Wanderlust: Two visions shared

Geir & Kate Jordahl

Wanderlust has been a vital aspect of our lives as long as we can remember. Our images are the physical manifestations of our need to be in motion. Like the points in geometry that define the line, our photographs are the frozen moments that define the journey and, thus, our lives. We have been wandering together in life for the past 21 years and whether the individual trip is as a couple or a single, our togetherness is essential to our creativity. We work together in the field, in the darkroom and in the finishing room to create our photographs and to realize our vision of the world and life.

Some people are called to travel as others are called to vocations. We are two who hear the sirens call. To enter an airport, is to long to get on a plane. The destination is almost secondary. The goal is to go; to reach that state of "being a traveler." In that state, we are no longer defined by our nationality. We are citizens of a different community; we have more in common with our fellow travelers than our friends at home. The bus, train, car, plane, all transport us. The movement unites us. Spatial movement is a powerful means of clearing the mind and seeing more fully. It is a reminder of the importance of change and how the flux of life is a natural state of affairs. As we move, we become observers, participants but never natives in another place's customs. We strive to blend without melding.

Wandering is more than a passion. It is an impulse that, if ignored, escalates into a desperate need. Like a drug addict in need of a fix, we as wanderers must get out, get away, see something new, break out of the molds of ordinary life. Only then can our addiction be satisfied. And only then can the need to wander be staved off for a period. However, unlike the tourist, we cannot just get away for the weekend to satisfy our craving. Our circle of familiarity is too large and, besides, we are not going away to sit by the pool and rest our overworked bodies and minds. We rather seek the challenges of spirit and mind. We search for the first time experience because only then can we temporarily quench our wanderlust.

It is important to distinguish between tourists and travelers. It is more than the time devoted to travel or the destinations chosen. The true difference is on another level. The tourist brings his home with him in his heart and head as much as in his possessions. Travelers are home wherever their heart and head lead them. We are travelers.

We are travelers with cameras. Our cameras fuel our travels as much as our travels fuel our photography. Our photographs are artifacts, not memories, reportage or depictions. Our photographs become spiritual equivalents of experience.

As we pack up and unpack, our lives are distilled to the essentials. When the distractions are eliminated, we can truly concentrate on photographing. We capture in our photographs the moment when our cameras, the land, the place, ourselves are all one. It is the place we experienced although it is certainly not the place you would find if you attempted to reconstruct our journey. It is the coming together of our lives, our visions, our journey and the land onto the film.

We are photographers because the photographer is truly the definitive modern explorer. In a world where almost everything has been discovered, a photographer can still be an adventurer, explorer and archeologist. Our own vision is our discovery; our photographs are our proof. Making images becomes the vehicle to justify the need for adventure and the excitement of discovery that has obsessed us all of our lives.

Much as the photography fuels our travel, the travel certainly informs and changes our photography. While some photographers return again and again to the same area to photograph, for us the expressive power of original seeing is most often captured in our first encounter with a place.

The wanderer/traveler/photographer desires always to get away, see new things, break out of the molds of ordinary life in order to create and satisfy his travel addiction. We as wanderers are one with our wandering cameras for the cameras are what makes us complete as explorers/archeologists/geologists and the like. It is the camera that allows us to bring back artifacts, the only permissible manner of collection in contemporary culture.

Geir & Kate Jordahl

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@2004, Geir & Kate Jordahl