Profile - Dave Stamboulis
Dave Stamboulis has been pursuing travel and photography
in the remote places in the world for 25 years. Born in Athens, Greece,
Dave grew up in Berkeley, California, and has called Kathmandu, the Japan
Alps, and the Pacific Northwest home before finally 'settling' in his
home-from-the-road base in Bangkok, Thailand. His earlier journeys were
just for the need of exploring different places and ways of life, and to
attempt to quiet an insatiable sense of wanderlust, whereas later trips
became the means of a livelihood, as a photojournalist, and as a way of
sharing the many fabulous stories out there waiting to be told.
From
1992 until 2000, Dave spent 7 years riding a bicycle 45,000 kilometres
around the world, subsequently publishing a book about his travels entitled
Odysseus' Last Stand: The Chronicles of a Bicycle Nomad, which received the
Silver Medal Award from the Society of American Travel Writers in 2006 for
Travel Book of the Year. The journey, which took Dave from the mountains of
Japan, across the Himalayas and Indian Subcontinent, and then across Central
Asia, convinced him that the traditional way of life being lived by millions
of people in the world was at an extreme risk of disappearing, and that it
needed preservation in any form so as not to lose touch with whom we really
are.
Following this, Dave focused his photojournalism efforts on ethnic
minorities and festivals in some of the world's more remote places, visiting
tribal areas in
In addition to cycling, Dave often travels on foot or by kayak, and his adventures have included a short career as an alpine mountaineer. When asked what the secret to taking good photos is, Stamboulis often replies, 'if you go to enough interesting places, put yourself into enough interesting and unusual angles, and take enough photos, eventually a few of them will turn out pretty well.”
Dave's personal website may be found at: http://www.davestamboulis.com