Max Pam: Autobiographies

Book excerpt: In this volume, the acclaimed Australian travel photographer Max Pam (born 1949) assembles a personal biography mixing photographs with all kinds of personal documents: facsimiles of notebooks, passports, postcards, letters, comic books and drawings. Pam left Australia at 20, after accepting a job as a photographer assisting an astrophysicist. Together, the pair drove a Volkswagen from Calcutta to London. This adventure proved inspirational, and travel has remained a crucial and continuous link to his creative and personal development. Pam's work in Asian countries has been documented extensively in numerous publications, as have his travels in Europe, Australia and the Indian Ocean Rim cultures including India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Yemen, the United Republic of Tanzania, Mauritius, Madagascar, the Cocos and Christmas Islands. A unique sort of artist's book-collage, Max Pam documents 50 years of work in full-bleed spreads, from portraits and street scenes taken all over the world to more personal and intimate works.