The 25 Best Places in the World to Photograph

CULTURE

The documentary and travel photographers we polled are drawn to cultures far-removed from ours both geographically and chronologically. “It’s like going back into the Stone Age culture,” Chris Rainier says of New Guinea. “And that’s pretty cool in the beginning of the 21st century.”

PHOTOGRAPHERS’ FAVORITES

(c) Chris Rainier/chrisrainier.com

1. New Guinea

Chris Rainier -- “You can still find people living totally off the land, knowing nothing of cultures beyond their valleys. That’s one of the reasons I go back again and again. Plus it is visually extraordinary.”

(c) Andrea Pistolesi

2. Sicily, Italy

Andrea Pistolesi -- Pistolesi is drawn to Sicily, “especially during the religious and traditional festivals when the island’s roots — reaching back to the ancient Greeks and the Arabs — influence this deeply Catholic society, making for unique situations for the photographer.”

(c) Carolyn Drake

3. Xinjiang, China

Carolyn Drake -- “The expansion of powerful societies into foreign territories, and the destruction of local populations that get in the way, is a storyline that runs through the entire course of human history.”

(c) Jodi Cobb/National Geographic Stock

4. French Polynesia

Jodi Cobb -- Cobb cites the breathtaking beauty of the islands and the warmth of its people as unforgettable, but also comments on the emptiness as “a stark reminder of the devastation caused by
the early explorers. These islands are haunted, and you will be too.”

(c) Brown W. Cannon III

5. Mongolia

Brown W. Cannon III -- “The challenges are getting to the locations,” says Cannon of shooting in Mongolia. “But the country is full of culture: horse races, camel trekking, Mongolian wrestling, hunting with golden eagles. The only thing I found a shortage of was time.”

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