Jupiter's Travels in Camera by Ted Simon. Haynes Publishing, 256 pages, $54.
On October 6, 1973 Ted Simon swung his leg over his new Triumph 500CC Tiger motorcycle and began a journey that would take him nearly four years to complete. His 103,000-kilometre trek through 45 countries was chronicled in his book, Jupiter's Travels.
That account and its follow-up, Riding High, inspired generations of motorcyclists to make their own trips to far away places and experience other places and cultures. Ewan
McGregor and Charley Boorman documented their round the world adventure in the TV series and book of the same title, Long Way Round, and commented that Simon's book had been an inspiration for their trip.
Jupiter's Travels was published in 1980 with a small selection of photographs included but there were many more photos available. Simon had taken two Pentax camera bodies and three lenses with him. Film was precious and used sparingly but over the journey he shot many pictures and now for the first time they are being seen.
While Simon makes no pretense of being a great photographer his pictures show a view into the past.
His photos capture a world that has since moved on and reflect powerful sense of being in the moment, even though those moments are scattered around the globe.
With each photo or series of images Simon has provided a description that connects to the subject but also to what he was feeling about the journey. These insights make for great reading and further illustrate the aspects of travel that have changed over the past 40 years.
