Global Digital Explorer Photographer Jeff Hall infuses his travel photography with context and story
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By Ibarionex R. Perello, Photography by Jeff Hall
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Page 2 of 4
In the 1980s, Hall met a graduate of Cal State Northridge who had
earned a degree in photography. Seeing Halls work, he encouraged him
to pursue it.
We went shopping together and I bought a new camera, a Canon F-1. I
began shooting at that point, mostly to get pictures for my wall.
In 1989, Hall entered the travel business and began taking pictures
during his own travels. The opportunity to visit these locations and
take photographs thrilled him. While many fantasize about leaving their
jobs and traveling around the world taking photographs, Hall had a job
that provided him the opportunity to travel and create images that
others only dream about.
These trips came about as a result of my work with a company called
G.A.P. Adventures, he explains. After I first met with them, I went
to Zimbabwe and Botswana and had a great trip. I came back and started
marketing their products here in the United States, and that began a
long-term relationship. So every year, I get to pick one of their trips
to go on.
The Observant Eye
Halls uses his photography to share his personal experience of the
places he has visited. He shoots with an eye for the all-encompassing
landscape and will follow it up by filling his frame with a telling
detail.
You really cant tell a story and get the essence of a place with a
single wide shot, says Hall. Although there are times when you need
that wide shot, there are details that many others miss. Sometimes its
color, patterns or textures. Im not quite sure what its going to be,
but when I see it, Im attracted to it.
Ive often been accused of looking the wrong way, while theres something big and beautiful right behind me, he adds.
Yet its this attention to detail that helps Hall create images that
stand out. Its his willingness to find an image even under difficult
circumstances that enables him to come away with photographs that
others miss.
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