Talk Time: 30-40 minutes.

This talk is given to promote the importance of reading and that, through the understanding of ourselves, we can reach our dreams.

As an author, people tend to think that I write a lot. I do, but more importantly, I read a lot more. It is through my love of reading that has led me on 2 unforgettable adventures. The first adventure is my becoming a travel writer after reading about something in a book that led me on a 4-month journey through SE Asia. This journey includes travelling through countries that had a literacy rate of only 50%. The second adventure is – after my trip, I decided to shift my photography to reportage. Ever since then I dreamt of having a coffee-table book with my name on it. Ever since 2005 I’ve been the only photographer commissioned to photograph the annual maintenance shutdown of Table Mountain. In October 2018 – Changing The Lines Coffee-Table Book was released – the ONLY coffee-table book about this iconic landmark.

• A brief, visual history of the 6000-year journey of reading and writing and how this generation plays a role in its changes.                                                                                                                                                                                       Referring to Albert Einstein – why the gift of our imagination is more important than knowledge and how reading stimulates it.
• How reading something in a book led me to become a travel writer.
• How reading something in a book led me to travel through SE Asia resulting in me becoming a travel writer.
• How becoming a travel writer helped me realise a life-long dream. After my travels, I shifted my focus of photography to reportage and documentary which resulted in me photographing 2 unique coffee-table books – Down the Line and Changing The Lines. The ONLY coffee-table books on their relative subjects.
• Photographs – as a visual aid, from my book and from my photographic travel career.

Reviews: 

Rustenburg High School for Girls.

‘Thank you Gary for sharing your own journey of self-discovery and for opening our girls’ minds to all the possibilities imaginable.
But just as importantly, for getting to the root of it all, because ultimately If we don’t know who we are, then how can we know what we want?
A significant and salient challenge for us all.’ – Marilyn Peters – Head of Library and Media Centre