Photojournalism

My fantastic trips and photojournalism journey in Southeast Asia ended-up as a super start into professional photography.

Julien Thomas

Photojournalism is Julien’s first passion in photography, and when he started this subject he was anything but a photographer. Photography was just to take photo souvenirs of his trips and beloved adventures (as we all do during our holidays).

His remarkable photojournalism journey started in 2010 when he first came to Southeast Asia. When arriving, Julien already had 10 years of traveling experiences. He definitely arrived here as a seasoned traveler.

This new continent has been amazing to him, related to off-the-beaten-track travels and adventures he was only looking for. His interests were all about freedom, to seek for real adventures, immerse himself in remote villages, encounter authentic ways of life, visit heritage sites and wild camping.

Experiencing Asia like backpackers do? NO, his 10 years of on-going travel experiences were nothing like that.

Julien came a few times to travel (in his own way) in Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, and some of his days turned out to be pure travel experiences. 
His photojournalism shots; his humble photo souvenirs are all about candid and documentary photography showing slight reflections of some of those great times in the remote areas Julien steeped in.

Note that Julien spent more than 1 year in total wild camping during this journey!!!

Freedom

Coming for the first time in Asia and traveling by tourist transports? NO.

Freedom and being autonomous were non-negotiable conditions for the seasoned traveler that Julien was.
Traveling here was all about to have his own vehicle, paper maps, compass, tent and a camera.

This independence and lifestyle were, and still are, Julien’s passion to travel and adventure.

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Heritage & People

The leg of his trips was focused on the discovery of world heritage sites and any aspects related to ways of life in remote countrysides.

Between julien’s point A to B to visit, there might be 90kms, so he was driving these 90kms in a few days or weeks! It only depends whether deciding to turn left or right on a dirt road crossing, if he came to spend a few days with people inviting him to their home, if his moto broke down, etc.
Anyway, travelers supposedly always knows where they are going – all roads lead to Rome.

Wild Camping

No tourist accommodation in the countryside? Great, let’s camp!

For his first trip here, Julien was sleeping in pagodas at nights. He slept in many, many of them.

Along his next trips in these countries, he came to stay more often in people’ houses for the nights, to camp in welcoming hamlets, and wild camping in his 100k stars hotel/tent where ever he felt like it.

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Photo Gallery

Local Life Landscape Heritage Black & White Flashback! All

Photo Exhibitions

During those years, Julien never expected some of his photos to turn into great photojournalism shots.

After finishing some of his trips, he sometimes came back home/France and started doing photo exhibitions in cinema halls, restaurants, bars and music festivals.

2014 was a great step for him in travel and photography.
At that time he joined as a speaker the largest traveler’s event in France, and also ended up to win first prize the event’ photo contest!! Other than this contest was his very first one, he found really interesting that one of his humble souvenir photos made a buzz! 🥇

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Between Travels and Adventures

Julien is completely fine to say that he was always looking for to travel to places where tourists don’t go.

During those amazing trips, his daily concerns had nothing to do with those of a backpacker or an expat living in Asia. Looking for a wild camping spot because night is coming, has nothing to compare with looking for a bar for yourself and friends, or what to do for the weekend, or Facebook recommendations to “where to eat the best steak in town”, etc.!

The language barrier was also real during his travels and adventures, and he always enjoyed it. Did he speak the languages of the countries where he went? Barely some survival words! Do people in countrysides speak English? Not at all!

In fact, this language barrier was making his travel experiences extremely authentic with everyone Julien was encountering: who’s the first person steeping forward to meet him, attention to eye contact and facial expressions, who is the chief of the hamlet, who looks curious or very scared about him, etc. All of those aspects and more are/were crucial to take in consideration to have best experiences among all the people he encountered.
Living such situations during months and months turned out to be incredibly rich in terms of human experiences.

Do the people Julien’s crossed and taken photos of, even the kids, had ever encountered a westerner before him? Probably not for most of them.
So yes, taking photojournalism shots wasn’t the goal of his trips. They were/are firstly the humble souvenirs of his beloved traveling experiences in this new continent.

Visit Julien's first website/blog www.bluesky-travel.fr to know more about his travels and photojournalism journey.

— “That would be very useful to them if they were to travel some day. Sometimes, “he added,” there is no harm in putting off a piece of work until another day.”

—The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint Exupéry