I am truly honoured to be on the tour for this thrilling read.
Creating a snapshot of this read:
Tor was born (in Oslo) with a keen sense of adventure and a natural curiosity in people and places. This, along with an insatiable desire to see and experience more, took him around the world as a photojournalist. Stuff Happens is his memoir - a look back at some of the most memorable highlights of his life and travels; stories and anecdotes with over 250 photos, many of which have never been published or exhibited. Tor, who studied under one of the greats of photojournalism, maintains that it is primarily a good eye and hard work that makes a proficient photographer – assuming you have a reasonably decent camera and sharp lenses! Whether foremost a photographer or a writer though, he is unsure.
Tor has lived in many countries and has travelled to many more on assignment for the likes of National Geographic, Time Life and multiple foreign publications. One of his many and inimitable gifts is an ability to encounter - through his work or purely by chance - famous and infamous people along the way including the King of Jordan, undercover spies, Norman Mailer, Fidel Castro, Chuck Berry and Duke Ellington.
‘Stuff Happens’ is a catchphrase Tor has used time and time again during his 60-year career when something out of the ordinary happened.... his life has certainly never been humdrum... so, as you can imagine, it’s a well-used phrase. This incredible, unique and fascinating memoir of his life is captivating from start to finish.
Bobs and Books honest review:
Well, I absolutely loved getting whisked around the world with Tor's read.
There's only good stories in this and all are quite different and unique in their own way.
I would have quite happily have just gasped and admired the photos, all of which are absolutely breath taking. However, I soon realised that the author is just as engaging with his words as his imagery and I am completely in awe.
This covers what feels like every pocket of the globe and there is so much content to laugh at, learn from, relax and enjoy. It is well worth getting a hard copy to fully appreciate the photographs and you'll gain muscle too and there is so much "stuff".
At a time where holidays have been mostly non existent, and we've not been allowed to leave our homes, this is the perfect read. Allow yourself to get transported and enjoy the journey along the way.
Superb.
About the author:
Tor Eigeland is an internationally recognised photojournalist who has enjoyed a long and distinguished career contributing to such prestigious publications as Time, Fortune, The New York Times, Rutas del Mundo, Aftenposten, Aramco World Magazine, National Geographic Traveller, as well as ten book projects for the National Geographic Society’s Special Publications. He is both a photographer and a writer.
Broadly educated in Oslo, Montreal and Mexico, Tor then studied at the University of Miami’s School of Photojournalism under Wilson Hicks, renowned former Picture and then Executive Editor of LIFE Magazine - the magazine of the day.
Tor was born and brought up in Norway, then lived in Canada, Mexico, the U.S., Lebanon (Beirut), Spain, France and now England. He is a true citizen of the world, speaking several languages, including some Arabic. He feels particularly at home in the Middle East and Hispanic worlds.
Modest about his achievements and having spent much of his time on the road, Tor has rarely exhibited his work. However, in 2013 he was invited by the Kon Tiki Museum
in Oslo to show his photos from his time spent with the Marsh Arabs of Iraq, having visited shortly after the British explorer Wilfred Thesiger. Tor’s unique photos of a lost civilisation, taken for a Time-Life book half a century before the marshes were destroyed by Saddam Hussein, were published in 2014 in his photo essay ‘When all the Lands were Sea’. Tor is also known for his photos of Fidel Castro, triumphant in Cuba, after the revolution in 1959.
Tor’s final assignment was to Morocco in 2015, aged 84. In 2017 he held a retrospective exhibition of some of his favourite images from his experiences with indigenous people. Since then he has been working on his memoir from his home in Dorset.
Out now. STUFF HAPPENS: The Far From Humdrum Life Of A Photojournalist : Eigeland, Tor: Amazon.co.uk: Books
Comments