AFAR

Director of Photography: Tara Guertin
Art Director: Jason Seldon
Assistant Photo Editor: Rachel McCord
Photographer: Dina Litovsky

Heidi: How do you approach travel stories?
Dina: I always like to do a fair amount of research beforehand. That involves reading up about its culture, people and landmarks. A useful place to start is past travel articles, which are also great for initial photo research. Looking at previous images of a city both gives me an idea of what to expect as well as what to avoid. It’s fun to be seduced by certain things when at a new location – everything seems exciting – but then it’s very easy to unwittingly repeat existing images of an over-photographed place/landmark. 

Once on location, I like to have a first day where I walk around the city only with an iPhone, getting a feel for the city and making quick images of locations where I’d like to come back to.

In certain cultures locals are leery of being photographer, how do you deal with this?
Learning the rules of that culture and respecting them. Even if there is no big language barrier, I like having a local guide who can help me navigate the intricacies of unspoken street rules.

How many days was your shoot.
6 days.

Do you give yourself an extra day to fill in any gaps or round out the full narrative?
I try to do that as much as possible with each assignment. I always start editing my work after the first couple of days, during which I allow myself to shoot on instinct. After that, I approach the shoot with more intent, filling in the gaps daily and fleshing out the story.