“Shoot, Ask … and Run!” The advice given aspiring British photographer Chris Stowers, at the start of his travels, has never seemed so valuable. Buffeted by tempestuous forces of both personal and international affairs, he flees from the Jakarta mafia through the jungles of Borneo, is tear-gassed by riot police in Manila, and crosses an imploding Soviet Union by train, only to be abducted by a group of heavily-armed Serb militia.
In this, the 2nd volume of recollections from diaries he kept at the time, Stowers paints a harsh, humorous and very human picture of a life continuously on the road, in trouble, and out of film. Based in Hong Kong, before digital cameras came along and changed the medium of photography forever, this is the reality of media life in Asia – and beyond – during the boom years of the early 1990’s.
What people are saying about Shoot, Ask … and Run!:
“A vivid, enjoyable memoir from the pre-digital era, following a young photojournalist on wide-ranging explorations of Asia and his craft.”
TAIPEI TIMES
“You will wish you were running alongside this peripatetic photojournalist.”
Marty Petersen, author of City of Lost Souls
“An essential journey for anyone fascinated by the intersection of art, history, and the indomitable human spirit.”
The Hong Kong Review
“One mans’ historical record of a lost era…elevating ‘Shoot, Ask and Run’ into the category of travel literature are moments of profound philosophy, born, one imagines, of countless hours the author spent alone and travelling through rough and, at times hostile, environments; from the joy of chance encounters, and relief at leaps of faith successfully taken.”
Reed Resnikoff