With 30 years of experience and 108 photojournalistic books to his name, renowned photographer Michael Freeman still calls himself a 'late developer'.
After all, his foray into photography was anything but predictable. He graduated in the late 1960s with a geography degree from Oxford and held an advertising job for seven years.
It was on a three-month sabbatical trip up the Amazon, armed with a second-hand camera, that a young Freeman found his calling behind the lens. He sold his photographs to publisher Time-Life.
He says: 'Up till that time, I hadn't really considered photography as a career.'
The London-based 64-year-old, who is married with no children, was in town over the weekend for a promotional shoot for Sony, which he endorses.
He spoke to Life! about his works and what he thinks of travel, which he does seven months a year.
A frequent visitor here, he spends most of his time visiting old friends. Singapore serves as a stopover for other regional destinations.
His works are published in major international magazines such as the Smithsonian, Conde Nast Traveler and The Sunday Times magazine.
He has also written over 40 books on photography and has been commended by the French Ministry of Culture for his efforts. Back in the UK, he develops courses for the Open College of the Arts photography programmes.
One of his recent and most critically acclaimed works is titled Sudan - The Land And The People, which carries a foreword written by former United States president Jimmy Carter. In it, Freeman captures, through images and text, the lives and culture of natives in a conflict-torn African country.
Freeman recalls: 'I did this with two friends of mine. We wanted to give a fuller picture of the country, not just a simple one-dimensional portrayal.'
He adds that they could not find publishers to finance the 21/2-year project: 'We raised our own money, and in the end, the publishers took to it and it sold very well - all 18,000 copies. I'm very happy with it.'
Despite spending so much time on the road, he says: 'I won't say that I do travel photography. I travel to photograph. Travel photography is: This is what this place looks like.
'My books have to tell a story. When you travel so much, it means you have to engage with people of all levels of society and culture, and you can't help but get a better idea of mankind.'
Asked about what he thinks of mainstream travel nowadays, he says: 'I don't know if tourism travel improves anyone's view of anything. You go away for two weeks and you carry your demands, tastes and prejudices with you.
'You go to resorts, which are usually designed to cater to what you want. A lot of travelling isn't really travelling, just going to somewhere else.'
He hopes his works help showcase other dimensions of travel and life around the world and says that every project is an eye-opener for him.
He is currently working on a book documenting the historic tea-horse trade route in the Yunnan Tibet region. He adds: 'I'm in no hurry to complete it because it's a fascinating story and journey.'
With a laugh, he says: 'I discovered I know nothing about tea even though I'm a Brit.
'I tell people in China: We do it too - we do it at four in the afternoon with milk, sugar, cucumber sandwiches and sometimes scones.'
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
