On Assignment

By Karin Ronnow Photos Erik Petersen Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan – As the teacher led his ninth-grade students through a Dari lesson one summer morning, everyone...

As the sun sets, a vanguard of boys enters the ceremonial grounds, shouldering large V-shaped objects covered in colourful plastic streamers and bells. They bounce up and down to set a beat while seated onlookers look towards the line of approaching Saisiyat tribespeople. As they begin to flood into the grounds, rocking their bodies as they step in time with the jangling bells, their haunting singing – energetic, but mournful – rises in volume.

The Philippine Archipelago offers its visitors numerous extreme sports in the air, sea and on land: hang-gliding and skydiving, scuba diving and sail boating, sandboarding and dirt bike rides. But the most popular activity in the country is hiking on various levels, promising spectacular scenery and exciting meetings with the local culture.

Utterly enthralled by the enigmatic nature of dramatic thunderstorms, Jacci Ingham, a photographer from Darwin, sets off on a mission to record these beautiful...

In many countries, particularly in the developed world, climate change as a result of man-made pollution exists as little more than a frightening prospect, even while widely acknowledged as an accepted fact, empirically proven by modern science. But in Tondo, northwest of the city of Manila in the Philippines, climate change and rampant pollution are realities that residents live with every day.

It was quite a strange position to be in, to have a streak of nervousness coursing through me when really I had no idea what I was nervous about. I found myself on a plane, and seated beside me was the Nobel Laureate in Medicine, Sir Richard J. Roberts – or Rich as I later know him – and we were headed into the dark zone.

Famagusta, once a flourishing port has since come to pieces – schools and businesses share the space of medieval churches, some intact, others derelict. Turkish soldiers seal the coastline to intruders. The tourists have long gone and even the locals look abroad for opportunities.

A photographer from Darwin sets off on a mission to record the beautiful and frightening spectacle of dramatic thunderstorms in all their glory.