Thank you for visiting my blog with pictures of the person behind my:
“Kalle Pieper Fine Art Photography”.
After starting out traveling for long periods up to 10 month at a time, I realized that about 2 month at a time once a year, seems to be the best pace for me. When I travel, I travel to visit people, people that live a relative traditional life without all the noise, chatter and distractions of the fast paced modern technology driven lifestyle.
I find that People that do not have roads to transport modern products, and people that do not use electricity that interferes with the rhythm of their natural cycle of the day, or watch TV that interferes with their natural self-awareness and sense of awe, and their sense of the world in general are most rewarding to visit.
When I visit with people in traditional cultures, I get to experience myself in the conditions that shaped human existence for thousands of years before the onset of the industrial revolution and now the onset of the internet age. I get to experience myself in the environment that my body and mind evolved into over thousands of years. Observing myself interacting in any traditional culture, allows me to see myself more clearly, stripping away most of the clutter, chatter and noise that intrudes our sense of self when we are immersed in our present life style.
I feel that I gain great clarity about life and myself. And because I travel back and forth between what is very similar to our past culture and the modern world, and to different continents, I also gain a clear awareness of my relation to other people that share our present time on our planet, in all their diverse states of self awareness.
It has been a great blessing for me to live in a time window where a person with relative modest means like myself, can travel to almost any place on the planet, as long as I put my mind to it and am willing to face the risks and pay the consequences this decision creates on my financial security, health, relationships at home, etc.
I say time window, because every year it is getting harder to find and meet people that still live and practice a culture that is built around the more basic human needs for food security, health and emotional interdependences.
I have met many people over the years that were still traditional at our first encounter and changed dramatically within only 3 or 10 years.
Just like the people I meet change my awareness, I know that my visit also changes the awareness of the people that get to know me………………………
Unfortunately I witnessed US Mormons, and Jehovah Witnesses in Papua New Guinea saw seeds of war after splitting up a village in two fractions and overwhelming the locals with their extremist fundamentalist views. Just as I witnessed Wahhabi Islamic schools funded by Saudi Arabian religious extremist fundamentalist turning open minded West African Muslims that have been practicing a blend of African Religions with Islam that was imported in the 13th and 14th century upside down.
The other major drive for change are international mining or oil companies that like to get the local people out of their way, so that they can extract the treasures of the earth to fuel our endless appetite for consumer products.
I consider myself very honored to be able to have personally gotten to know the many people that have invited me into their lives and their homes. I am happy that I was able to photograph many of them and to give them Polaroid pictures, which are a big hit with people under any circumstances.
I hope to find the time and resources to publish the stories and photos of the people and my many encounters with them some day, before me too will disappear, for everything is forever changing ….. and this awareness makes the moment even more beautiful and precious, too precious to not be aware and present during the true awesome miracle that we call life and just is now….. right now…. Our mind in our body, experiencing and witnessing the presence.
I hope you will enjoy the pictures, thank you for visiting my Blog.
My Greetings to you,
Peace,
Kalle Pieper