“We are all of us pilgrims that struggle along different paths towards the same destination.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Years ago, I wandered the streets and back alleys of Varanasi, not sure where I had landed and not really old enough to process it all. I warn people not to go there on their first trip to India- it’s too raw, too intense. Having turned fifty, I feel ready to...

Video by Rachel Schwarz I've always loved the depths of indigo vats in India, with their metallic glimmer. On one excursion, I learned about Dabu rug printing, a hand block printing process that uses a clay resist, which dries on the rugs in the sun.  Once the clay is dry, the rugs are dipped into the natural indigo vat. I met a jolly indigo vat wallah outside of Jaipur, named Ram, and his...

One does not travel any more than one falls in love, to collect material. It is simply part of one's life. - Evelyn Waugh   My Kenyan safari starts in Nairobi. Don’t miss the house of Karen Blixen of “Out of Africa” fame, a modest bungalow surrounded by unruly gardens. Some of the clothes worn in the movie are on display and will help you get into the spirit of...

“No refusal” is written on all the egg yolk-colored cabs of Kolkata, a pledge sometimes kept by the cabdrivers, but always fulfilled by the city itself. From the first time I had a chance to wander the decaying colonial city, Kolkata's been a mysterious yet open city for me, its wide sidewalks like something out of Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities.” I’ve always wanted to come back to dig deeper, not...

This season I went down to Mysore via Bangalore with my trusted travel companion Gavin, a local expat and professional collector. Just as we were heading down South from Delhi we learned the two states we were travelling through were having water disputes; roads were shut down, trucks were being set on fire. In India one never knows how bad these situations really are—there is always something going on—so we...

Portugal, just a quick jump from New York City, has the same cracking glaze of history as Italy but the shorter distances between regions makes it easier to see more in less time. Fly into Lisbon and take it all in: eat, hunt and see all of the quirky museums. I stayed at the York House, a boutique hotel on the cobblestone streets of Alfama. A block away is the...

   "Better the spear that missed an elephant than the arrow that killed a hare." - Indian proverb Gavin, my pal in Delhi, tells me about a remote town in the deep South of India with rows and rows of antique shops filled with castoffs of wealthy Indian merchants. I am always on the hunt for new ideas and old markets and I jump at the chance to tag along...

I’ve just returned from Leh, the Indian town on a perfectly blue, high-altitude desert bordering China and Pakistan. Set at the crossroads of the Punjab and central Asia, Kashmir and Tibet, it was once the hub of 17th century caravan trade. I warn you there is a lot to do here, so plan your trip with a generous amount of time. I wish I had. I was there shooting so...

Thailand and I go way back… 20 years, in fact. I was a recent art-school graduate trekking across India in search of block printing workshops, and frankly, I was worn out. I flew to Bangkok for a break, showed up at an art opening for Julian Schnabel, and somehow emerged from that party with a job working for a Thai who was developing what can only be summarized as the...

…Whereas, Pepper has nothing in it to that can plead as a recommendation… its only desirable quality being a certain pungency; and yet it is for this that we import it all the way from India! - Pliny The Elder, 77 CE I am always searching for pungency, and Cochin Fort seemed like the perfect place to explore. Tucked in a corner of the state of Kerala, Cochin was once...