Using river mud to re-plaster a mosque (Djenne, Mali) ©Timothy Allen
If you want your friends to have a great start to their Friday, please pass this along. Personally, I would’ve done ANYTHING to have had this assignment — a travel photographer’s once-in-a-lifetime ultra dream. In today’s environmental age, where the human element is often lost amidst the issues of global warming and sustainablility, BBC photographer Timothy Allen brings the planet’s bewildering human diversity into sharp focus with this stunning audio slideshow.
“It’s incredible how different we all are,” says Allen. “Yet we all share roughly the same hopes and dreams. We’re essentially looking for a roof over our heads, looking to find a mate in life, feeding ourselves and looking after our offspring.”
Allen visited more than 40 countries as the solo photographer on the project, tracking down and tagging along with film crews in remote locations to capture hundreds of thousands of photographs, of which only a few made the final cut. It’s refreshing to have slides set to a background story of the images, rather than music, as it reveals each image in Allen’s own words, thus pulling us in for a closer, more meaningful look.
Like Allen says, “You can’t help be fascinted by your own species.”
Have fun being human today.
Human Planet Audio Slideshowhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12618167
