Thrill Me Rajasthan Fine Art Book
Copyright © 2009, Glen Allison
Some of us consider ourselves world travelers. And there are certainly people who travel around the world.
But Glen Allison is in a class almost all by himself.
A talented and prolific photographer, Allison has spent the last several years living on the island paradise of Bali. But recently, Allison felt compelled to sell his home together with all of his possessions and set out on an incredible 4005 day trek around the globe, carrying only a couple of changes of clothes, basic professional camera equipment, and a MacBook Pro computer.
At age 64, and now without a permanent home, Allison plans to finish his nearly 11 year trip when he turns 75. But already, just five months into the trip, Allison is seeing and capturing images as never before, resulting in a delightful collection of fine art photographs that Allison recently assembled into a book (more about this later).
For Allison, monumental excursions seem to be in his blood, having completed a similar ten year trip to over 120 countries and territories back in the 1990s.
“That [first] journey coincided with a mid-life shift in my photo career from architectural to travel photography, the catalyst being the economic recession of 1990,” explained Allison in a recent email from Bangkok,Thailand. “My plan back then was to shoot as many of the world’s travel icons as fast as possible so as to generate quick income to keep feeding my travel habit.”
Working through Getty Images, Allison’s iconic photographs were licensed more than 60,000 times, allowing him to continue his earlier travels and also fund the design and construction of his dream home in Bali, an amazing structure featuring six inverted pyramid-like glass structures floating in twenty-one levels of water.
But when the latest global economic recession hit, it was time for Allison to re-evaluate once again. “This time, at age 64. I realized that I simply love being a vagabond and I was hating the encumbered complexity I had allowed back into my life,” explained Allison. “It was time to liquidate all my worldly possessions once again and hit the road.”
Times have changed since the 1990s, and so has Allison’s modus operandi. Today he travels with the same amount of clothes, but without the hundreds of rolls of film that weighed down his earlier trip. The shift to digital and the near ubiquity of the Internet also means that Allison can now keep his fans (he has nearly a thousand followers on Twitter —twitter.com/Glenallison) and the readers of his blog (glenallisontraveler.wordpress.com) up-to-date on his newest discoveries.
Digital publishing has also allowed Allison to add yet another dimension to his creativity. The result is a beautiful new 40 page book, Thrill Me Rajasthan, featuring a collection of vibrantly colored fine art compositions photographed in the famous desert state located in western India.
“Colors are intense in Rajasthan,” noted Allison. “Tikka powder, turbans, saris, and camel decorations are everywhere, even little blue boys with red lips dressed as the Hindu god Shiva during the Pushkar Camel Fair.”
Indeed, Allison uses color within his tight compositions to draw a rather serene order from the otherwise wonderful chaos that is everyday life in India. In a way, one can imagine that for Allison, the geometric arrangements and diverse, highly saturated hues represent a type of cosmic ordering visible only to those who take the time to stop and look.
“Adding this dimension to my work has also challenged me to look at the world differently,” explained Allison. “In addition, by making numerous bonds of strong friendship, I’ve also continued to expand my mind to embrace culturally different ways to live life.”
Allison’s plans include focusing on nearby countries in Southeast Asia for the next several months, and then trying to shoot in as many countries as possible for the first couple of years to update his extensive collection of iconic travel destinations before spending more time delving into the full experience of each place.
“Ultimately, my goal is to have one lifelong friend in every country in the world,” explained Allison. “There are more than 220 countries and territories and my target is to keep going until I visit 200 of them.”
“After that,” quips Allison, “who knows, I may start a 25-year trip.”
Thrill Me Rajasthan
Allison’s beautiful self-published book of fine art images, Thrill Me Rajasthan, is available in two editions, 7”x7” (softcover or hardcover) and 12”x12” (hardcover only).
You can learn more about the book, as well as order a copy, here. Allison is also making images from the book available as fine art canvas prints, posters, greeting cards, and calendars.