Timeless Asia
Story by Sandra J. Wilson • Photos by Dennis Cox
(Click on any photo below to view a larger image.)

Continued...

People seek out Cox because they want to get that clean, solitary shot of the Great Wall of China — without the modern-day people. They want to get that same view of The Wall that visitors from hundreds of years ago had, from a vantage point not available to just any tourist; they know Cox can take them there; they have seen his "Badaling Great Wall."

People go on his tours specifically to get the "lantern shot" (above). You might recognize the shot on the front of a travel guide about China; it is one of the first images on Cox’s Web site when viewing his photos. He tells stories of clients who have won photographic awards with entries they shot on one of his tours.

One in particular he recalls. She took second place honors in a National Geographic Traveler contest with her Chinese fisherman lantern shot. He tells the story about how during the contest judging, she was asked how she got the photo. She embarked on a fanciful story that described a seemingly happenstance encounter with the scene and how she waited for the ambient light to reach just the right illumination in balance with the fishermen’s lanterns before taking the shot. The next question from the judge was, "Do you know Dennis Cox?" All had a great chuckle over her story as she "confessed" to knowing Dennis Cox and taking the photo on his tour. She received the award because she did take the photo; it just took Cox’s relationship with the country and its people, and his own talent and skills to give her the opportunity, as he does with all of his clients.

Cox has established exclusive relationships with people who can get him where he wants to go. The tour companies he partners with are all very aware of the special requirements of photography tours, like the sunsets and dawn shots. Cox led a tour to the top of eastern Turkey’s famous Nemrut Dagi (Nemrut Mountain, also known as Mount Nimrod) where the group was up and out at 3:00 a.m. After they made the journey up the mountain, each person prepared for their shot. They worked in the cold darkness; then they waited, warming their hands in readiness for action with the anticipation of the dawn light. The photographers wouldn’t want to make it all that way and have their fingers be slow to respond due to the numbing cold. Soon the sunlight was up just enough to light the massive stone carvings, including the popular head of Zeus, which appears to stand watch over the outstretched plains even after thousands of years. The light allowed the camera to capture intricate carved detail in the weathered and time-textured stone.

Cox not only arranges and conducts photographic tours; he is an award-winning travel and location photographer whose niche is well known to be China. And Zeus isn’t the only ancient in Cox’s portfolio. Another area of specialization Cox is known for is historical stock photos, requested with regularity for textbooks.

While he has these specialties, Cox also has strong experience throughout all seven continents and a prodigious portfolio to match. Recently a new book came out, "Professional Photography Location Portraits," published by Roto Vision SA in England for worldwide distribution. This book contains sixteen Dennis Cox photos, including the cover.

Many of Cox’s photographs allow viewers a voyeuristic portal to colorful places, peoples and cultures worldwide, and make people yearn to experience these places for themselves even if that yearning had never before been present. Cox points to the Sunday Bazaar in Kashgar, Xinjiang near the border as one of the best photo opportunities in the world. This weekly bazaar is filled with livestock traders and merchants, a mix of peoples from bordering countries.

Merchants, or "Uighurs," crowd the marketplace with their stock of camels and donkeys, produce and other animals and goods. The sounds of different languages colliding, the smells, the dust, the visual intensity, the cool air all work on the photographer. As Cox tells his photographers to go forth and take their photos, he cautions them to be careful; it’s crowded, "don’t get so involved with the shot that you bump into the animals — you could get hurt."

There are times Cox has not heeded his own advice. He tells the story of photo #36 in this month's feature story. Camels were passing by 3 or 4 tethered together. Imagine a tall westerner with a look that holds a resemblance to comedian Gene Wilder – similar eyes, tangled hair of marled brown curls. Imagine his face to the camera, he continues to back up, bent into his camera in this crowded place full of pack animals that already are made skittish by the market activity.

Cox is working to get the best angle – and he backs into a horse. The horse promptly shows its objection by planting its hoof forcefully into the back of Cox’s leg. Injured but not wanting to let on, he continues to shoot (including Photo Number 36), albeit only to keep up the front. The smart of the horse’s hoof-shot was distracting him from his shot and he needed to get out of there. He did not concentrate on getting the best angle; the camera, at this point, was serving as a prop. Photo Number 36 has been published several times; his leg has healed.

Describing his work, Cox says he strives for a very graphic quality to his images; he wants an image strongly saturated with color, and looks for "a spark of red; a sea of green" in the composition. In some photos, he says, he might be working to capture "the gesture," the positioning of subjects to capture the essence of expression, such as body language, facial expressions or a look. He seeks out special views and unique opportunities for his own pleasure and work (which appear to be one in the same), as well as for his clients. And some of his photos are dramatic and show a collision of opposites.

Cox has photographed for major magazines and corporate clients for over two decades. A visit to his Web site lists hundreds of places where his photos have appeared. His photos are a marketer’s secret weapons. Because people respond emotionally to such images, his stock photos are in demand by corporations, publishers and marketers. His photos are available through his own stock photo agencies, ChinaStock and WorldViews as well as other agencies worldwide, including Getty Images and TimeLife Picture Library.

In 1997, Cox was awarded the Travel Photographer of the Year Award from the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) and was a runner-up for the same honor in both 1998 and 1999. His 1984 China portfolio earned him an Award of Excellence from Communication Arts. And all this – a career in photography – came about because one day, after graduating from college with a social science degree, his airplane-flying roommate took him flying to Bass Island, handed Cox his Canon and told him to get some aerial shots. Prior to that day, his only other photography project was with a Brownie camera taking pictures for a 4-H Club soil conservation project.

It was a trip in 1976 that turned his path to China. He got hooked on China and travel photography when he joined the U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association as a way of getting into China, which was, as Cox puts it, "just emerging from the ten years of chaos and xenophobia of the ‘Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution'."

As he moved from a social science career to one of a travel photographer he sought advice from respected colleagues. When asked who has most influenced his work he cites New York photographer and workshop instructor Norman Snyder, and Zhang Shuicheng, whom Cox met in 1979 when Zhang was the senior staff photographer for "China Reconstructs" magazine. These two men have been his mentors, close friends and business colleagues for more than 25 years. He also gains and shares information with colleagues through internet chat rooms, and through professional memberships he holds with the American Society of Picture Professionals (ASPP), Stock Artists Alliance (SAA), and the previously mentioned Society of American Travel Writers (SATW).

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." This is one of the aphorisms, attributed to George Carlin that Cox collects. It speaks to his need for those great shots.

South Africa is his next destination. Cox is leading a "Great Trek and Photo Safari" where he will experience the thing that he says gives him his greatest joy: taking great photographs, followed by a glass of great wine.

"May all your journeys be carefree, and your days be filled with wonder" is his Web site sign-off tag. His photos would have us believe that this statement is how his life is – be it real or orchestrated to look real.

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