iSyndica

Travel across Southeast Asia through the "Eyes" of Dominique Trempont in his first self-published photography book. We sat down with Dominique, a silicon valley veteran and passionate photographer, to hear the story behind this wonderful creation.

Tell us a bit about your book?

This book represents about 5 years of discovering people, nature, villages and towns in South East Asia and India: the Bay of Bengal to the Himalayas, Cambodia, Java and Bali.

When I take pictures of people, I try very much not to steal the images away and tend to establish a rapport, a complicity. I almost always show people the pictures I took. It changes the relationship and generates goodwill. This is particularly important with very poor people, living in remote villages, living with $1 a day for the whole family.

For me, this is all about decency and respect. And I am in awe at the generosity, mutual support, joy and happiness of people who have nothing in our Western world definition, and yet have so much that is so lacking in our part of the world. People who read the book tell me that, even though there are few words, there is a tone that gets set: a contemplation, almost of meditation. Hindsight, this is the effect that these pictures have on me and the very streamlined style of the book I produced.

What was your inspiration for creating this book?

Eileen Gittins, founder CEO of Blurb, was a guest speaker in my INSEAD class "Building Businesses in Silicon Valley". She dared the class to publish a book. I took her up. I had no idea what it took to conceive of a book: it was a fun, creative and introspective work, with an outstanding quality result. I am hooked and will publish more.

What camera did you use for the shots?

I bought one of the first Canon 5D Mark 2 and experimented, for the last 6 images, with a very low light lens (Canon 80mm f1.2). These big sensor cameras are truly a big step up in enabling a new type of photography. I experimented with amazing new capabilities and creative flexibility in depth of field definition, shutter speed, exposure, light and shadow. In the last images of the book, I took pictures of a Balinese tribe dancing in the night: it was pitch black with some small fires. I could hardly see anything. When I discovered the pictures, I saw what my eyes did not get to see but what my new camera did. You be the judge of the pictures.

Can you share with us how you created the book?

I downloaded the Blurb publishing software. It is fairly easy to master: text placement, image resolution, etc. There are some specific details that one needs to get used to: for example, Blurb shows the potential trimmed area and I initially did not notice it. Blurb does a good job of making fairly intuitive a sophisticated editing and publishing  process. After an hour or two, I was capable to come up with professional looking results.

You can purchase "Eyes" on Blurb.com