Lara Dunston and Terence Carter are taking the road less traveled – to places like Poland, Montenegro and Kenya. This year, the married writer-and-photographer team embarked on a personal experiment called GranTourismo, which is leading them on a slow journey living like locals in 24 destinations around the globe. They are currently in Edinburgh, Scotland and heading to Porto, Portugal. Having contributed to over 50 guides like Lonely Planet, National Geographic Traveler and Wanderlust, this is the perfect duo to take on such an ambitious project. Expand your horizons with Lara and Terence’s 10 ANSWERS below.
LARA DUNSTON
1. How would you describe your work in three words?
Grantourismo is engaging, evocative, and inspirational.
2. Who is your creative role model?
Paul Theroux, an intelligent travel writer who travels spontaneously and explores places through their people.
3. If you had an extra hour each day what would you do with it?
Read one of the dozen books in my bag that I’ve bought on our travels, that I haven’t had time to open – that are costing me excess luggage fees!
4. What place in the world most inspires you and why?
Whatever place we’re in at the time. Every place is inspirational if you get out of your comfort zone, travel with an open mind, engage with people, and open yourself up to new experiences.
5. If you could do a different job for a day what would it be and why?
I wouldn’t do a different job – I have the best job in the world for me – but I’d do my own job differently. I’d give myself more time in the places we travel to, more time to write, and I’d pay myself more!
6. What is your favorite homemade gift to give?
Words, in any form, as long as they’re sincere. As a child, I wrote poetry, stories and plays for my family, which they loved. My husband Terence once wrote a song about me that his band performed. That’s one of the most beautiful gifts I’ve ever received.
7. What is your favorite object in your home?
For Grantourismo we move ‘homes’ every two weeks! The objects I miss (currently in a storage unit) are things I’ve collected on our travels: a painting of a dignified old gentleman in a fez from Alexandria which we named ‘Mustapha’, antique mother-of-pearl wedding shoes from Damascus, and a beautiful Matryoshka doll I bought in Moscow. My favorite objects are the ones that tell stories.
8. What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
When I was 16, my best friend’s father told me: “youth is wasted on the young” (a quote from George Bernard Shaw), which had a tremendous impact on how I live my life. I live every day as if it’s my last, I’m never bored, and at 43 I feel as if I’ve had a very full life.
9. What websites do you use for inspiration?
Because I do so much work online, for inspiration I look to life on the streets, people, photography books, experimental films, and music. URLs that inspire me include 10 Answers, Pret a Voyager, 3191 Miles Apart, and Primitive Culture.
10. When do you consider a piece of your work complete?
A deadline usually decides that for me, which is a good thing, as I can revisit writing for years – but that’s what I love about my work as a writer, that it is endlessly intriguing, absorbing and evolving.
TERENCE CARTER
1. How would you describe your work in three words?
It’s all about making photographs of people, places and plates.
2. Who is your creative role model?
David Byrne. Music/photography/writing/travel. Relentless curiosity. Not sure if he’s a ‘foodie’ though!
3. If you had an extra hour each day what would you do with it?
Photograph flowers or read a book – it depends on the level of tiredness…
4. What place in the world most inspires you and why?
Barcelona, with Tokyo a close second. Barcelona has a creative energy in so many fields. It’s effortlessly cool. Tokyo is pure energy.
5. If you could do a different job for a day what would it be and why?
Work in Apple’s design studio with ‘Jony’ Ives, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design. Most of my friends would think I’d want to work in a Michelin 3-star kitchen, but that’s repetitive work, having to make the same thing over and over again. I’d like to be in Ives’ studio for a day, even I’m fetching the coffee – his industrial design work is just so pure.
6. What is your favorite homemade gift to give?
A portrait or a multi-course meal. I’m more than happy to give either.
7. What is your favorite object in your home?
My collection of ‘exotic’ musical instruments – mainly from the Middle East. Whenever I need a breather, I pick up an instrument. I just bought another bağlama (stringed folk instrument) in Istabul. I’m basically a sucker for any musical instrument with strings.
8. What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
I have to indulge and give you two. “Mr Carter get back in the darkroom, you’re a better photographer than that print you’ve just made!” This advice from my university photography lecturer still rings in my ears, as does his other piece of advice: “If you’re planning on printing more than two frames from a roll of 36, you’re either brilliant or self indulgent.” The self-editing part of making any media work is so important.
9. What websites do you use for inspiration?
The Selvedge Yard.
10. When do you consider a piece of your work complete?
Work gets uploaded and published online or in print, but it’s never really finished. Nothing is ever perfect. It’s just the best you can do at a particular point with a particular set of constraints. The main thing that I’ concerned with is that it’s the best work I can do within those constraints.
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