Sumatran Passage

Sumatran Passage is a collection of photographs taken from moving vehicles during a two month trip spent assisting natural historyphotographer Steve Winter on a tiger story in Sumatra.

The passing view from a car window offers an alternative form of cinema. Without underlying narratives or themes, it provides only a reel of fast-shifting decontextualized stages and characters. As a western car passenger in Sumatra I had very little understanding of these scenes. They blurred into memory as one indistinguishable sensory stream-- a vague unpartitioned impression of another culture. By the act of photographing I hope to single out distinguishable frames from this stream, and leave them to the viewer as open tableaus for their own stories and interpretations. I believe this approach alludes to the conceit of most 'cultural' or 'travel photography, and perhaps to the photographic process in general. It can often serve less as a window of understanding onto another culture, as a screen for the viewers own projections, or even a mirror for their beliefs.