During my recent tour of Asia, whilst eager to photograph new unfamiliar surroundings and experiences, I started to have a niggling voice in my head asking the question “why are you taking this photo?”. Further, what was I trying to capture through my lens and what was my motive behind the shot?

For those shots that show the beauty of the landscape this is an easier question to answer.  But, when walking through a village in Laos on the shores of the Mekong river, it was all too easy to point the lens at villagers and their children and shoot away, albeit checking with them first that it was ok to do so.  Now, to me, these village scenes are ones that I seldom see and, coming from the other side of our planet, these sights are one that I wanted to capture to aid my fading memory in the future and to show friends and family back home.

Villagers shelter from the rain in Northern Laos

But let’s put this into perspective. I’m not capturing some long lost tribe and revealing them to the world via a Sunday newspaper magazine supplement or for Nat Geo.  This is an ordinary riverside village complete with wooden houses and 21st century satellite dishes. Do I, and perhaps “we”, find these images interesting because there’s an underlying innocence of a life now lost to developed nations, or perhaps because I harbour an underlying guilt about the imbalance between so-called rich nations and developing ones? Or maybe I just like the shot for the colour and texture.

How would I react if, when opening my front door at home, I was snapped away at by some tourist from a far off land who found my living standards somewhat different from theirs?

Perhaps the answer to this is even more straightforward: 1. Ask yourself “Why?” 2. Take a photo.

I’d be interested to know what others think.

Bertie