"In portrait photography, there are no rules. Most of my portraits aren’t formal situations; they are found situations. I compose on the spot. If you establish some rapport, whether you joke around with them or use some mime, people respond and open up, and are happy to be photographed. I don’t think there’s any mystery or trick about it."

by Steve McCurry

A Face Tells A Thousand Stories
This year, ASIAN Geographic continued its highly successful photography competition, where the search for special photographs from talented amateur and professional photographers capture the striking facets of Asia’s land, people, architecture and wildlife. The competition was categorised into four di erent themes: Faces of the Earth, Faces of Asia, Faces of the Wild and Faces of Freedom.

I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.

Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things (1998)

Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, ’were his own.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)

I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest w orker.

Helen Keller (1880–1968)

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.

Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta,
founder of Buddhism (563–483 BC)

Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours, Makes the night morning, and the noontide night.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

I was born in Saigon in 1972 to a devout Buddhist laywoman. At the age of six, my mother gave me to Buddha, where she spiritually o ered my life as a sign of her devotion. With the guidance of a mother’s love and the teachings of the Buddha, I begin my spiritual journey in my homeland of Vietnam.

text & photos by Tri Huu Luu

Looking back at those who put Asia in the spotlight in 2009