The Wandering Wayfarer

Throughout "The Wandering Wayfarer - Life's Lessons as a Travel Photographer," Paulda takes the viewer on a stunningly beautiful photographic journey across the world while sharing his thoughts with regard to how travel can help one grow. From London to Morocco to Bosnia, New York, Iceland, and everywhere in between Mark Paulda shares his love of travel photography with impeccable photographic skills while his truisms about travel pertain to everyone eager to make a journey of a lifetime. Travel spins us round in more ways than we can imagine, and teaches each of us life’s lessons we can never find in a book. It shows us the sights and values and issues that we might ordinarily ignore; but it also, and more deeply, shows us all the parts of ourselves that might otherwise grow rusty. For in traveling to a truly foreign place, we inevitably travel to flavors, and states of mind and hidden inward passages that we’d otherwise seldom have reason to visit. It is a quick way to keeping our minds mobile and awake. And if travel is like love, it is, in the end, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.

We never want to believe that there is a magical reality, though there are a myriad of magical places in this world. We all too often choose to ignore the wide-open door leading elsewhere, and instead live vicariously through fictional characters beamed onto our televisions. Perhaps the outskirts of town is a foreign land as one gets tangled up in every day life, or maybe even the thought of hopping on a plane today seems like more hassle that it is worth. Instead, we want to live uncomplicated, and simple, lives, staying put. We want to swim in reality, and remain in our “safety zones,” but while swimming through it, we can miss out on so many idyllic landscapes, vibrant cultures, and amazingly beautiful architecure waiting for us to discover. Yes, we do get a glimpse of another world without realizing at times, though there is no real substitute for travel. In fact, no matter how much you have learned in a classroom, there is no better education than experiencing a land beyond our borders first-hand. During my adult life, I have grown tremendously, and have learned to “think internationally” simply by opening my mind while visiting countries foreign to my own. As a travel photographer, I have flown a million miles, trundled step after step, and have clicked the shutter on my camera more times than can be counted. Throughout this book you will view some rather magical places, and this is my reality. One could say — everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned from traveling around this world, and yet, there are still so many lessons to be learned, and so many more corners of this world to discover...

Mark Paulda is not only an observer of life, but also has a passion for traveling to foreign lands challenging that which he is most familiar. Professionally, Mark is an award-winning travel photographer and best-selling author. His first book, “Celebrating El Paso,” sold out of its first printing within three months of its release, and went on to become the fastest selling book for TCU Press. “Edge of the Southwest” is now in production, and Mark’s third book, “London After Hours” is in the works. Additionally, his images have been part of colaborative publications such as Sandy Hill’s “Mountain,” published by Rizolli, David Tucker’s “London Walks,” and Karen Griffith’s “Reflections of Lake Lenore.” Mark Paulda’s photographic career has brought him many accolades including: finalist, 2008/2010/2011 International Travel Photographer of the Year; semi-finalist, Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year; semi-finalist for landscape at the Venice International Photo Awards; and 3rd prize, Prix de la Photographie Paris. His work is represented by the Hal Marcus Gallery, and has been exhibited at the El Paso Museum of Art, the International Exhibition of Fine Art Photography at the Center for Fine Art Photography; the Georgetown Art Hop, and many other venues throughout the world. ©