Worldcrunch
The region I hail from in eastern France is a Lutheran Protestant enclave in a predominantly Catholic country. But the churches in my neck of the woods are considerably more subdued than Reykjavik’s Lutheran Hallgrímskirkja in Iceland. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
These rows of red chilies, drying by the side of a road in northern India, bring back culinary memories of a painful kind. My French stomach, unaccustomed to eating spicy food, definitely had a hard time appreciating some of the country’s delicacies … See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Ghardaïa is famous for its carpets. At the marketplace, there weren’t any women — but there were plenty of fabrics in this corner of M’zab in Algeria. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Ready for take off and marveling at the Andes in the distance, I took stock of the things I was lucky enough to see during my trip to Peru: from the heights of Machu Picchu to Lake Titicaca and its islands made of reed, to the incredible geoglyphs of the Nazca Desert and of course […]
The Hornberger Uhrenspiele, in Germany’s scenic Black Forest, holds the record for biggest cuckoo clock in the world. My wife and I got to see it just a month after its inauguration, and watched the house-size clock’s wooden characters come to life to the tune of traditional German melodies. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s […]
The half-timbered Feathers Hotel in Ludlow, western England, is a gem of Tudor architecture. Strangely enough, when I took this picture, all I could think of was the time it must take to clean the inn’s dozens of diamond-paneled windows … See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
It is cold in the Lofoten islands of Norway, even in the summer. Not so cold that the fish freezes — just cold enough that salted cod can dry on racks in the sun and wind without rotting. The resulting delicacy, klippfisk, is pretty darn good. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Behold this mighty Kinnari statue, half-human and half-bird, keeping an eye on Bangkok“s holy Wat Phra Kaew temple. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Taking a break from visiting Salt Lake City“s landmarks (including the Salt Lake Temple you can see in the background of this picture), we enjoyed a nice walk in the lush gardens at Temple Square. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
After a work-related accident that progressively made him blind, Vladir da Silva discovered an unlikely skill and passion taking pictures that relies on other senses. He tells his story.
Brazil is a major banana-producing country. In Belem, the gateway to the River Amazon in the north of the country, these dock workers were unloading the day’s cargo destined for city markets. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Among the ruins of one of the world’s oldest surviving Byzantine churches, about 30 kilometers northwest of Aleppo, stand the remains of the pillar of Saint Simeon Stylites. The fifth-century ascetic monk is said to have lived 37 years as a hermit, perched on a platform at the top of a column. More than 1,500 […]
There are several such typical watering holes and fountains along the winding roads of Corsica. They come in handy when your daughter is thirsty. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
During the Tito-era of communist rule in then-Yugoslavia, agricultural workers gathered every morning, tools in hand, and waited for someone to hire them for the day.
This was the end of the road for us: Driving with my family from France in our Peugeot 404, our goal was to go as far north as possible, by way of Denmark and Sweden. What I didn’t know was that back then, about 100 kilometers north of the Norwegian capital Oslo, roads were in […]
We traveled to the historical Spanish region known as Old Castile to soak in some of its timeless quiet for a night in the only hotel of a small village. A pack of howling stray dogs decided otherwise … See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies varies widely in elevation, climate, and plant life, making it the perfect place to catch (from a respectable distance) an incredible diversity of wildlife in their natural habitat. That was one grouchy-looking bighorn sheep. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
Of the many vendors at the numerous markets I’ve visited through the years, the women selling herbs in Jakarta were probably the ones with the biggest smiles. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
This was beyond a cross-country summer trip. From my hometown in eastern France, I had to drive across the whole country, heading for Britanny. I then carried on westward to the Finistère department. Then hopped on a boat for about an hour and voilà: I got to the small and picturesque island of Ouessant (Ushant), […]
Navigating the khlong canals of Bangkok is quite a different experience from being on a Venetian gondola. No rowing oars here, but the famous longtail engine – basically a car engine attached to a propeller. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
This traditional blacksmith, in the open-air museum of Village Historique Acadien in Canada’s New Brunswick province, brought back memories of my hometown. I grew up — and still live — near one of the oldest forges in France.
These young Syrians in the western city of Homs paused from playing a mock game of war to look my way for a photograph. Current Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, whose father had taken power two years earlier in Damascus, was about the same age as these kids. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Little penitent during a Palm Sunday procession in Andalusia, southern Spain.
There is more to folk dancing than the famous “Dragon Dance” … Feather Fan Dance, Ribbon Dance, Sword Dance — my wife and I spent an evening enjoying them all. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
In Greece, everywhere you go and everything you see can easily take on a mythological aura. When you’re well-versed in the ancient Greek texts — as a high school philosophy teacher like me was bound to be — a seemingly mundane pier like this might actually seem to be the mooring for Charon’s boat, carrying […]
As you may remember, I used to conduct a traditional French music choir in my hometown. This shot was from a memorable trip abroad, to Wales, where we’d been invited to the famed Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod folk festival. The tall and handsome man signing autographs like a celebrity was not only a strong tenor […]
Ten years had passed since the dissolution of the Soviet Union when my wife and I returned to Russia. The people were clearly hooked on the newfound entrepreneurial freedom, big and small scale alike. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Legendary 18th-century Scottish economist Adam Smith is buried at the Canongate Kirkyard in Edinburgh, in the shadow of the iconic cliffs of Salisbury Crags. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
When the famous pelicans of Mykonos get tired of all the attention, do they take a break and fly down to the calmer shores of Cyprus? See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Glimpsing through the crack of the imposing brass doors was as much as we were going to see of the Royal Palace of Fes: Visitors are (still) unfortunately not allowed in. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Starting in spring, to protect passersby from the heat, Seville deploys its sails-like awnings along the calle Sierpes, the city’s main commercial street. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
I’m an analog kind of photographer: I started taking pictures in the 1950s, when film was still somewhat expensive — meaning that even though I now own a digital camera, I’ve never really gotten used to taking lots of shots of the same subject. But some of the world’s wonders, like the Taj Mahal, are […]
Pete Souza has worked for the Chicago Tribune, Life and National Geographic. He’s covered the war in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks and the beginning of Barack Obama’s Senate career. He’s been the White House’s official photographer twice, for Ronald Reagan and for Barack Obama. At 62, Souza is always ready for another shot. But […]
On the northwestern coast of Wales, my wife Claudine was pacing the ramparts of Harlech Castle, looking out toward the peaceful Welsh countryside. Some 700 years ago, watchmen walking the same path would have been looking at the sea, which has since retreated. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
The sap harvested from these Pará rubber trees on the Indonesian island of Java coagulates in the yellow collection cups, and voilà, here’s your rubber latex. Or as we say in France, caoutchouc ! See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
The Spanish island of Ibiza is not reserved for beach-goers and party animals only. It’s also rich with nice villages and seaside resorts with old olive trees like this one. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Sunda Kelapa, the old port of Jakarta, was the perfect place to snap some portraits of Indonesian stevedores at work. Balance is everything. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
Like elsewhere in Syria’s largest city, parts of the Great Mosque of Aleppo, where this man was praying peacefully more than 20 years ago, have since been destroyed.
For a fistful of dollars (actually, pesetas), I was able to visit Tabernas and its movie sets that were used in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns in the 1960s. Cue some chords from Ennio Morricone …
Timgad, in the Aurès Mountains of Algeria, is sometimes nicknamed “the Pompeii of Africa.” The Roman grid plan of this city, where my wife and daughter were walking, is remarkably well preserved.