The road more travelled the evolution of travel photography

Legendary travel photographer, Jimmy Nelson is also a photojournalist who aims to create awareness about the world’s unimaginable diversity. He is doing that through his photographs, their stories, the books that contain both, his videos, and a campaign with advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson, whose aim is to fight against the demise of indigenous culture. “I don’t know if there is a profession to be made any more in travel photography,” Nelson admits. “The whole world has become a photographer. Four and a half billion of us have a smartphone, taking pictures. Can one earn a living directly doing it? No, not really. Is that a problem? No.”

David Kirkland has been a travel and tourism photographer for nearly 20 years with a background in journalism and public relations. He has written and photographed 15 books, and he owns the largest online photo library dedicated specifically to travel and tourism in the Asia Pacific region. Kirkland is very aware of a significant shift in professional travel photography. “Demand for quality photography in tourism publications is slipping – budgets are tight, and editors are making do with what they can get, often sending their writers out with a camera and hoping for the best,” he notes. “At the same time, advertisers either don’t know the difference, or they can’t or aren’t prepared to pay for professional photographers. Sad really.”

“I think you need to park photography,” Nelson states. The new successful professionals, he believes, are the travellers, “the people who are passionate about the beauty of the world, have a curiosity for it, and want to share their feelings.” For these adept travellers and communicators, a new world opens up – a world of workshops, storytelling, and, in Nelson’s case, making