When the Taliban destroyed hundreds of religious statues and temples in Afghanistan a couple years ago, Brussels native Tito Dupret, like many others throughout the world, was shocked and dismayed at the loss and destruction of part of the world’s cultural heritage. What’s unusual about Tito is that he decided to do something about it. Tito left on his mission in July of 2001, while the world was still a different place. With the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites as a guide, he embarked upon an odyssey to document these sites, starting with the most fragile first. His completed VRs are available at the recently launched World Heritage Tour website. There are 730 properties in 125 countries on the World Heritage List. To date, the WHTour has covered only 52 sites, just over 7%.

The WHTour’s mission is to compile a documentary image bank with panoramic pictures (VRs) of all sites registered as World Heritage by the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). The hope is that these images will raise awareness of the necessity to preserve these valuable sites while also promoting the notion of sustainable tourism. The purpose of all this work is twofold: enhancing our knowledge of the world, thereby increasing tolerance for our differences; raising awareness that our planet belongs to all of us and requires our care and attention.

Tito is currently at work in China, and we spoke with him recently about his project.
First, a special thanks to our friend Hans Nyberg of Panoramas.dk who, in what increasingly seems to be a pattern, was the first to bring our attention to Tito Dupret’s work and project. Hans has been following Tito’s progress from it’s inception and has a fullscreen of Tito’s Angkor Wat VR available online.

You’ve been traveling for over two years now. Where have you been?

I left Belgium on July 4th 2001. I traveled through Russia, 3 months, China 7 months, Vietnam 1 month, Cambodia 2 weeks, Thailand 2 months, Lao 3 weeks, Malaysia 3 weeks, Indonesia 3 weeks, Philippines 3 weeks and Egypt 6 weeks.

The budget until now has been around 10,000 Euros for 18 months. I have traveled by land almost exclusively, except when air transportation is compulsory (once in south Russia on the black sea and once in Borneo, over the jungle to reach a park).

For the itinerary, I look at the country maps for a ‘moon view’, list the WH sites on it and decide my way according to the climate and local transport information.

So, the biggest problem is to find the shortest way, following the sun and the season. But the shortest doesn’t mean the straightest. For instance, I was in Juzhaigou valley in the winter and came back the next autumn for photographic reasons exclusively.

For the calendar, I have no schedule and adapt myself to the situation, trying to respect the visa periods on my passport.

Are you traveling on your own or do you have help?

I’m all alone. I have a small bag, weighting 13.5 kilos, with few things; about half of it is a portable computer, a monopod and a digital camera.

I’ve financed everything from my own pocket until now, having sort of three lives at the same time: one for traveling on a ‘12 Euro/day’ budget basis (traveling for such a long time is real work, I can tell you); one for making VRs for WHTour (400+ right now); one for working for clients through the Internet, which I’ve stopped these days in order to dedicate the next three months to putting all the missing VRs online.

What inspired you to start this project?

I have been a multimedia director for 12 years and focused my work on documentary things as much as possible (See my previous work). I made one video film in Lalibela, Ethiopia, which is on the WH list, and actually loved it. What convinced me leave Belgium to travel on my own were two things: an unquenchable thirst for travel, and a deep shock when I learned that the Taliban had destroyed the giant Buddhas in Afghanistan. I left 2 months before September 11th, when it was still a ‘less important’ issue. Since then, more sites of Afghanistan have been added to the WH List.

How do you manage to put the VRs together and get them online while you’re on the road?

For shooting, I use a monopod, Nikon 4500 and wide lens. That means 24 photos for one VR so I can also use them for printing issues. For post-production, I use a PowerBook Titanium, REALVIZ Stitcher 3.5 and Photoshop. The website is made with Adobe Golive. I connect myself through phones in hotels, private families welcoming me and through cybercafes.

And what kind of support have you received to date?

I’ve received lots of encouragement and crucial help from four of my friends, who are part of the WHTour's staff now. One of them is dealing with accounting matters while another is offering his servers, dealing with backups and how to handle the data. Two others are helping to prepare a folder so that I can present the project to institutions, organizations, companies, etc, with the hope of raising funds. Also, Hans Nyberg has followed my project right from the beginning and I thank him so much for that.

What type of support from the VR community would you like to see, what would be the most helpful?

Media attention is important and I thank you for that. I’ve received very little feedback from the VR community to date, other than those looking to collaborate or explaining that they had the idea years ago. Maybe it will be better thanks to your intervention and we can try to find a way to integrate the VR community in the WHTour. But we will not put films from VR artists on the WHTour for several reasons: as a journalist and thus for ethical reasons, I cannot check if the coverage from outside artists is fully professional about what is exactly World Heritage or not. As a photographer, I have my own eye and try to put myself out of the VRs' soul. This is all about documentary stuff, not art and this is sometimes hard to explain to other photographers. Additionally, the WHTour will never have the means to handle the copyrights of outside photographers and this can be a touchy subject.

The real aim of the WHTour is to finance itself first, to cover all sites and then to offer its website, copyright-free, to the UNESCO for raising money that can help preservation, maintenance, etc of the WH sites. This will take a matter of years of course.

We are working on different methods to incorporate links to relevant sites and will post that information in the Partnership section of our site. For instance, we might propose a fee to be integrated here, just for the beginning. As soon as we have reached our financial balance through banners and funding, it will be free and the only condition will remain the quality of the work. But I would like to point out that this not only a VR adventure, but also a traditional photo one for documentation, publications, etc. I am not a VR maniac. I love all imaging worlds.

A recent posting to Apple’s Quicktime VR lists asked about your association with UNESCO, can you elaborate on this?

I met the World Heritage Center Board in Alexandria, Egypt last October while making a presentation during a conference about World Heritage and Multimedia. After my presentation, the Director encouraged my work with the WHTour.

It would be a pleasure to give my material to UNESCO and the World Heritage Fund, but we need to fund this on our own first. They encourage us and they check the integrity of our goals and leave us the project to grow in the way we want. So, they know about us and look at our work. We’re hoping to have official feedback in the near future. But the real subject here is the need to document the World Heritage sites with professional pictures and distribute the VRs on the Internet to raise awareness.

I believe your most recently published shoot was that of Angkor Wat and that you're currently working on the Great Wall. Can you give me your impressions on these shoots?

Most recently, shooting sessions were in Egypt, last November, and the climax was the Sethi, the first tomb in the Valley of the King, which is closed to the public for more than 10 years now. I had these authorizations thanks to the conference in Alexandria. It is the biggest and the most well preserved tomb of all. It was the most emotional photo session of my life.

Angkor Wat is a "must go" destination in one's life, that's for sure. I hope that VRs online show that also. The Great wall was covered on October 18, 2002 and that was my birthday. I was alone but will never forget that 31st birthday gift!

I have put three VRs of Wudangshan in China online because a fire destroyed part of it last month. This sadly proves the real need to document the WH in photos. I loved this exceptional place because it is still in the hands of local believers, so it is not only for tourism purposes. The soul of this Taoist extremely important place was intact. I really feel bad about this accident.

Where are you headed to next?

Next step is Karnak in Luxor, Egypt, because a friend of mine is willing to sponsor it.

After that I will be in India, which, because of pollution and population, is in real danger that in a few years, or even months, we will not be able to enjoy the sites the same way anymore. I have a real fear about all this. Then it will be South America and Africa. I focus on less developed countries because Europe and America are already represented on the web, thanks to our VR community.

How long do you estimate this project will take you?

The project should last about 10 years to cover all 730 WH sites in 125 countries and which are increasingly more each year. I call this the ‘nomad part’ of my life. I really hope with all my heart and my tiny brain to bring this project to completion.

The WHTour offers membership on three levels: VIP, for individuals, you can sponsor a VR for 30 Euros per year (for corporations, the fee is 50 Euros per VR) and you also receive the full newsletter; Standard, for 5 Euros per year you receive the newsletter; and Basic, which is free and you are notified that new VRs are online.

Read 'Tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Opened for VR Photographer'

Comment:
Thank you for featuring this very uplifting and inspiring account of one individual's attempt to light a candle instead of cursing the darkness! His pictures remind us of the nobility of the human spirit--across time and cultures. 2004-03-31 22:22:22
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