PARTNERSHIPS
The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is pleased to announce the appointment of multi-award-winning photographer Scott A. Woodward as its Ambassador for Visual Storytelling through Photography.
“Scott Woodward’s photography work is both engaging and inspiring,” said PATA CEO Liz Ortiguera. “Beyond his stunning images, which have appeared in National Geographic Magazine, Condé Nast Traveller and Travel + Leisure among many other international titles, his photographs also have the ability to deliver unique insights, given his innate respect and admiration for indigenous peoples, culture and heritage. They go beyond being just being pretty social media images by providing windows into the local culture, heritage and peoples. He’s also used his lens to shed light on solutions to global concerns including hospitality education for poverty alleviation and children’s cancer in developing nations.”
A man who is in tune with his humanity, Mr. Woodward has contributed his talent towards numerous philanthropic and anthro-cultural projects. These include documentaries for Sala Bai, a charity hospitality training institution in Cambodia that educates the poorest segment of society; for the benefit of children with cancer in developing nations (How I Live); as well as a reportage on the World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF’s) Elephant Flying Squad in the Tesso Nilo National Park in central Sumatra, focusing on wildlife and habitat protection. The PATA Foundation has ongoingly been a supporter of the Sala Bai school in Cambodia over the past ten years.
Increasingly, travellers are yearning for meaningful experiences abroad and are keen to capture these on camera to mark their journey of seeing and learning about the world and about themselves. And Scott Woodward is just the person to inspire them and show them how they can achieve this.
“According to our newly released edition of PATA’s Issues & Trends, one of the key drivers of positivity in online social sentiment about Asia Pacific travel is impactful photography. Certainly, people have been taking photos on their travels for as long as we can remember. But increasingly, travellers are yearning for meaningful experiences abroad and are keen to capture these on camera to mark their journey of seeing and learning about the world and about themselves. And Scott Woodward is just the person to inspire them and show them how they can achieve this,” she added.
Commenting on the appointment, Mr. Woodward said, “I am honoured and thrilled to be PATA’s Ambassador for Visual Storytelling through Photography. It was my father who introduced me to photography when I was a young boy. He taught me how to operate a manual camera, as well as how to compose an image and use light effectively. More importantly, he instilled in me a sense of curiosity and adventure, and these are the very traits that truly make me a photographer. I am excited to share what else I have learnt to help travellers capture compelling imagery that tells stories and speaks about their personal journeys.”
Originally from Canada, Scott Woodward is now based in the Philippines. He has spent the last 25 years living, exploring and telling stories across Asia. He regularly produces editorial features for publications around the world, and has photographed advertising campaigns for numerous global brands.
Mr. Woodward has received many accolades for his work, including being named “One of Asia’s Finest Photographers” by Nikon. He has also been twice honoured by inclusion in the Luerzer’s Archive of “200 Best Advertising Photographers Worldwide”. He’s a both a Nikon Professional Photographer and a frequent Apple collaborator and iPhone content creator and during the COVID-19 pandemic hosted one of Apple’s first internationally-broadcast virtual iPhone photography workshops.
Mr. Woodward will be sharing his expertise and experience at the Association’s upcoming Asia Pacific forum for travel, the PATA Annual Summit 2022 in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE (located just outside Dubai) from October 26-27.
