What's your earliest memory of travel?
Going to Scarborough in my uncle's Bedford at the age of about four years.

How did you get involved with travel professionally?
In my previous career as a physiologist I travelled overseas a lot and have always enjoyed travelling. A love of photography combined with a passion for travel made travel photography a natural and obvious choice of career for me.

When did you join the Guild and what's the best thing about it?
Can’t remember exactly but I’d guess about 13 years ago in the John Bell era. The best thing has got to be the people I’ve met through my involvement.

What's your best travel experience/ funniest?
Best travel experiences are too numerous. Every dawn in a stunning location would be high on the list. Some of the people I’ve met along the way who’ve shown real hospitality and generosity. The funniest was keeping a straight face when pretending that my 60kg of camera gear was not really above the 23kg luggage allowance on a recent trip to South Africa and getting away with it. It’s also funny watching sycophantic travel professionals wriggle out of a conversation when they realise that I’m only a photographer not a writer.

What's your worst/most bizarre?
Worst experience was being held at gunpoint by the night watchman at the Sphinx in Giza because I wanted to take a picture at dawn without paying bakshish. There was also the sploshing sound of Nikon in water when my camera, lens and tripod took up swimming in the White Mountains of New England. Most bizarre was in a Greyhound bus station in Salt Lake City. I’d missed my connection and ended up there by default. I was only there for 20 minutes. When I walked in my brother’s best friend was there catching the same bus and I didn’t even know he was in the States. What are the chances?

What do you never leave home without?
A camera or three!

What's the best thing about being professionally involved in travel?
Travelling!

What is the place you haven't been to yet which you would most like to visit?
Amazingly for a photographer, I haven’t been to two of the planet’s most photogenic countries – India and Namibia.

Who or what would you like to be in the next life?
I’m doing my dream job so I’d be quite happy being a photographer again. I’d just prefer to be a more affluent one with a group of adoring fans to follow me around and be at my beck and call! Failing that I’d love to travel the world as a top international sportsman.

Whom do you most admire?
Ansel Adams has always been a real hero of mine but there are many other great photographers who inspire me - Paul Strand, Frans Lanting, Art Wolfe, Don McCullin, Cartier Bresson, Latigue - the list goes on and on. On a personal level I’d have to say my wife, Karen, (and not just because I’m scared of her!) who’s an inspiration and a much greater person than she realises. Then there are my three kids - Katy who valiant, funny and endearing, Charlie who is very special, sensitive and gifted, and Rory who is so wonderfully self-contained, single minded and witty for one so young.

Future plans and ambitions?
1. To find the time to write the hilarious novel that’s in me. 3. To get the travel industry and media to understand the power of good photography rather than the crap digital snaps that everyone now takes and publishes.

Chris Coe This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it www.chriscoe.com

September 2006

Since this article was first published, Chris and his wife, Karen, have founded and run the hugely successful international Travel Photographer of the Year competition, www.tpoty.com.