“Images are more powerful than text”
Discuss.
Words can transport you convincingly to another place but does a photograph get you there quicker, and immerse you deeper in the destination?
A pagoda, a local tribesman, a paddy field in early morning mist, naked Chinese boat pullers straining every sinew, all might demand a few hundred words to place the reader there. Or they could be captured perfectly by a single image.
As an aspiring travel writer, I shouldn’t be saying this, should I? But after attending the prize-giving event for the Travel Photographer of the Year Awards (TPOTY), I’m more in awe of the power of an image than ever.
The overall winner for 2015 was announced as Marsel van Oosten from the Netherlands. He presented two strikingly different portfolios, one of very angular close-ups of pelicans in Namibia, the other a series of moody, monochrome pictures of early morning in Louisiana swamplands.
The winner of Young Travel Photographer of the Year was Chase Guttman, from the US. Only 18, his portfolio tells the story of the Basuto people of Lesotho, letting us glimpse their landscape and lives.
And the other shortlisted entrants exhibited in the perfect space at the University of Greenwich were outstanding in the quality, variety and wordless storytelling of their work.
Hurtigruten, one of Silver Travel Advisor’s partners, sponsored some of the Awards and extended the invitation to the TPOTY Awards event. Hurtigruten have been an integral part of Norwegian life since 1893, sailing daily on small ships north from Bergen to the Arctic Circle. They also now provide more distant Explorer voyages, but all with the same adventure travel focus and offering spectacular scenery, authenticity, a unique history and atmosphere, as well as access to active nature-based experiences.
It’s clear to see why photographic images complement Hurtigruten’s trips perfectly, and why they wanted to be involved in the TPOTY Awards.
Chris Coe founded the prestigious TPOTY Awards in 2003. To date they have attracted entries from well over 100 countries and provide a popular showcase for both amateur and professional photographers to achieve exposure for their work.
Hurtigruten and Chris are combining their considerable strengths to provide a few exciting travel adventures with a photographic theme later this year. I think I’ll sign up to one of them, now I need a new career.
For information on when the next TPOTY exhibition will be on display visit their site.
Silver Travel Advisore recommends Hurtigruten
