It’s hard being on a junket of self discovery. I can go anywhere so it’s really hard to choose somewhere. There is a fierce battle being fought by anywhere and somewhere with nowhere approaching on the horizon.
My Paltry Requirements
- It mustn’t be overrun with tourists. I can’t handle tourists. They always ask me to have beers. I feel like slashing their pudgy faces. Especially those tourists who say ‘but you’re a tourist!’ It’d be nice if when I tell people I’m going there or have been it makes them feel bad for going to Bali, or Vietnam.
- It must be photogenic. By that I mean it must be very poor, spectacularly ugly, congested, dirty, intense. I like photographing entire populations who are really stressed out, so it’d be nice if it’s a stressful place. Also, a place where valium is cheap. I know usually these things go together.
- Bonus points for being a war zone or a potential war zone. I find death and regarding the pain of others just fascinating. Well on TV. Probably because, cacooned in a middle class ‘aspirational’ life, I haven’t seen death and real pain. Not the ‘oh fuck I didn’t get the job which would have given me another $20K that I would’ve used on maggoted drinking which helps me forget my shallow slow death of a life, or monotonous drug taking at otherwise boring parties (sorry, I mean warehouse parties, of course I’ve never been to a legal party) which finally has made me so much more interesting, or seeing banal cultural shit that I read about in the Sydney Morning Herald (or TwoThousand for the wankers, or ThreeThousand for the real wankers), or putting a down payment on a house which will be the final nail in the coffin of me ever doing anything interesting with my life beyond making extra repayments sometimes’ kind of pain. Also, magazines pay more for photos where real people are real hurt.
- It’d be nice if it doesn’t cost much and the people around me are way poorer so that I feel relatively rich. That’s all that matters for happiness, to be relatively richer, relatively prettier, relatively smarter than those around you.
- I don’t want to go to South America. Too many people I don’t like (they are richer, prettier, and smarter) are there right now. It’d be awkward for everyone.
My Options
I’ll be flying from Dhaka on the 20th of August to be in Dubai for a couple of days. I’ve got a couple of oil wells that are coming in. Then I’ll be in Europe for a couple of months before it gets balls freezing cold. I’ll be in Vienna, Amsterdam, and Paris. But after that? I have three options:
- Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt.
- Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia. Maybe hard getting a visa to Iran but Bonus Points!
- Russia in the winter (from St. Petersburg to down south). I hear that it’s pretty expensive, and people tend to ostentation. Still there’s something depressing about Russia that’s very attractive. Maybe I’m just copying Delahaye.
Currently Algeria et al is winning. It’ll be warmer and after two months of Europe I’ll want to be in the field again. Iran can wait a little.
Am I Chickening Out?
Some viewers may be asking: ‘what happened to Pakistan and Afghanistan? You pussying out?’ No, I haven’t decided not to go, but have these issues:
- I don’t know if I really do care to take photographs of actual real wars and try to making a living from that. I don’t think that can actually change anything. But I do want to see war, and so I’m undecided and need to think about that more.
- I want to get a few months in Europe before Winter sets in. It’s because I’m a pussy.
- I really want to check out North Africa or Iran and Georgia and the whole atmosphere of state control and how people live within that. Not because I want to change it, I just want to see.
Posted 2 years ago
