I first arrived in Asia in 1986 on a one-way ticket, a little money in my pocket and a desire for adventure to spur me on. 35 years later, I’m still here.

Fuelled by a healthy dose of curiosity I traversed the continent for decades, documenting my encounters on film and memory cards, leaving behind a record of printed material: magazine articles, postcards, calendars and books.

The collection I present here draws from all those stories I reported and roads I traveled and centers around four words that, for me, collectively describe the essence of life in Asia. Work, Play, Eat & Pray.

These four verbs, in their glorious and abundant variety, saturate all aspects of life in Asia; the necessary, the joyful, the nourishing and the solemn. Time and again they draw me back to the road and the desire to document life with all its vicissitudes, and by doing so hopefully bring me and the viewers closer to the understanding of what it is to be human. 

Live a Life of Wonder!

Hans Kemp.


WORK PLAY EAT & PRAY

Salt fields near Phan Rang, Vietnam.
I was looking for a good angle to photograph the salt harvest along Vietnam’s coast. I had seen many conventional images and felt that the subject required a more dramatic point of view.  So I climbed the mountain of salt and positioned myself directly below the workers as they emptied basket after basket of salt.  I had to shake the salt out of my clothes afterwards but the final image was well worth it.

WPEP #002 Salt of the Sea

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