My name is Ben Randall. I was born in Australia, where I studied filmmaking and photography. I've spent seven of the past nine years living and travelling around the world, including three years in Europe, three in Asia, and one in North America. I've won competitions for filmmaking and poetry, and in 2006 I published my first book of travel photography, With All The Sky Between Us. I'm currently based in Lake Louise, in the Canadian Rockies.
This September, five years after my first overland journey through Asia began, I'm launching the Human, Earth Project to go back and find one hundred people I photographed there, to give them their portraits, to learn their stories, and to share their stories with you. The journey is a means of raising awareness for the international issue of human trafficking, a multi-billion dollar industry with tens of millions of victims.
The inspiration for the project is one of my portrait subjects, and the one I'd most like to find: a girl named M, a Hmong friend of mine who was kidnapped from the mountains of northern Vietnam and sold across the border into China.
It will be a journey of twenty thousand kilometres through nine countries, from Indonesia to Nepal. Along the way, I'll share some of my own experiences in Asia, and you'll have the opportunity to get to know the people and places that changed my life, via stories and images I'll be posting online.
The entire project is expected to take six months and is budgeted at US$9,325, for my flight to Asia, travel insurance and basic daily costs, including all transport, accommodation, visas and translation services, as well as the portraits I'll be giving to the people I've photographed, and the rewards for those who contribute to the project.
For those of you who are interested in participating, as a token of my appreciation, I'll be giving away my photographs as signed prints, desktop wallpapers, and more. More importantly, though, is the opportunity to come and share the entire experience online, and let me show you the Asia I've come to know and love.
To see the photographs, and for more information on the journey, myself and M, see the project website at www.humanearth.net.
Budget
Travel costs for 180 days, budgeted at US$25 per day: US$4,500
(This figure covers very basic travel costs, and includes allowance for specialised services such as translation, guides for individualised treks to remote villages, and winter passage through Tibet. There is also the possibility of having to backtrack to find subjects, and purchase additional visas, etc.)
Physical rewards for individual project backers (including photographic prints, postcards and international postage): US$2,000
Airfares (including a one-way flight from North America to Bali, a one-way flight from Sumatra to the Malaysian mainland, and a return flight from Bangkok to Burma): US$1,100
Indiegogo 4% crowdfunding and 3% transaction fees: US$650
One hundred photographic prints, to be given as gifts to the one hundred portrait subjects: US$400
Travel insurance policy for six months (including coverage for laptop and photographic equipment): US$385
One-month tourist visas to Burma, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal and Vietnam, plus a Chinese visa extension: US$290
Total project budget: US$9,325
Rewards
The project rewards are listed on the right hand side of the page.
The stories and images of my search will be available for free to all at www.humanearth.net. Even if you're unable to contribute, you can follow my journey, and if you know anyone else who might be interested in the project, please let them know.
Digital rewards will be delivered in April, and physical rewards will be posted in May. Personalised photographs will be delivered during the journey.
See www.humanearth.net for further information.
