Progress as of September 2011: 65 of 196 (33%) of world's countries visited shown in red

“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”
Aldous Huxley

I recently made the mistake of buying a large wall map of the world with a view to plot past travels and plan future journeys which has had the unintended effect of making me realise I’ve visited a third of the world’s countries and that I’d like to try to visit the remaining two-thirds while I still have the energy. My working title for this travel photography project is “Looking Here & There” which may become a book or an exhibition.

My goal is to complete this odyssey by 2025 when I’ll be aged 50 and god willing, some of the world’s most dangerous countries will become less so by then. This equates to travelling to around nine countries a year which I think is achievable in a few months per year. My intention is to fund the travel as I have done for the previous few years via architectural photography assignments, fine art prints and producing books and exhibitions.

My choice on the number of world countries for this adventure is based on the 193 UN member sates plus Vatican City & Kosovo (both UN observer states) and Taiwan which is treated by the international community as an independent country, bringing the total to 196.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. ”
Henry Miller

Arctic Horizon. Travel Photographer of the Year 2010 - Portfolio Winner. Photo: © Quintin Lake

Midnight Mountains. Travel Photographer of the Year 2010 - Portfolio Winner. Photo: © Quintin Lake

Light & Ice. Travel Photographer of the Year 2010 - Portfolio Winner. Photo: © Quintin Lake

Silent Light. Light & Ice.Travel Photographer of the Year 2010 - Portfolio Winner. Photo: © Quintin Lake

I’m delighted to announce that I have won the Amazing Places Portfolio Category of the Travel Photographer of the Year 2010. This prestigious international competition, which attracts thousands of applicants, involves submitting images online then if shortlisted sending fine art prints for final judging. The Portfolio category is based on a series of four images.

STORY BEHIND THE PORTFOLIO

These images were taken during Anglo-Scottish East Greenland expedition in 2006 which was a month long ski journey involving pulling sleds, undertaken with three friends with the aim of climbing new peaks in an unexplored area of East Greenland. The expedition succeeded in 16 first ascents but the real discovery for me was the otherworldly light of the Arctic cased by the midnight sun and the interplay of the palette of pastel colours with the almost-not-there landscape.

Much of the month was either bright blue skies or white clouds – of little photographic interest – but the images in the portfolio were of the sudden moments of drama that punctuated these conditions. For example, the primarily grey photograph, depicting the horizon of light  was taken when we were tent bound for three days on the icecap and the light appeared momentarily just before the storm closed in again.

ANGLO-SCOTTISH EAST GREENLAND EXPEDITION INFO

• A technical account of the Expedition in the 2009 American Alpine Journal
• The Expedition Report. Which is also available to view at: The Royal Geographical Society, The British Mountaineering council, Tangent Expeditions, The Mountaineering Council of Scotland, The Alpine Club, The Mount Everest Foundation, Arctic Club, Scottish Arctic Club, and the Danish Polar Centre

BUY FINE ART PRINTS

Prints are available in two sizes:

• Signed A2 giclee print on cotton fine art paper £295.00 (edition of 25)
• Signed 90x60cm Lightjet on Aluminium float frame £795.00 (edition of 7) see example

To order prints either contact me direct of order online here

An account of the Oxford University expedition along the InterOceanic Highway in Peru in which I participated has been published in the Orchid Digest VOLUME 74, NO. 3—July, August, September 2010. The photos in the article are a mixture of mine and the other expedition members. A summary of the project is available to read here. In 2008 a photographic exhibition from the journey was held at Canning House entitled Orquídeas Interoceánicas

Orchis Digest Volume 74 Cover

Epidendrum Secundum Orchid was found during the InterOcenaic scientific expedition to Peru from 1700 to 2300 meters near Limocpuco in Transect II. Orchid Digest Volume 74 Back Cover. Photo: Quintin Lake

An Orchid Hunting Journey over the Peruvian Andes, 2008. Orchid Digest

An Orchid Hunting Journey over the Peruvian Andes, 2008. Orchid Digest

An Orchid Hunting Journey over the Peruvian Andes, 2008. Orchid Digest

An Orchid Hunting Journey over the Peruvian Andes, 2008. Orchid Digest

An Orchid Hunting Journey over the Peruvian Andes, 2008. Orchid Digest

An Orchid Hunting Journey over the Peruvian Andes, 2008. Orchid Digest

An Orchid Hunting Journey over the Peruvian Andes, 2008. Orchid Digest

An Orchid Hunting Journey over the Peruvian Andes, 2008. Orchid Digest

VIEW MORE IMAGES of the Orchids here

VIEW MORE IMAGES of the Expedition here

VIEW MORE IMAGES of the Interoceanic Highway here

Southern Pig-tailed Macaque (Macaca nemestrina) looking through vegetation

Protoxodera monstrosa, male: a very rare Praying Mantis in Danum Valley, Sabah

A logging truck crosses the Danum river in Danum Valley, Sabah

Mature Male Bornean Orangutan, Pongo pygmaeus morio, hanging from a tree in Danum Valley, Sabah

Mist at dawn glides past the Rainforest tree canopy in Danum Valley, Sabah

File eared tree frog in the Danum Valley, Sabah

Dawn mist with the tree canopy in Danum Valley, Sabah

Paradise Tree Snake or Paradise Flying Snake Chrysopelea paradis

Golden orb spider in the Danum Valley, Sabah

VIEW MORE / BUY PRINTS / DOWNLOAD  & LICENSE  STOCK IMAGES  from Danum Valley, Sabah, Borneo here >>

Photography © Quintin Lake, 2010

Final images are now online at the Sabah Youth Conservation Expedition Website including photos from Danum Valley, Iban Longhouse, Kinabatangan river, Bagang, Orangutan in Sepilok, Palm Oil Plantations and Deforestation, Sabah tea Plantation, Pitcher plants of Mesilau, Kinabalu National park, Palau Sulug Island, turtle Island and the Sabah Youth Conservation Expedition Team

I’m acting as photographer for this expedition arriving a couple of weeks before the group to have more time to make photographs of the rainforest. You can read about the background to the project and follow daily progress and photography on the expedition website from 13-25th July 2010.The expedition will produce the following publications:

Location of the Interoceanic Highway in Latin America

The Interoceanic Highway is a multi-country, multi-region, $1.3-billion project to create a paved highway that links the Peruvian coast with the lowland Amazon Jungle and ultimately the Atlantic ports of Brazil. Peru is counting on the road as a means of opening up its long-neglected interior for development. Brazil is looking for access to Pacific ports. The finished route, planned for 2009, will create the first paved roadway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on the South American Continent.

A traveller through Southern Peru can wake up in the harsh chill of the high Andes in the early morning and spend the evening sweating it out in the jungle. From an engineering point of view the IOH poses a legion of difficulties including extreme elevations, incessant downpours and dramatic geography. “It is an incredibly complex project”, says Peru’s Minister of Transportation and Communications, Veronica Zavala. From a social point of view the highway links a variety of interests and development hopes that are not always lined with environmental governance initiatives.

Among the major goals of our expedition was the development of a comprehensive inventory of as many orchid species as we could identify (e.g. we found 103 species of orchids in flower, 1 of them has already been confirmed as new to science (Telipogon manucensis), and 3 others are pending examination. Orchids are an excellent ‘indicator species’ in ecology, and their delicate, often soil-less existence usually renders them the most sensitive residents of a changing environment. We now possess a snapshot of the ecosystem from July 2008, ready to be compared to a later snapshot to evaluate how seriously industrial road-building, climate, and social pressures can affect biodiversity.

In order to share our data with the scientific botanical community, our records will be entered at Oxford’s Virtual Field Herbarium, and also transformed into Rapid Color Guides at the Chicago Field Museum’s website. Our inventory is also being used as part of an ecotouristic initiative to promote green tourism along the Interoceanic Highway.

Expedition members: Rosa María Román-Cuesta (Expedition Leader), Norma Salinas Revilla (Leading Botanist, Oriel College), David Rueger (Financial Officer, St Hugh’s College), Theresa Meacham (Pembroke College), William Nauray (Botanist), Quintin Lake (Medical Officer and Photographer).

Our utmost gratitude to our sponsors: The Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust; The AA Paton Fund; The Oxford University Expedition’s Council; The Mike Soper Fund; The Oxford Society; Pembroke College JCR,, Oxford; St. Hugh’s College Travelling Funds, Oxford; The Anglo-Peruvian Society; The Tambopata Reserve Society (TReeS)

Lesotho Rock Art Survey 2000: Expedition Report by Simon Aitken & Quintin Lake

Download the full expedition report as a PDF here

A printed copy of the report is also available to view at: the Department of Archaeology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, the Cambridge University Expedition Society and the Royal Geographical Society

Text & Photography © Quintin Lake, 2000