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A site I love to visit to virtually satisfy my wanderlust is The Carey Adventures. Peter West Carey is a terrific photographer. He’s also a dad and world traveler with a love of animals and climbing mountains.
I recently got a chance to ask Peter some questions about a travel photography project he’s undertaking this year. Titled the People, Places & Patterns Project (or just P4 for those hip and in the know) it will be a photographic expedition through Spain, Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania and Nepal from February through May resulting in a photo road show that Peter plans to share in schools, libraries, and community centers. I found his answers revealing not only about the practicalities of family travel (he’s got some great insights about how to make it happen) but also about just what motivates those of us who like to travel with our kids.
Why do you want to take these trips, why now, and why these countries?
These trips sprang from a couple bits of inspiration. Morocco has always been on my mind with my dream being to fly into Spain and boat across. Maybe the idea is a bit romantic, but it also saves about 20,000 frequent flyer miles to land in Europe rather than Africa. There is so much about Morocco I don’t know (and am quickly learning) and that for me has always been a wonderful reason to visit a country.
Nepal is a return trip for me alone. I’m traveling with Matt Fioretti of Four Winds Expeditions. The chance to climb a 20,000′+ peak was very enticing to me. While technical, it is not on par with Everest or K2. Every climber plans on returning home alive! I still hunger for adventure, but because of my daughter Sabrina, I temper it by attempting to stack the odds in my favor. Also, on my last trip I wasn’t as photographically focused as I could have been. I lack photos of the wonderful people who color the country so vibrantly. I want to go back and see what there is to learn for the people as well as the place.
Finally, I’ve wanted to take Sabrina to Africa for a long while, but have been waiting until she’s at an age where, to me, it seems she’d appreciate it more. So I’ve waited and waited and then, about this time last year, my cousin mentioned he’d be spending a year in Tanzania. His family from the USA would travel with him so we’d have a place to stay. The kicker is he’s a pediatrician in Seattle and someone I’d definitely trust my with my daughter’s health. While I don’t anticipate any reason to use his skills while in that area of Africa, it became a good excuse to visit. I also added Africa because my daughter was only a few thousand frequent flyer miles shy of a free trip. A special on purchasing miles at the end of 2009 sealed the deal. Kenya got added to this trip for frequent flyer reasons as well, because flying into Nairobi was much, much easier to fly into, miles wise, than Dar el Salaam in Tanzania.
Where did the idea for this project come from?
After nailing down where I wanted to go, I came to a moral question. Was I really just going on these trips to see and do stuff, again? Sure my daughter would be with me for Africa and this experience will be a huge eye opener for her, I hope. And when I return I plan on presenting some of the pictures to her school so they too can learn a bit about these different places she will surely talk about at recess.
Then, why not spread that idea a bit further? The more I thought about it and batted the idea around with friends, the more I loved the idea of making something of a traveling road show out of the experiences. I know I have the photographic talent and I love seeing that spark in kids’ eyes when they are shown pictures from distant lands. Why not make this all a bit bigger? After all, the motto I have on my business cards reads: EXPLORE-INSPIRE-EDUCATE. Here’s a chance to live up to that ideal.
My latest goal is to make sure I present the images to at least 50 school rooms, 10 libraries and 20 community groups before the end of 2010. I plan to keep this project going for as long as there are interested students, teachers and adults and will be adding to the work with future trips near and far.
Can you talk about how being a parent influences you and what role (if any) it played in making the decision to embark on this project? Is there anything you hope that your daughter is going to learn from what you do?
My role as a parent has made a huge impact on planning these trips (I consider them two different trips as there is a month at home between Africa and Nepal). I mentioned some of my thoughts on climbing in Nepal already. For Africa, I am putting a lot of effort into making sure the trip is kid friendly. I have a close friend who volunteered to go with us to Africa and if were just we two, chaos might abound as I enjoy that type of travel. But I know my daughter likes to know what’s coming up as much as possible. I believe she likes to see an area before we go and she, like most of us, wants some input.
To that end, I’ve been borrowing books like crazy from the library to help introduce the cultures of where we are going. I realize there isn’t a lot to draw a kid to Morocco, as compared to all the classic safari animals in Kenya and Tanzania, so I’m doing what I can to make that part of the trip fun for her. And, honestly, it might include a night or two at a hotel with a pool because she’s like a fish that way. What does she remember about a week spent in Mexico three years ago? The hot tub on the balcony.
I don’t have any specific plans for what I want her to learn. My plan, instead, is to simply open the world before her and let her explore it while remaining close to answer questions. No, this doesn’t mean I’ll push her out the door in Marrakesh and tell her to be back by sundown. But I do firmly believe that children who are exposed to different cultures tend to see the world differently than those who never leave home. They tend to ask more questions and have a different context for which to understand communication and culture.
I also hope it will broaden her horizons about what is possible. When I grew up my dad traveled a lot and we were at the airport every other week it seemed. Then my parents took a few trips abroad for business and brought back toys from Ireland and trinkets from Germany. I believe now somewhere along the way the seed was planted within me that you can, indeed, travel to far off lands if you want to. Although it took me a while to get out of the country, I’ve always had dreams and plans that included learning more about the world outside the borders of my day-to-day life. And now it’s painfully clear I’m trying to transfer some of that wanderlust onto my child. May the brainwashing take.
What is it that you find particularly compelling about the prospect of sharing your photos with children?
I loved looking at the photos in social studies books when I was a kid and I know a lot of children still love that. Now imagine there was someone there, between you and the big screen at the front of the school currently showing a mud-covered baby hippo trailing behind its mother. And that person can tell you exactly what it was like to watch the pair play in the water for 30 minutes before taking the photo. On top of that, imagine being able to ask that speaker any number of questions about hippos or anything else on the screen.
Schools have enough budgeting woes and teachers are often bogged down with resource planning and following district regulations. This means that not many teachers have the time or resources to bring in a professional photographer to speak with kids. I have a number of friends who are teachers but not one of them has asked me to show anything from my trips to their students. But the moment I asked them if I could come in with photos from these trips, all of them said yes and started proposing ways in which I could make it more fun and interesting for their kids. The demand is there and the kids are willing. It just takes someone to say, “This is one thing I know I can do, that doesn’t much for anyone involved, that can make a positive impact on some of the children.”
The presentations will be free to any school, library or community group that requests it, assuming that I can find a cost-effective means of getting to the location. I’ll be starting with the Puget Sound region of Washington because that is where I live. But I’ve already received requests from Utah, Oregon, and California and have started planning trips.
If you’re as impressed by Peter’s attitude and excitement as I am and would like to help him out, he’s accepting donations until February 16, 2010 at his People, Places & Patterns Project website. Contribute at least $30 and he’ll give you a 5×7″ signed, custom-printed photo from his trip. The money raised will be used to fund both the trips and the ensuing road show.
All photos courtesy of Peter West Carey.
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Great interview and great insights! Good luck on your project, Peter. I’m looking forward to reading more about your trips.
Great idea for a trip and a project!
FYI – daily ferries run from Malaga in Spain to Tangier – very easy.
To Peter, I love how you are bringing your kids into traveling… at their own speed and including the things they will enjoy doing. I’m sure that will help keep them grounded and make the trip really enjoyable. (I remember things I wanted travelling as a teenager are much different than what I look for as I travel as an adult. Its great that you are planning for those differences.)
To Mara, thank you for bringing in interviews into your posts. Getting insights (and ideas) from other travelers is kind of like exploring a new country. (well sort of like that.) You know, seeing how other people look at things.