Wandering with a camera

Wandering with a camera

Since he became a photographer accidentally, the Spanish Jordi Llorens i Estapé has captured the landscapes and colours from 109 countries.

Travel reporter, Jordi Llorens i Estapé is on the phone while I wait for him at the reception of the hotel Corniche, the backpackers’ hotel in Muscat. “No, I do not want to book in a five-star hotel, but the most economical hotel room available in the city of Sur”, says Jordi, who was wearing striped khaki pants, and a short-sleeve shirt. Five-star comforts do not appear in the list of Jordi when he travels from one country to another to capture its culture and its beauty with the camera. “I have slept around the world in places not comfortable at all”. These are the last days of the twelve days’ tour across Oman, and he is trying to visit as many places as possible.

Jordi is not the kind of person who travels with his laptop and cameras with the latest technology. In fact, he has never had a digital camera to date, but he uses a Nikon F-100. “I have been avoiding the digital camera because I think that the digital camera has not still overcome to the slide”, says a man who has never done a photography course. “But yes, I am thinking about getting a digital camera before travelling to my next destination, which might be Madagascar”. It is the passion, before the technology or the technical knowledge, what impulse him to travel, and this explains why he took photos in 109 countries during the last twenty years. For example, in January 2008, Jordi started with a trip to the desert of Libya, followed by a journey to Papua New Guinea, where he documented some of the tribal ceremonies. He continued with a trip to the Solomon Islands, where he stayed in traditional huts, and then, he travelled to Tasmania. Then, he returned to his hometown, Barcelona, and one month later he went to Oman.

Many years ago, what helped him to choose his career was a visit to Africa to see a partner who had known in France. After travelling to Ivory Coast, they both went to Burkina Faso. “My visit coincided with a military coup. I was only 23 years old and this experience caused me a deep impression”, says Jordi. “Someone stole my things, including my first camera”. But he had some photos of this journey and he intended to write a script, narrating his experiences. He made a slideshow for his friends, who did appreciate his effort. The fact of combining his life as a computer engineer—where he was employed at a hospital—it was another coincidence.

The owner of a gallery saw Jordi’s photographs while he was in a shop to frame them, and invited him to exhibit them. The praises that he received during the exhibition, along with the finding of enjoying making travel photos, gave him an impetus to explore new lands every time he has some spare time in his workplace. “In general, I travel from October to February and do other work the rest of the year”, he says. After quitting his job as a computer engineer—“I never liked it”, he confesses—he worked as Director of Volunteers at the Olympic Games in Barcelona during two years, and now he is a Project Manager for Generalitat of Catalonia. But what he loves to do most when he is in Spain is to organize audiovisual presentations about the different countries he has visited in municipalities, educational institutions and cultural centres, making calendars for organizations of Barcelona or writing articles for travel magazines. In addition, he presents a television program about his trips and has written two books, «Around the world in eighty moons», and «Markets of the world». Finally, the last question: what country do you like more? “Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand, Myanmar, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Argentina …”, he says, before adding, “I would like to find a country which had the best of these places”.