I'm very pleased to have had MAPTIA feature three of my photo stories for a while now, and also pleased that it has now updated itself to a 2.0 iteration.
What is MAPTIA, you ask?
Well, it's best said in the words of its founders: "...we decided to build a map with everything a traveller could possibly need. Photographs, blogs, stories, flights, hostels, a way to talk to other travellers, volunteering opportunities, hiking paths, surf spots… you name it, we wanted to put it on the map."
Roughly 3 years ago, the founders of MAPTIA; none of who had written a line of code, applied for a grant from an experimental new business incubator run by the Chilean government, and received $40,000 to create this start-up. This incredible story can be read on Medium.
MAPTIA has managed to gather a number of incredibly talented photographers-storytellers, featuring their amazing photography and weaving interesting narrative into these photo essays. From David Lazar to James Morgan...from Cristina Mittermeier's photography to Pico Iyer's travel prose....it's all there.
Photo stories (large photographs!) from North Korea, India, Mozambique, Mongolia, Spain, Brazil, Myanmar, New York, Ethiopia and more. I could go on and on...but I'll let you explore.
One of my favorite continents on MAPTIA is Asia, with 310 photo stories which include 3 of mine; City of Ancient Temples (Varanasi), The Birth of Color (an Editor's Pick) and Incarnate Deities (Theyyam).
Seeing The Birth of Color on MAPTIA's website is a reminder that getting covered with colored gulal from head to toe on a daily basis during Holi was worth it.
