John Stanmeyer

@johnstanmeyer

NatGeo Photographer | Filmmaker | Field Recordist | Writer | Storyteller ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Listen to episode 57, Beyond The Lens:
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Recently, while in Indonesia, I had a lovely chat with Richard Bernabe @bernabephoto for his podcast, Beyond The Lens. Richard asked various questions, which, as in photography and life, have no answers. The outcome of our discussions is a unique journey within and beyond photography. The link to this podcast is in my Instagram bio. I am grateful that our talk from a garden in Bali was included with many National Geographic colleagues on his esteemed podcast series. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #podcast #BeyondTheLens #RichardBernabe #photography #life #coffee
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2 days ago
Long flights are magical headspace’s…DPS-IST-JFK. #airplane #headspace #indonesia to #jfk via #istanbul
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8 days ago
Closing night projections on the Island of The Spirits, Bali… Thank you to more that 3500 being with us this evening❤️ We will soon announce private invites for At Home, In The Berkshires, July 23-29, and India in the late summer or early fall in India. Visit the link in my IG bio to register for the pre invites to both workshop ✨
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14 days ago
Last evening was amazing…the Ngrupuk parade known as Ogoh-Ogoh on the eve of Nyepi. Ogoh-Ogoh is derived from the Balinese word “ogah-ogah,” which means “to shake.” It represents the Bhuta-Kala or evil spirits, vices that must be kept away from humans. Ogoh-Ogohs take the shape of mythological, evil creatures and gods to represent negative aspects of living things and criticize society and its latest issues…why many Ogohs look menacing during the increase of evil we do to ourselves. Having photographed many Ogoh Ogoh processions while living in Bali, last night was magical. Thankful to the photographers joining me during our annual photo workshop on the Island of the Spirits for accepting my absence to be in the thickness of smoke, rage, and passion before this day of silence known as Nyepi… #OgohOgoh #ngrupuk #bali #indonesia #fire #spirits #mystical #stanmeyerworkshops (soon, we are announcing early registration for this year’s At Home, In The Berkshires gathering at home from 23-29 July 2024, with a special guest joining me this year...a fellow @NatGeo Explorer. Visit the link in my IG bio to sign up and receive a personal invitation to attend this most unique annual workshop at my home in western Massachusetts)
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Sending goodness that the year of the Wood Dragon fulfills its purpose to bring evolution, improvement, abundant enlightenment through kindness and peace. Wishing all of us a beautiful Lunar New Year on this day when the Moon becomes aligned with both the Earth and the Sun…Gong xi fa cai 🕊️✨ #YearTheDragon #WoodDragon #LunarNewYear #dragon
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1 month ago
Forgotten Story: The Culture of Sugar On 14 October 1492, Christopher Columbus touched land after leaving Spain on the islands known as Guanahaní, today called the Bahamas. Taking slaves (he was a slave owner, too), two months later, on 5 December, he landed on the island of Taino. In a typical conquering manner, renaming it La Isla Española, or The Spanish Island, later called Hispaniola. Today, Hispaniola is divided—the Dominican Republic on the east and Haiti on the west. Knowing the culture of the Caribbean well, for the @NatGeo story, The Culture of Sugar (read the first sugar caption in my IG), Haiti is unique…in Haitian Vodou, sugar is of spiritual importance. Vodou came with slaves forced from central and western Africa to Haiti shortly after Columbus. This most special, beautifully unique form of spirituality is often misunderstood and interwoven in Haitian culture. @RegineParicia , a specialist in Haitian culture, knew of a Rada lwa ceremony 30 km (about 20 mi) from Port-au-Prince. Traveling with filmmaker @AnkaVision (Anka was creating a NatGeo TV Amazing Photos documentary for this chapter on sugar), we were welcomed by the community of Dumilseau Village in La Plaine into rituals, healings, and trance like nowhere else on earth. Why sugar and vodou? Sugar is essential in Haitian Vodou–many spirits require sweet, sugary substances. Intricate patterns of religious symbols, called Veve’s, are created on the earth using flour, ground coffee, and offerings of sugar…sodas, and Barbancourt rum, made from sugarcane. A table-like altar was created for the Cra Bi Nay Ceremony to honor the spirit Bossou, adorned with orange sodas, Coca-Cola, and candies. Before a cow was sacrificed, many went into a trance, pouring sugary rum over their bodies and making offerings of sugar to the spirits. Others were healed with soda. Music was hypnotic, a reminder of the rhythms I heard as a child living in the Bahamas playing with my classmates at their homes, some of whom were of Haitian descent. A short film in this album shares this beautiful intensity where sugar and spirituality merge. @NatGeo #haiti #vodou #sugar #spirituality #CultureOfSugar #ForgottenStory
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1 month ago
Forgotten Story: The Culture of Sugar. The history of sugar is bitter by dark moments of our human ego and desires for control. For thousands of years, this sweetness was cultivated from the grass known as sugarcane, moving from Oceania by trade. In colder climates of Europe where sugarcane would not grow, the demand for sugar during a time when such delights were rare, and spreading Colonization, the spice wars began in the 15th century for flavor-filled items like nutmeg, cinnamon, and yes, sugar. By the 18th century, most sugar was obtained from the West Indies. During the Napoleonic Wars, sugar supplies were cut off by the English blockade of continental Europe. To make up for this loss, Napoleon Bonaparte encouraged the growing of beets…in the 17th century, a German chemist discovered white and red beetroot contained sucrose, able to extract sugar. After gaining a presence in France, the introduction of sugar beet production in the United States was first established, a short drive from where I live to North Hampton, MA—by 1883, ceasing operation. It wasn’t until seeds arrived in North Dakota from Michigan in the late 1800s that sugar from beets became viable. With heavy labor done by German and Russian immigrants who moved to North Dakota for jobs, the surrounding areas of Fargo became the epicenter of sugar production in the United States. In 1899, American Crystal Sugar was founded, and so began the most significant crop production of sugar beets in North America, along the Red River Valley in North Dakota. From the @NatGeo story, The Culture of Sugar, which was never published (read why in the caption in my first post of this story), sharing with you the mesmerizing movement of how nearly all white processed sugar at American Crystal Sugar is produced for US consumption. To understand the enormity of our desire for sweetness, the images inside the storage silo represent 35 million tonnes, or the equivalent of 7 million 2.3 kg (5 lb) bags of sugar. A short film is in this album on the mysterious machines that create this sugar desire. @NatGeo ##UnitedStates #NorthDakota #SugarBeets #sugar #CultureOfSugar #ForgottenStory
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2 months ago
Forgotten Story: The Culture of Sugar. Once a rare spice, every genus of sugar originates east of the Wallace Line in Papua New Guinea. Beginning in around 4 C.E., sugar moved from Oceania through trade often connected to conflict and slavery…at that time in history, nowhere else on earth had or grew sugar. For the unpublished @NatGeo story, The Culture of Sugar, these crystals are culturally unimaginable in PNG culture. Unaware of what to expect, my contact was Father Paul Kanda, a Papuan Catholic priest who told me, “John, just come, I will show you.” After four days of travel by propeller plane and trucks to reach the highlands of Enga Province, there was a wedding. Father Kanda drove us to a hillside where I met William Waikenda, a kamongo or tribal leader, preparing for the Yari ceremony in Wapai Village. He would lead the Yole Maingi (bride prize) ceremony in a few hours, uniting a woman and man before a Christian marriage. Insects swarmed everywhere, drawn to the sweetness of sugarcane leaning against a tree. Down the hill, I found the groom, 24-year-old Samuel Tembe, skipping along a pathway through a gorgeous landscape of greenness to meet his bride. At a clearing in Wapai was 20-year-old Janet Sani and her family; Samuel took his place next to his future wife and immediately began the Yole Maingi (bride prize). Why sugar? Giving and eating raw sugarcane is essential; the bridge or conduit to unite two tribes creates harmony between the bride and groom’s tribes. A practice for thousands of years in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. When leaving, William Waikenda insisted I take three sugarcane sticks. Unkind to say no, confused about what to do with this long gift, I rested three canes out of the truck window, enjoying a few bites. Later, I gave Father Kanda the rest of the massive poles. Sharing more stories of the fascination with sugar from Papua New Guinea in the coming days…. The Yole Maingi ceremony only touches the unimaginable sugar culture, the roots of this now common sweetener. Also included is a short video. @NatGeo #PapuaNewGuinea #Enga #Wapai #WeddingCermony #BridePrize #sugar #SugarCane #CultureOfSugar #ForgottenStory
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Forgotten Story: The Culture of Sugar. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ A story that never was published due to changing writers (read the caption in the first photograph in this series, Forgotten Story); for more than a year, I created an essay for @NatGeo about how this common sweet substance has a captivating, often lengthy, dark global history. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ With India having the unpleasant recognition as the second highest rate of diabetes (China is first, both due to large populations) and wanting to return to my favorite spiritual city, Varanasi (Banaras, also known as Kashi), I did the usual movement of learning, while not knowing or expecting anything. Wandering the streets and alleys, getting lost. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This was when I met Ram Ji, squatting like a guru upon a small wooden stool along Godowlia Street, cleaning teeth, making dentures, and catering to the dental needs of the poorest of the poor. He didn’t know his age, guessing at the time he was 85. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Known as Baba ji to his clients, he learned dentistry from his father and, since childhood, had been a roadside dentist, training more than 30 street dentists, including his son. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Spending three days together with a nonstop flow of customers, Ram ji attributed his busy practice to the high consumption of sugar, which is abundant in nearly all Indian foods, especially chai. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ In all the noise, dirt, and chaos on Godowlia Street, Ram ji miraculously kept his dental tools clean, though his finger hygiene was a bit questionable...there is a short video at the end of this story. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Returning to Banaras a few years ago to give him equipment donated by dental friends, I learned from his son that Baba ji had passed away. A kindest man who gave so much to others, often for free. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ @NatGeo #india #varanasi #banaras #kashi #sugar #dentist #StreetDentist #CultureOfSugar #ForgottenStory
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2 months ago
Forgotten Story: Going through the archive for an exhibition opening later this year in Tbilisi, I remembered a story that never was published in @NatGeo : The Culture of Sugar. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ For over a year, I explored how this common sweet substance has a captivating, often lengthy, dark history. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Why did the sugar story not publish? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ National Geographic had commissioned a new writer. Midway through the reporting, they rejected the manuscript. Such unfortunateness was a gift…I could write the visual narrative, unconstrained in complete curiosity. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Around midway through, I was introduced to a new writer, sharing what I had been creating. After a few months, this writer’s manuscript was also rejected. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ When the photography was completed — Oceania, South and Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and the United States — the magazine commissioned a third writer, Rich Cohen, author of Sweet and Low: A Family Story, a memoir about the creation of the artificial sweetener in the pink packet invented by Benjamin Eisenstadt, Cohen’s grandfather. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ National Geographic accepted Rich’s manuscript, but this time, the text had nothing to do with the culture of sugar: the story focused more on the health issues of sugar, not a global narrative on the culture of sugar. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ My good friend, @robertclarkphoto , was hired to photograph sugary foods in his studio, creating beautiful images to accompany Cohen’s text. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I was not upset at this unexpectedness. Life often shifts. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Will begin publishing this story here on the discovery of a forgotten photo essay on sugar. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Oh, here’s a touching to come…Christopher Columbus didn’t travel from Spain to discover an alleged “new world.” (there were millions of fellow humans already there!). ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ He came to the western hemisphere looking for new places to cultivate sugar, a grass family species originating in Papua New Guinea. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Caption: Laborers load sugarcane on a truck in Gambar field in Sumberasri village outside Blitar in East Java, Indonesia. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ @NatGeo #indonesia #sugar #CultureOfSugar #labor #ForgottenStory
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Today is the 11th year of Paul Salopek’s walk around our world, the @outofedenwalk . Paul began this unimaginable journey on January 10, 2013, from Herto Buri, Ethiopia, returning to that day with walking partner Ahmed Elema in the Afar desert. I have learned so much and been inspired by Paul for over a decade. Walking together across two continents and 12 countries on this 24,000-mile odyssey, following in the footsteps of our ancestors on this @NatGeo project. Last year, I met up with Paul in northern China as we neared Beijing (that story will be published in National Geographic later this year). A few million more footprints to go, sending kindness, the fire of doing to my friend Paul and his many more million footprints to come as we walk towards North America, onward over the coming years through Central and South America, till reaching the tip of Argentina in Tierra del Fuego. Love you, Paul, seeing you soon…❤️✨ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #NationalGeographic #OutOfEdenWalk #PaulSalopek #ethiopia #china @insidenatgeo
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Dust Storm, northern Ethiopia. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ These days in the studio researching through the archive for a new @NatGeo @insidenatgeo story, the vastness of possibilities within the simplest moments...erosion of our earth by climate change, the energy of wind, sound, when pairings of the mundane are parables for the time we live. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Follow me on Instagram and X @SoilExtinction for behind-the-scenes and the making of this next story, a two-year project on the desertification of our earth’s topsoil, beginning early 2024. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ @insidenatgeo @NatGeo #fromthearchive #ethopia #sandstorm #duststorm #SoilExtinction
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