Dariusz Klemens
Photographer Dariusz Klemens developed a taste for travel and photography in his early teens, when he took his first camera on a two-month trek across the Tatra Mountains, on the border between Poland and Slovakia. This was to be the first of many journeys, and many cameras. He left his native Poland at the age of 20, and completed his studies in the United States, at Austin, Texas, where he trained as a commercial photographer.
Dariusz first travelled across Asia in 1995, with a view to build his documentary photography skills, but in India he found much more, a basis for his mature creative identity. Mesmerised by the sheer range of photographic opportunities he encountered, he devoted the following decade to documenting the life of the sub-continent.
Working on assignments and personal projects, Dariusz has travelled extensively throughout Asia; his work has featured in numerous leading, international newspapers and magazines, including The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The New Internationalist, The New York Times, Royal Geographical magazine, Condé Naste Traveller, Cover, as well as Ciack, Gulliver, Grazia, Voyage, and Altair, amongst other European publications.
Dariusz’s images of India have been used for advertising campaigns in the USA and in England, where he has lived since 1998. They have also been chosen as front covers for the novels of the leading Indian writer, and Booker prize nominee, Anita Desai: Fasting, Feasting (1999) and Diamond Dust (2000, Random House/Chatto & Windus). His work is held in private collections in Oxford, London, The Channel Islands, Milan, Rome, and San Diego (California). Sangam, an exhibition ofimages documenting his photographic exploration of India, was held at the Riverside Studios, London in 2004.
He is the author of the bestselling book Omaggio all’India (A Homage to India, published by Mondadori, Italy, 2003), and is currently working on a project on Bollywood. As Director and co-founder of GeckoWorkshops, Dariusz leads the team’s efforts to deliver innovative, first-rate photographic tuition.
Based on the photographic skill and travel experience of established professional photographers, GeckoWorkshops courses are taught and developed by an international team of professional photographers, and tutors from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds.
Before developing their careers in the visual arts, our tutors were schooled across three different continents in disciplines as diverse as photography, medicine, history of art, anthropology, modern history, and marine biology. Although English is our lingua franca, together, we speak no fewer than 12 languages.
Either one, or two, professional photographers lead each of our courses. All our tutors have extensive, practical knowledge of India and share a passion for photography. Together, we have over 50 years of combined experience of travelling, working, and photographing in India.
Photographer Dariusz Klemens developed a taste for travel and photography in his early teens, when he took his first camera on a two-month trek...read more
Jiri Rezac developed a passion for photography at the age of 19, after moving to Bangladesh, where he worked as a teacher trainer...read more
Born in Italy, Antonella Bestaggini discovered travelling at a very early age, during ‘Robinson Crusoe- style’ camping and sailing holidays on a remote island ...read more
Growing up in what was once known as the “Wickedest Town in the West”, photographer Mansel Mathews couldn’t help...read more
Antonella Bestaggini
Born in Italy, Antonella was initiated into travelling at a very early age, during ‘Robinson Crusoe- style’ camping and sailing holidays on a remote island in the Aegean Sea. She developed a passion for the arts growing up in Turin, Rome, and Milan where, after graduating from the Conservatory of Music, she studied languages. In her late teens, she travelled extensively across Europe, America, and North Africa before settling in England.
After a first degree in Anthropology and History of Art at Oxford Brookes University, Antonella focused her academic work on late 19th Century Art, gaining an MA in this area at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Research on her doctoral thesis on late 19th century art theory kept her travelling between England, Italy, and Switzerland, and she was awarded her doctorate in 1996 at Oxford Brookes University.
In the same year, her wanderlust lured her to the sub-continent for the first time. An initial trip to South India cast an irresistible spell, and was followed by a two-month journey across the Himalayan ranges of Zanskar and Ladakh. Since then, Antonella has divided her time between writing, teaching History of Art and travelling, returning to India several times a year. She has written articles on India, and Asia, for a variety of international publications, amongst them the Royal Geographical magazine, Gulliver, and Voyage.
Antonella teaches history of art at Tudor Hall School in Oxfordshire; between 1990 and 2003, she lectured in the History of Art at Oxford Brookes University and worked as a reviewer for an academic publisher in Oxford. She has contributed to academic and photographic book projects in England and abroad in various capacities ranging from research assistant, to translator and editor. Since 1997, she has also worked with Dariusz Klemens on several photographic projects across Asia including in India, Nepal, and Vietnam.
Antonella is a co-founder of GeckoWorkshops. As an experienced teacher and traveller, she plays a central role in the planning of educational activities on our Gap Year Courses, and joins the photography tutors on some of our journeys.
Jiri Rezac
Born in Czechoslovakia, Jiri learned to be on the move and adapt to different languages and countries from an early age when his family moved to the Mediterranean island of Malta, before settling in Germany. During his jumpy teenage years, he often criss-crossed Europe on various forms of more or less obscure means of transport, ranging from skateboard to sailing barges, and 40-ton trucks.
Jiri developed a passion for photography at the age of 19, after moving to Bangladesh, where he worked as a teacher trainer in a rural education project. During his two-year long stay, Jiri became fascinated with documenting the daily lives of ordinary people, and showing a different side of Bangladesh became the focus of Jiri’s professional life. He joined MAP Photo Agency in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and carried out his first photographic assignments for a variety of NGO-related publications, including UNICEF and Care International.
Since, Jiri has settled in London, where he started his professional photographic career by joining Reuters News Pictures in 1998, where he worked as a news photographer and photo editor. Two years later, having honed his skills and broadened his client base, Jiri left the hectic world of hard news to concentrate on portrait and reportage work. He combines frequent travels on assignment with a variety of personal photographic projects – his most recent being gas explorations in South Asia, a London devoid of people, and Victorian cemeteries.
His pictures have appeared in the world's leading print media including Geo, Stern, Spiegel, Facts, Focus Magazines, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Welt am Sonntag, Weltwoche, Politiken, amongst numerous others.
Jiri is a graduate of the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) with a double BA degree in Modern Third World History and Development Studies/Human Rights. He speaks fluent German, English, French, Bengali, and his native Czech. During his free time, he can often be found either riding or rebuilding fast motorbikes.
A seasoned photojournalist, and experienced wanderer, Jiri shares his knowledge of travel and photography on our Expeditions and Courses for the Year Out.
Mansel Mathews
Growing up in what was once known as the “Wickedest Town in the West”, photographer Mansel Mathews couldn’t help but develop a passion for shooting! Born in Arizona, Mansel’s childhood played out in Jerome, a late 19th century mining town, which later earned the title of America’s Largest Ghost Town. It was here, that his parents helped form the small artists’ community that would put Jerome back on the map, awakening Mansel's interest in the visual arts.
Educated in the fine arts at Concordia University, Mansel studied photography at Austin, Texas. By the mid 1990s, as a student in search for new and intriguing subject matter, Mansel found himself reveling in the vast and varied visual delights of India, where he travelled extensively for 6 months, before exploring Burma and Nepal.
Shortly after returning to the USA to finish his photographic training, Mansel plunged himself into Asia once again, this time for a longer stint that over the following 12 months, saw him hunt for images across India, Indonesia, Burma, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, and Nepal.
In Indonesia, during an incautious 75 kilometer drive along a steeply inclined, dried river bed on a suspension-less scooter, Mansel conceived his latest project. In 2003, he returned to India for an 8000 kilometer journey that combined his love of photography with his passion for Enfield motorbikes.
Mansel Mathews lives in Austin, Texas where he specializes in candid environmental portraiture. He is currently writing his first book, on Riding an Enfield through India. When he is not writing or taking pictures, Mansel can be found riding his motorbike through the evergreen Texas Hill Country.
As a veteran of many travels, and a pioneer at heart, Mansel scouts new routes for GeckoWorkshops courses. He also lends his photographic expertise to some of our Photographic Tours and Courses for the Year Out.
Rajiv Rajamani
Rajiv bio to be added
Victoria Walsh
Victoria bio to be added.
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