Chris Traill
Chris Traill
Zen Kingdom
PhotoForum Member Portfolio, November 2020
To me the essence of Zen (and Buddhism) is simplicity. To celebrate intuition, embrace and enjoy a tranquil, peaceful and meditative place without the distractions of modernism and/or a trained logic, thus achieving spiritual awareness.
In this carefully curated collection of imagery, shot in 2019, I portray a part of the world that consumed, captivated and seduced me. A place, where Zen is ever present, Southeast Asia.
A four week long journey with a long time friend, my camera, took me to Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Having been a professional photographer in Auckland, New Zealand for the past 30 years, I had arrived at a point on my journey where I was ready to explore and capture something new to me and a very different culture and world from my own.
This trip, even though challenging and hectic, was also strangely peaceful. I came to a realisation that I am clearly in my happy place among chaos, camera in hand, lost in other peoples' worlds.
For me the process of taking photographs and how it engages me, is the ultimate way to appreciate where I am and what I'm experiencing and feeling.
Photography as the vehicle gives me connection and purpose. It also allows engagement and encounters with places and people I otherwise would probably never had had. It's all I've ever known. It's life itself.
I consciously tried to avoid cliches and not be the typical travelling happy snapper with a limited tourist gaze. My intention with the sepia toning and vignetting of these photographs, as we might have seen in photography the past, was to peel away the colourful modern layers and arrive at a quieter place that was more pure and simple. Timeless, with orderly calm. Zen.