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World Photography Day 2020

Today is World Photography Day. So we're celebrating my passion, and that's not a small thing, since it changed me and added so much to my life: I met people that I wouldn't otherwise; I've been in harms way more times than I've told anyone; I've witnessed rare moments that are imprinted in my mind more than they are on paper.

I take photographs not because I want to be known, or because I want to show off where I've been, or even because I want to be featured on a cover. That's not how you treat a passion. A passion is something that transcends you and thrives in a non orthogonal space or time. I photograph solely because of personal reasons: I'm infinitely curious; I need to learn, to feel, to experience, to understand. What is happiness? All in all, how can we be truly happy? How can we be a better human being? Furthermore, I'd love to time travel, but I can't. Or can I? Being in remote places and volcanic regions has been my time machine. As is when I'm living with a tribe or alongside a fisherman in a foresaken mystical lake. They allow me to recapture the almost forgotten knowledge. And a photo IS knowledge. And that's the most precious asset we all have. That's what brought us here. That and, guess what, curiosity and passion! And that's photography, at least for me. It's my blood, heart and brains. It's oxygen and warmth. It's rythm and emotion. It's struggle and overcoming. it's me. It's actually so immense that it's bigger than me. But all this would not be possible without those that I'm also passionate about and who keep feeding this burning fire. A big thank you to my family especially my dear mother, Anna Meyer. Also lot's of love to my beautiful and loving wife, Dandi Meyer and to my awesome children Dener, Demi & Daneim who stand by me with all my crazy adventures!

All my friends over the years, especially one, who we are all thinking of right now, after having a terrible paragliding accident a few days ago and is facing the long road to recovery. Andrew Smith, having introduced me to digital photography by selling me a small Kodak camera a couple of years ago, made the transission from the old conventional photography to the new digital era possible. We wish you all the best!

This photograph of an incredible experience was captured in Ethiopia. Erta Ale is a continuously active basaltic shield volcano in the Afar Region of northeastern Ethiopia and is probably one of my most otherwordly encounters ever, almost as if mother earth was trying to tell me something with it's continuous rumbling and roaring.