The Pixel Trade Project

The Pixel Trade

The trade of photography for necessities and travel. Shantanu Starick trades his skills and talents as a photographer. The end result is Shantanu making an end profit from the images he took using a published book.

"Between the 25th June 2012 and the 25th November 2015 I successfully traveled to all seven
continents of the globe trading my services as a photographer for life’s basic necessities.
No currency, no contracts, only my camera and the curiosity of a cat.
In exchange for my skills as a professional photographer, my subjects provided a roof to
sleep under, food to keep the stomach happy and a ticket or ride to the next trade.
Shelter, food and transport traded for whatever photography work was needed.
After 1238 days of continuous shooting, I set off for the final 10 day trade to Antarctica, thus completing the
Pixel Trade Project. Every continent without spending a cent of money on anything in the process.
What happened during the 3 years and 5 months is a story much bigger than the photographs I captured or the goal I set out to achieve. If you are a little bit curious of what actually happened and not what I told the press over the duration of
the project, then I would like to invite you to keep in the loop with the workings of a very honest piece of writing
I’ll be working on for release in 2017."

Without spending a dime, Australian photographer Shantanu Starick has successfully completed 187 trades, traversed five continents and remained on-the-go for the last 29 months. Inspired by the "sharing economy" Starick has made a full fledged living out of travel and photography with a project he calls The Pixel Trade. Starick has photographed hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, weddings and more in exchange for the basic essentials, transportation and anything else that he needs to survive.