Chiiz Volume 05 : Travel Photography | Page 15

Capturing The Other Side- The People's Photographer Martin Puddy Myanmar, Bagan, Buddhist monk standing on temple top at dawn. M a r t i n Puddy is an award- winning travel photographer, who was born and raised in Somerset, England. With a flair for ‘capturing people’s real life in a personal way’, he intends to use his photography to take the audience to a dreamscape. Through his photographic journey, Martin has travelled over 20 countries and clocked up nearly 12 years of shooting Asia. He specializes in capturing the astonishing diversity and different cultures of Asia. His work has been featured in many international publications including National Geographic, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The 30 Vol 5 Telegraph, Geo Magazine, Newsweek, American Scientific, etc. His images have been used by corporate clients such as Virgin Airlines, Emirates, Skywards, and British Airways. He is represented by Getty Images, Corbis, Asia Images, Stocksy, Offset and Axiom Photographic Agency. SHREEJA CHATTERJEE from Chiiz gets in conversation with him about his travels in Asia, documenting the monks of Angkor Wat. using kodachrome slide film and Nikon SLR cameras. During that 7 month trip, I experimented with taking travel photos. I had aspirations to travel Africa, Asia and also South America, I was never so attracted by the western world. I guess it was the different cultures so far away from my own which attracted me to these far off places which I had seen in National Geographic magazines and which I religiously collected and treasured. Why did you choose to cover this part of the world (Asia) through your photography? Is there any specific reason or was it just where life might have led you? Anyhow, after returning from Africa with a real taste of adventure, I worked in England for a year or so and then set off on my first long haul trip to Asia for 14 months. By then, I was using medium format film cameras and slowly advancing my photography skills. My first extensive travels took me to southern africa at the age of 19. By then, I was already