Portraits: Moments of Intimacy on the Road by Tom Lutz

For years, when traveling, I found myself getting in conversations with people when I took their pictures, and started to consult with them―showing them the digital shot, then retaking it until we had one they were happy with. It gave us a reason to interact, and a way to do so, even when we shared no language in common. These portraits are the result of those extended sessions, those moments of accidental intimacy on the road. Readers of my three travel books (Drinking Mare’s Milk on the Roof of the World, And the Monkey Learned Nothing, and The Kindness of Strangers) may recognize some of the people, because a number of them feature in those stories. But each stands on its own―each a testament to the human ability to connect across the fault lines that keep us precariously divided. And each is a tribute to the accidental intimacy of the road.

“Portraits is one of those photo books you want to look at again and again, a world tour of humanity, and proof that Tom Lutz is not only skilled with a pen but a camera. To have earned the kind of trust that enabled him to make such revealing portraits, in such disparate cultures, is no small thing.”
―Judith Freeman, author of The Long Embrace and The Latter Days


Praise for Tom Lutz

"A smart and propulsive wild ride from the genteel mansions of Hartford Connecticut to the more louche corners of Asia. Lutz's debut is a technicolor noir, a smart, literary and literate thriller―like love child of Elmore Leonard and Graeme Greene. Original and deft and not to be missed."
―Ivy Pochoda, author of Wonder Valley and Those Girls

“To read And the Monkey Learned Nothing is to experience the thrill of visiting new places coupled with the pleasure of personal and cultural reflection. The sensitivity and moral intelligence that Tom Lutz brings to his writing allows us to discover the unity to be found in our wondrously diverse world.”
―Laila Lalami, author of The Moor’s Account, finalist, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

About the Author

Tom Lutz is the author of ten books, including the At Home in the World trilogy (Drinking Mare’s Milk on the Roof of the World, And the Monkey Learned Nothing, and The Kindness of Strangers), based on his travel to some 140 countries and territories. His books Aimlessness, Born Slippy, Crying, Doing Nothing, Cosmopolitan Vistas, and American Nervousness, 1903 have been translated into a dozen languages and have won the American Book Award among other honors. He is the founding editor in chief and publisher of Los Angeles Review of Books and a Distinguished Professor at University of California, Riverside. He lives in Los Angeles.