About

“In this mortal frame of mine which is made of a hundred bones and nine orifices there is something, and this something is called a wind-swept spirit for lack of a better name, for it is much like a thin drapery that is torn and swept away at the slightest stir of the wind” – Basho (1644 – 1694), The Records of A Travel Worn Satchel

My name is David Harden and TravelWornSatchel is a personal blog that captures not only some of my travels but other projects I’ve worked on. I take photographs and record ambient sounds, interviews and narratives.

My first recorder was a tape-to-tape solid state device which I got as a present on my seventh birthday….I still have it along with some old Nikons and Fuji 6×9 cameras I used way back in the pre-digital age. Today, my kit consists of a Zoom H6 and Roland R-05 recorder and an early version of the Fujifilm X100s which I bought second-hand in Tokyo.

I started travelling aged sixteen when I hitch-hiked to Greece from London during a school summer holiday. After leaving school I set out from the UK to travel overland to Australia, but only made it as far as Afghanistan. I returned home two years later.

Before working in the corporate world (for fifteen long years) I was a freelance photojournalist and picture editor for national and international news organisations which include The Observer, The Independent and Independent on Sunday. Now I’ve returned to what drives me forward the most: recording sounds, taking photographs and travel.

I have been very fortunate to have travelled and worked in most European countries and throughout the Middle- and Far-East and the Indian sub-continent.

David