Ms Yamamoto teaches the ancient Japanese art of achieving dark and light tones on white Sumi-E paper with the single brushstroke. Born in Japan, the daughter of a master calligrapher, she subsequently studied with Chiura Obata, a famous Sumi-E artist when both were interred in Utah during World War Two.
A legend of the Cuban cigar industry, Don Alejandra died in 2010 at the age of 91. I met him in 2007 and we spent a couple of hours in the rocking chairs on the veranda of the farmhouse, with some fine cigars and a bottle of 7 year old Havana Club.
South of the main port of the Italian island of Giglio, and only accessible by boat, is Pardini’s. After a life in the merchant marine Pardini returned to resurrect the family run guesthouse built by his father in the 1950s. It sits high on the cliffs of the island and looks across the crystal blue water toward the mainland.
Beppe, a sculptor, runs his restaurant with a ‘take it or leave it’ approach. His wife and daughter produce wonderful local fare.
Papunya is 250 km west of Alice Springs. This young Aboriginal woman and her daughter had come for a check-up at the community medical centre.
An assignment for The International Herald Tribune
Like many Italian beaches, Viareggio on the northern west coast, boasts an endless line of beach clubs where Italian holiday makers come to tan and talk among the equally endless rows of deck chairs and umbrellas.
Dr Kevin Carpenter, a biochemical geneticist at Westmead Childrens Hospital Sydney, holding toxic toy Bindeez beads ingested by a child. His sleuthing discovered that the coating on these toy beads contained the precursor to the date rape drug GHB.
For The New York Times
For a New York Times and International Herald Tribune travel story about Sydney, covering a wide range of things to see and places to eat and drink. Leading chef Neil Perry is photographed at his Rockpool Bar & Grill in the city.
David Joy is an historian, writer and artist who lives just outside St Andrews in Scotland. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of golf’s legendary Old Tom Morris, Keeper of the Greens at the Old Course and four times Open champion in the 1860s.
Photographed in his studio workshop.
This couple was oblivious of my presence, despite shooting with a wide-angle lens and only being inches away from them.
That’s Paris.
Martin Strel swims rivers. He has swam the length of the Mississippi, Yangtze and the Danube.
Big River Man is a film about his swimming the Amazon (6000km in 60 days!). Martin doesn’t swim in a cage and often not in a wetsuit.
Asked about piranhas he peeled off his T-shirt to show this sizable bite out of his back.
Saskia Havekes at her fabulous Grandiflora, which specialises in exotic Australian-grown flowers and natives.
For a New York Times story ‘A Sharper Point in Sydney’ on the re-emergence of Sydney’s Potts Point as a hip area.
These two guys sold bananas by the whole stalk and were delighted to be photographed. Mt Hagen is in the PNG highlands.
Joe McNally is an internationally acclaimed photographer who has shot for a host of the world’s leading magazines and mastheads. In particular he has completed numerous stories for National Geographic, over a 23 year span, and was described by American Photo as “perhaps the most versatile photojournalist working today”.
I met poet, writer and part time actor Zaria Griffin in the Barnes & Noble bookstore above Union Square.
Francisco Prieto is a third generation grower and is regarded as one of the very best in the Pinar region. Prieto and his son, Hector Luis, farm shade-grown tobacco that is used for the outer wrapper of the finest cigars.
These are the most expensive leaves to produce.
For The Sydney Morning Herald
A noted Australian author and poet, Mark writes about the essence of the Australian landscape and bush. Winner of the Montreal Poetry Prize and author of The Blue Plateau, Fire Diary and nine other acclaimed works of poetry and prose, he lives in the highlands southwest of Sydney.
From the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.