My journey began in Melbourne, a city I had only skipped in and out of for the odd job here and there. I only knew a handful of good places to eat, this being a very good indication the place was unfamiliar to me. It was important to be in a new setting, because it made me take the beginning of the journey seriously & not rely on friends and family to avoid spending money if I didn’t find a trade. As the primary purpose of the project is to travel around the world without spending a cent, I am aiming to get to at least every continent & many countries on each continent at best. I want to trade with some of the poorest people in the world and some of the richest & observe whether the photographs produced can create a similar value.

I look back at the list that has built up very quickly over the beginning of this project, averaging about 12 trades a months, a lot of work. The trades so far include architects, jewelry designers, weddings, musicians, students, restaurateurs and the list goes on. People in many other professions around the world are contacting me now to set up future trades in even more diverse areas.

The answer that comes to mind is that I do have a lot of creative freedom when approaching each project. Most of the trades go for about 3 days, which gives a nice amount of time to talk about their project and generate ideas based on their philosophies, character and subject. Because my focus is purely photographs and nothing else, I generally find that we can pump out some good ideas fairly quickly and get into shooting and testing out the concepts. Some trades have a clearer picture of what they want, and that works great as well. We often expand on the ideas and away we go. The website is great for this because people see my approach to photographs, and if it’s suited to them, they line up a trade.

What has been the most challenging part of this whole experience?

I think one of the most challenging parts of the project was the beginning. The web programmer hadn’t completed the website on time, and as a result, people didn’t really take the project seriously as I couldn’t point them to my work. I think most people were thinking, “This is some hippy trying to get around the world for free.” Once the site got up and running, the legitimacy of what I was doing built up with it. People realized that having a photographer for a few days, photographing as much as they needed me to and as long as I they needed me for, was a big win for them. People also started seeing that the depth of the photographs were significantly increased by having me there for days rather than just a few hours. So, not only do they get a greater scope of photos, they also don’t pay for it. Most people think I’m getting the raw carrot of the deal, but they don’t realize that the success of this project is what I care about, and people trading with me are the ones that are allowing this to happen.