A couple of days ago I returned from a bit of whirlwind tour to Rome, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia accompanying The Archbishop of Canterbury and his team on a trip where they met politicians, faith leaders, members of the Anglican Communion, internally displaced persons and refugees across those four different countries in a mere eight days. Lots of flights (six in total), lots of being driven around and a few opportunities to shoot meaningful images.

Inevitably a large percentage of my pictures were just recording who met who in which grand surroundings they happened to be in. We met His Holiness Pope Francis at The Vatican and then witnessed two very grand occasions in St Peter’s Square. We travelled to Baku in Azerbaijan where several meetings took place including one at the British Ambassador’s residence with a range of faith leaders. From there to Tbilisi in Georgia and a packed couple of days. The first was meetings with Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican leaders as well as visiting the Peace Cathedral with its adjoining Church, Synagogue and Mosque before going to Gori and the administrative boundary line between South Ossetia and the rest of Georgia.

The most emotional part of the trip was in Armenia where we were hosted by His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians but it wasn’t until we travelled away from Holy Etchmiadzin and through Yerevan to the Tsaghkadzor Province where we met a group of recently arrived refugees who had fled their homes after the outbreak of conflict in Nagorno-Krarabakh that it became a tough trip. They weren’t hungry and they weren’t in danger but meeting refugees is always a sobering experience. If that wasn’t enough, we spent several hours at the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex where the plight of many generations of Armenians is laid bare.

Much of what I have done as a photographer has felt important. Telling stories of real people has always been worth doing and even when I have used my professional skills to tell stories to promote commercial interests has been enjoyable but somehow getting to meet people on trips like this feels even more important.

Anyway, here are a few frames from the trip:

Techie Notes: For those who follow this blog to learn about equipment, here’s a quick recap of what I took on the trip. 3 x Canon EOS R6 MkII camera bodies, Canon RF 14-35 f4L USM, Canon RF 24-105 f4L USM, Canon RF 70-200 f4L USM, Canon RF 100-500 f4.5-7.1L USM plus lots of memory cards, batteries, Canon flash units and a 13″ Apple MacBook Air in Domke and Think Tank bags. Everything was edited as we went and uploaded to Photoshelter along with a selection of Live Images for immediate social media use.