Bringing a Sense of Beauty

Elephant Camp – Andy Callan

Meet Andy Callan, a photographer who absolutely loves his job!

“I’m 37 and I’ve been a professional photographer for about 15 years. I specialise in travel and editorial photography, and the photo essay. Many years ago I studied photography at Cheltenham and Gloucester college!

“I’ve always had a passion for travel and experiencing different cultures and ways of life. My motivation has always been to bring a sense of the beauty in the world and it’s people to my viewers. I’ve been incredibly lucky in the last few years to have had the opportunity to spend several months at a time in some of the world’s most beautiful and fascinating places.

“The top image was taken at an elephant camp and rehabilitation centre in northern Thailand last year. There is a very luxurious hotel attached to the centre, where tourists stay and help care for the animals. I was shooting the hotel for a feature very early one morning, when I turned and noticed the elephants down by the river in this incredible light. You can just make out the mahouts at the edge of the shot coming to check on their elephants.

Yuxi – Andy Callan

“Yuxi – I spent 3 amazing, infuriating, bewildering months in China in 2010. Westerners are still very much an oddity in the country, let alone 6′6″ bald ones! Every day was like being a celebrity, I’ve never had so many photographs taken of me! I was walking around a small town called Yuxi with some Chinese friends when we happened upon this striking little girl doing her homework with her puppy on her knee. I shot a few frames, her expression never altering at all. I still don’t know if she was afraid or completely unfazed by the whole thing.

Tiger Leaping Gorge – Andy Callan

“Tiger Leaping Gorge – this is also in China, at the start of the Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan province, one of the world’s deepest river canyons. Now a World Heritage Site, it offers a challenging 15km hike. Yunnan is known as the province of the eternal spring because of it’s year round fine weather. The only cloud I saw that day covered the fierce sun just long enough for me to get this shot of the tiny hamlet of Qiaotou.

East Timor – Andy Callan

“East Timor – 400 miles off the north western coast of Australia, is the country I most want to return to. Still suffering from their fierce independence struggle, the people are the happiest and most joyful I’ve come across. Several times drivers would stop in the middle of the street, abandon their cars and come and shake my hand or hug me as I was walking! This boy was one of a dozen or so jumping off the jetty into the sea, in the capital Dili.

All shots were taken with a Canon 5D and a 5D MKII

“I’ve just completed shooting a feature on Dickens’ London to celebrate his birthday for a Russian publication. It’s good to play tourist in your own city sometimes! I am now trying to brush up on my Spanish for my next big project; I’m planning to visit Colombia at the end of the year to shoot the Corrlejas, an amateur bullfighting competition held annually. The bulls are never hurt, but the trainee, generally drunk, matadors tend to fair rather worse.”

If you would like to know more about Andy, please visit his website.