The desire to explore distant lands and exotic civilisations is a
defining attribute of one of our most famous travellers, Enrique Stanko Vráz (b. 1860 - d. 1932). Besides being a traveller, he was also a photographer, writer and collector. We learn most about his journeys from his books, in which his travel experiences were transmuted into literature, and from the countless photographs taken while staying in exotic countries. Vráz understood
photography to be the perfect means of documenting facts and events; he always preferred an informative to an emotional style. His captions written on glass negatives are of exceptional value.
Vráz would always try to describe and, more importantly, understand
the culture of any country he visited. He himself was a very
charismatic personality with an ability to make friends easily - which is why he was able to find out things that for other travellers and explorers would remain secret. His approach to people from other cultures was open-minded and friendly, but also carried a dose of healthy scepticism.