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The summer of 1966, I hitch-hiked alone for two months all over Europe instead of working on a farm in Spain. It was a big game to see how much I could see on $400. This got me hooked on traveling.

Peter Menzel

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Peter Menzel
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: February 7
Journalist
Photographer
Photojournalist
Writer
Hartford
Connecticut
Much
Months
Hitch
Instead
Hooked
Game
Farm
Alone
Spain
Games
Traveling
Working
Farms
Bigs
Summer
Two
Europe
Hiked

More quotes by Peter Menzel

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Freelancing in Somalia during their civil war and in Kuwait right after the first Bush War, I had some rather intense experiences that made life in the U.S. seem rather shallow and superfluous.
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Europeans still read rather than watching TV or listening to their clergyman tell them how to vote. The European magazines are far superior to American magazines in content and readership, but TV is taking a bite out of circulation now even in Europe.
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Everyone thinks it would be great to work for National Geographic. So did I.
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I like to move as much as possible and look at reflections, weird angles, subjects from airplanes and cranes. I feel sorry for the Jabba the Hut types who can't do this. Once an obese student told me that he wanted to be a war photographer. I said, Really? and then I shot him.
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We live in an idiotic capitalist self-indulgent society where the sex life of a pop star is more important than impending starvation, land mines and child soldiers in Africa, or more interesting than the world's biggest man-made natural disaster in oil fields of the Middle East.
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I fell in love with traveling and thought being a photographer would be an interesting way to travel and make a living.
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With the Internet, you can get lots of info in advance, but a local person who knows how to work the system is invaluable.
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Digital makes it so much easier. No bricks of film, no worrying about airport X-rays, etc.
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I drove a taxi at night during my last year at BU and then for another 18 months after graduating in order to buy cameras and pay the rent while I tried to figure out for myself how to freelance.
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It's important to get a translator who will ask the questions in a sensitive and thoughtful way. Knowing the ethnicity issues, the tribal issues in some places...who your translator is can mean a lot.
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Everyone should understand that getting good photos is paramount to everything. You have to do what it takes and often comfort and sleep are the first casualties of an assignment.
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I've heard Braggadocio about excess baggage charges, multiple unused hotel rooms, and rental cars held unused for long periods of time, which makes me lose respect for certain photographers. Sometimes it's worth it to spend money on a good idea, but wasting money makes me ill.
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I sold all my medium format equipment in 2005 after Canon came out with the 12 megapixel EOS 1Ds.
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Scientists are usually nice, organized, logical people who are very cooperative. I always learn a lot of science while shooting science stories and it helps to be able to speak intelligently to a subject about his or her field of work, i.e., do your homework before the photography.
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Before digital, I spent thirty years shooting color transparencies, which are very unforgiving of exposure. A half stop can make or break a good photo on slide film.
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Having a partner who is your wife traveling with you can be great. We each have our roles in the work and then can help each other out on the emotional front when things get stressful, which they are.
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The fact that a thirteen-year-old project still resonates and can still have a large exhibit with lots of newspaper, magazine and TV press shows the timelessness of the project.
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I don't shoot many corporate or commercial jobs, but when you do, you had better have someone helping who has done it before.
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