A Photo Journey Around The World
Travel allows us to break out of our daily routines and seek out new experiences. Even when I am stuck at home, I love to imagine what is going on in other parts of the world and what I would be doing if I was living there. Gary Arndt’s Instagram account, titled “Everything Everywhere,” inspires me with over 1,400 photos that he has taken on his travel journeys. His photos span all seven continents and over 175 countries and territories, featuring landscapes, architecture, people and wildlife. Stylistically, his photos tend to be very vivid in color and often feature wide shots of scenery, details of buildings, and close-ups of local people and their daily customs.
I had the opportunity to speak with Gary via e-mail and get some insight into his pictures and the stories behind them. Gary grew up in Wisconsin and owned his own Internet company in the 1990s. He decided to sell his house in 2007 and travel the world fulltime. He has now been on the road for eight years. He has no professional training in photography yet he has won dozens of awards, including “Travel Photographer of the Year” multiple times in the past three years from both the Society of American Travel Writers and the North American Travel Journalists Association.
How can someone capture the essence of a destination in a still photograph? “There is only so much setting up and technique you can use in travel photos,” Gary said. “You can position yourself, wait for something to be timed just right, but you can’t really set something up like you can in a professional shoot.” His subject matter changes based on the destination but it is that variety rather than specific technical tools that highlight the differences in culture when contrasted against each other. “A few weeks ago I was in Northern Labrador, where I mostly photographed landscapes. Last week I was in the Galapagos Islands and it was mostly wildlife. Last year I was in West Africa and it was mostly people,” Gary said. The way Instagram is set up creates a layout that showcases his photos one after the other in orderly rows. Using this as the medium for his work and allowing his audience to view so many parts of the world side by side amplifies the unique elements of each destination. It is remarkable that Gary’s Instagram allows people to do this all in one place on a handheld device.
As his Instagram handle @everythingeverywhere explains, Gary gives people access to “everything, everywhere,” all neatly organized in one small space. Anyone can use Google to see photos of a country, but Gary’s photographs brings something more personal by giving people intimate access to his journey as it unfolds through his posts. As a “follower” of Gary, I am more invested in his pictures than if I were to look up images in a search engine at random. Despite the fact that Gary does not categorize himself a journalist, I would consider him as one because his work gives me insight into what’s happening in places that I can’t always read about in the newspaper or see on TV.
“I’m not a journalist insofar as my job isn’t to go out and find stories. I write and talk about the things I do and see,” Gary said. Although Gary may not be seeking out stories to report on, his Instagram allows him to do this nonetheless. As he is travelling through different settings and encountering so many new people along the way, he cannot help but reveal stories of the things happening around him with his camera. “An image can inspire or shock. It can inform or entertain,” Gary said. “An image should move you somehow.” Whether or not he intended to be a journalist, his photos contain information about so many diverse cultures and places that it becomes a form of photojournalism, communicating knowledge and emotion that creates a powerful impact.
When I asked Gary how he finds insight into new cultures, he said, “It is just a matter of paying attention and observing. Sometimes it can be the smallest things which stand out and really tell you something about a place.” He tries to capture these details in his close-up shots by filling the frame with them and focusing on patterns that catch his eye. His travel photography has a strong social impact because it gives people the opportunity to see what else is out there, whether they travel themselves or not. The main goal behind his photographs and Instagram: “I just want to share with people what a place is like and hopefully inspire them to go there.”
