The Collected Traveler

Merhaba after a long absence! The four photographs here were taken by freelance photographer Peggy Harrison, who is responsible for all of the photos taken for the books in The Collected Traveler series. Peggy lives in Charlottesville, Virginia so I don't see her often; but when I do see her she's always got her camera with her, ready to take those spontaneous shots that often turn out to be your favorites. (scroll down).....

Peggy says she specializes in portraits, and indeed her images of people are beautiful. I think they also seem to reveal so much about the person being photographed -- Peggy manages to capture a person's entire personality in a single image. But I would not have asked her to be my visual partner in The Collected Traveler if she didn't also photograph destinations equally as well. The photos above were all taken at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, and they are all uncommon views. If you have my book, you've seen some of her work; but since the photos in my book appear in black and white, I like to feature more of Peggy's photos here on my blog -- while I love black and white photos, some pictures just don't translate well in two colors, and a number of Peggy's images deserve to be seen in full color.

Peggy takes the standard shots, of course, but she seeks the more unusual angles, perspectives, and qualities of light than most other photographers. She excels in capturing the essence of a place in her landscapes and citiyscapes, and her portraits of people really do tell thousands of words. Peggy, like me, really cares about poeple, and just as we did years ago for radio listeners and television viewers, we still really like developing stories and meeting the people who make those stories.

I'll be sharing many more of Peggy's great photographs in upcoming posts, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. In the meantime, check out more of her distinctive work at her website, http://www.peggyharrison.com/.