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Matinee: 'Along These Roads' Share This on LinkedIn   Tweet This   Forward This

30 November 2019

Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?

So we're pleased to present the 320th in our series of Saturday matinees today: Along These Roads.

This 14:32 film follows travel photographer Mitchell Kanashkevich into a desolate landscape as he reflects on the costs of a profession that takes him away from the people he loves. It's an unusual selection, perhaps, for our matinee but on this Thanksgiving weekend, it comes at a very good time.

He introduces the film in the liner notes:

Why are your close ones so far away? Has the road home become your actual home? Are you chasing something or are you running away? What's the price for living your dream? There's no inner peace without the answers. But you never know behind which turn they await.

Usually, travel films are about wowing you with incredible places, faces and moments. But not this film.

I'm Mitchell. I'm a pro travel photographer and I can't live without traveling. I invite you on a journey which I've dreamt about for as long as I can remember. Maybe you've dreamt about it too. There's a catch though. Once you begin, you can never leave. Still want to come along?

The dream he is living is that of a travel photographer. He was, in fact, 2015 Travel Photographer of the Year Winner in the People/Faces category and is a Panasonic Lumix Ambassador.

"I usually find my subjects by chance, while I travel," he writes in his bio. "But, I'm particularly drawn to ancient traditions which are still surviving and evolving. To stories of people working in unique, challenging environments and those who live in close bond with nature."

He got into photography in 2000 shooting everything around him with a Nikon Coolpix 990. In 2005, he decided to make photography more than a hobby. He began traveling and shooting personal projects until eventually things started to pay off.

"I have a philosophy -- In the beginning you work for your images. Once you have enough good images, your images work for you," he writes.

It's not a lucrative path, he warns. It works for him and his family now but he feels the end of the road looming.

Which is where this film comes in.

It's a beautifully rendered meditation on contrasting needs that resolves in the sense that things are always changing so being true to yourself, honest with yourself, will see you through.


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