Walter Chang quit his job in 2011 and set off around the world. Three years and 60 countries later he condensed the journey into We Call This Home, a 3-minute-48-second film he posted on YouTube on 28 July 2015, and a photo album that runs from the fiords of New Zealand to the temples of Myanmar, the deserts of Jordan and the highlands of Lesotho.

Travel photograph by Walter Chang from his journey around the world
Photo: Walter Chang

Three years, 60 countries

Chang’s film description sums the trip up in four words: “3 years – 60 countries.” The journey grew far beyond the time he first planned to spend away, and the photographs follow it across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Oceania. Some frames are wide landscapes; many more are about people met along the way, from fishing scenes to children and religious sites. His first-person captions record the encounters behind them.

Milford Sound, New Zealand

One of the album’s calmest images shows Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park, on the south-west coast of New Zealand’s South Island. The fiord runs about 15 kilometres inland from the Tasman Sea, and Mitre Peak rises 1,692 metres straight out of the water. It is also one of the wettest inhabited places in the country with more than 6,400 mm of rain a year.

The sound is part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Area. State Highway 94 reaches it through the 1.2-kilometre Homer Tunnel; Te Anau is 121 km away and Queenstown about 291 km, and between 550,000 and a million people visit every year. Our fjord comparison guide compares it with Doubtful Sound and other great fjords.

Milford Sound mountains reflected beyond a rocky shoreline in Walter Chang’s photograph
Milford Sound mountains reflected beyond a rocky shoreline. Photo: Walter Chang.

From Bagan to Varanasi: the places in the album

The gallery moves through a remarkable range of places:

  • Bagan, Myanmar, the plain of ancient Buddhist temples beside the Irrawaddy.
  • Koh Lanta, Thailand, an island in the Andaman Sea.
  • Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso in West Africa.
  • Vilankulo, Mozambique, a coastal town facing the Bazaruto Archipelago.
  • Semonkong, Lesotho, a highland village in Maseru District at 2,275 metres, whose name means “place of smoke”; the Maletsunyane Falls are close by. Lesotho is an independent kingdom entirely surrounded by South Africa.
  • Petra, Jordan, the rock-cut city of the Nabataeans.
  • Kyoto, Japan, the old imperial capital.
  • Varanasi, India, the holy city on the Ganges.
Travel photograph by Walter Chang from his three-year journey – image 3
Photo: Walter Chang
Travel photograph by Walter Chang from his three-year journey – image 4
Photo: Walter Chang
Travel photograph by Walter Chang from his three-year journey – image 5
Photo: Walter Chang
Travel photograph by Walter Chang from his three-year journey – image 6
Photo: Walter Chang
Travel photograph by Walter Chang from his three-year journey – image 7
Photo: Walter Chang
Travel photograph by Walter Chang from his three-year journey – image 8
Photo: Walter Chang
Travel photograph by Walter Chang from his three-year journey – image 9
Photo: Walter Chang
Walter Chang’s Travel Album – photograph by Walter Chang
Photo: Walter Chang

Watch: We Call This Home

The film, set to “Let’s Go Home” by Carousel in a remix by Sound Remedy, strings together moments from the whole three years.

Lessons for your own travel album

Chang’s pictures work because they mix the big views with small human moments. On your own trips, try picking three photos from each day: one wide view, one detail and one moment involving people or daily life. Ask before you photograph someone, and accept a no gracefully; the conversation is often the better souvenir. Write a line about each picture while you still remember why it mattered.

If you are thinking about a longer journey yourself, our companion guide to planning an extended trip breaks the idea down into manageable decisions, while a five-second diary offers a simple way to record a shorter one. Christian Lindgren’s travel-photography feature is another album worth a look.

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