Aaron Joel Santos

Travel

Editorial and travel photographs shot on a variety of assignments around Asia and beyond--from the remote northern reaches of Mongolia to the beautifully dense and chaotic streets of downtown Tokyo and elsewhere in between. 

  • A woman looks out over the vast urban sprawl of Saigon at sunset. This photo always reminds me of the city's sweltering summer days and evening sea breezes and sometimes I miss it so much my heart hurts.
  • Late afternoon rush hour at one of the world's most iconic crosswalks. I liked the movement here, the density, the potential stories in all of these strangers, and the sun bursting out loud.
  • A fisherman contemplates the sea on the Jaffna Peninsula in northern Sri Lanka. The water here sometimes feels like it touches infinity and everything is low and close and shimmering with beauty and rarity.
  • The Great Salt Lake. For a while now, I've wanted to begin a project centered around John McPhee's Annals of the Former World, but I worry that my photographs wouldn't be able to live up to the grandeur of his work. Still, I like the idea of photographing rocks and road cuts and other very old things.
  • Rivers and mountainscapes in Vietnam's northernmost province of Ha Giang.
  • The Shanghai skyline at dusk.
  • Farmers harvest rice on a mountainside in Sapa, Vietnam.
  • The nationwide water fight that is Songkran in Bangkok, Thailand.
  • A man walks a plank at a boat construction yard in central Vietnam.
  • Horse with the good hair in the wilds of northern Mongolia.
  • A man polishes a jade bracelet in Mandalay, Myanmar.
  • A young girl in bunny ears in the Old Quarter.
  • A fruit seller on Long Bien Bridge. Simple.
  • A view of the sprawling mountainside village of Kohima, the capital of Nagaland state in northeastern India.
  • A typical market scene in District 5. Motorbikes, makeup, mayhem.
  • A man burns incense at Thien Hau Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
  • Various prayer flags in Kandy, Sri Lanka and in Bangkok, Thailand.
  • A sublime seaside scene in Fort Kochi, India.
  • A woman swims off the coast of Phu Quoc island in southern Vietnam.
  • A panorama view of karsts and boats and a man walking in Halong Bay in northern Vietnam.
  • A pinhole photograph from the coast of northern California.
  • A man drags a fishing boat in from the sea on the Jaffna Peninsula in northern Sri Lanka.
  • A young man gets splashed by a waterfall in Koh Kong, Cambodia.
  • Blue lights in an underground passage in downtown Hong Kong.
  • A young bride's Henna'd hands bearing her husband's name in Delhi, India.
  • An homage to the Japanese photographer Shōji Ueda at an onsen in northern Japan.
  • A view over the Taedong river in Pyongyang, North Korea, with the unfinished, towering Ryugyong Hotel in the background.
  • A young woman stirs a cocktail on the banks of the Saigon River.
  • Sunset at a small winery in the mountains near Inle Lake in Shan State, Myanmar.
  • Young boys swim and dive at the Keerimalai Springs, sacred pools fed by sea waters on the northern shores of the Jaffna Peninsula in Sri Lanka.
  • A woman walks through the Ban Anou night market in Vientiane, Laos.
  • Dusk and escalators in Shanghai.
  • Fishing boats off the coast of Con Dao island in southern Vietnam.
  • A man gets his mustache dyed on the streets of Kolkata, India.
  • Lek and his elephant, Bonchu, in Khao Sok in southern Thailand.
  • Artist Ye Yongqing at work on a new painting in the studio of his home in Dali City, China.
  • An older Mongolian man prepares to take part in the wrestling segment of the traditional Naadam festival in Tsagaannuur, northern Mongolia.
  • Two men attempt to break in a wild horse in northern Mongolia.
  • A group of novice Burmese monks watch a performance in a small town outside of Mandalay, Myanmar.
  • A small bamboo bridge along the Nam Khan River in Luang Prabang, Laos.
  • A fisherman takes an afternoon nap beneath a bridge on the Thu Bon river in Hoi An, Vietnam.
  • Schoolboys play a game of football in a dirt lot in Margao, India.
  • Young boys drink tea and mill about in Ha Giang province in northern Vietnam.
  • Two girlfriends with matching tattoos of their favorite Vietnamese food.
  • Typical traffic in Hanoi, Vietnam.
  • A festival boat on Inle Lake in Shan State, Myanmar.
  • A lone boat on a lonely river in Luang Prabang, Laos.
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