thick hard-bound copy book full of notes, cards and clippings about the most exotic places I could find. Being a somewhat methodical soul, I’d arranged them by continent but my methodé did not quite go as far as alphabetising or indexing. This allowed for some happy coincidences and serendipitous happenstances while perusing the growing collection of these postcards from far away.
On my ninth birthday my grandfather, a hulking, kindly man with a full head of silver hair and an ever-present cigarette between his teeth, a habit which would kill him not five years later, gave me a plastic camera as a present and at that instant I ceased to have any choice in the matter of profession.
So, somehow the idea of moving about and looking around the corner and across the horizon has been with me for a very long time. By the time I got to university I had been to something like a dozen schools in three countries. I’d learned a couple of extra languages relatively well and a few more sufficiently to be able to curse efficiently. A useful skill, that.
I first learned about computers on an Apple II machine which one programmed with the use of a card reader, using a 2B grade pencil to black out squares on pre-printed cards which were practically identical to ones used to buy lottery tickets. That was not the most efficient way of programming and the results were frequently about as much subject to chance as a lottery but the magically appearing ASCII characters and white circles bouncing about the screen were almost worth the effort. Woz is the man.
Ten years later I first learned about the internet and felt like I’d walked into a large library and someone all of a sudden turned on a light. That feeling has never quite been repeated for me, even if the library has grown bigger…
A few years after that I proceeded to have an expensive lesson in timing. After a lot of enthusiasm and praise, it eventually became clear that the publishing world was just not ready for my ‘world-first’ game changing, rule-bending, specialised book editing and production app which I’d created from scratch with the help of a young web designer named Vari Lilley. The highly excited publishing gurus I’d been talking to in the world’s publishing capitals all suddenly took a deep breath when it came to signing up, despite the fact that it didn’t cost them anything. It was just too new and strange back then. Now everyone’s doing it. Funny, that. That one didn’t cross the chasm. Thanks, Geoffrey…
In the meantime I’d photographed, written or published over twenty books, including titles about the biggest and second-biggest sloop in the world (if you’re a sailor you might find this moderately impressive), Maori mythology and wine making. I’d slept on bare boards in an Akha village, eaten crabs caught under a Manila bridge, received blessing from a bearded holy man in a Sri Lankan mountain temple, followed sheep dogs around New Zealand and sailed across the Pacific. Even managed to get paid for most of it… Lucky man.
So that’s it. I can’t help it. Photography, geography and technology are in my marrow. It’s only logical that they should all be now put to use in one web and mobile-based project. Wanna come along for the ride?
That’s it. If you want to read something with a bit more, you know, information then check out my main site or head for my LinkedIn page. And if you have any questions then by all means, use the Contact page on the site!
If you’re in a chatty mood, there’s always Twitter and if you’re a TED-ster, then head over to my profile there, though that one needs a login. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day.
