While Brent Bishop didn’t initially set out to aid those around the world in chronicling their lives, that’s exactly what happed to the Tigard-born and bred resident.
Over the last decade, Bishop — who recently returned to Tigard for his 50th class reunion at Tigard High School — has been practicing what he calls “respectful travel,” having visited 60 countries in all.
During that time, he’s become a "storyographer," engaging with those he meets along the way and then letting them tell their own stories.
“With my travels as a benefactor, I provide aids to help others to tell their own stories by giving them laptops, phones and cameras, to tell their own ‘storyographies,’” he said, noting that the only continent he hasn’t been to is Antarctica.
Exploring culture, new lives
Having spent 25 years in property development, Bishop left that field in 1999 and moved to Ireland where he managed a youth hostel for a decade. For the last 10 years, he’s traveled.
Bishop, who is part of the pioneering Bishop family who helped settle Tigard, said one of the first people he gifted equipment to was Lusia Santos, a woman he and his son met while attending the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. Santos helped him find the Olympics ticket office, and the two chatted for awhile before Bishop gave her his business card.
The two stayed in touch, and Bishop was so interested in the country that he wanted to return, though without visiting the more tourist-centered locales. He contacted Santos.
“I wanted to live in a slum and see what it was like to live in a slum in Brazil — the most dangerous slum in Brazil, actually — and it happened that she happened to live there. She said I could stay with her, but I’d have to bring a sleeping bag because she had no furniture,” he recalled.
Meeting her in Rocinha, Brazil, in 2017, Bishop did the math and estimated it would have cost him between $1,400 to $2,000 for a two-week stay at hotel. Since he was staying with Santos, Bishop decided to use that money to purchase her two beds, a couch and a table.
“They’re respecting you by taking the time to show you their culture, and I’m taking time to be respectful to give them a better life,” Bishop said, regarding his philosophy on respectful travel.
Soon he discovered Santos liked photography and ended up purchasing a laptop, a camera and a cell phone for her so she could tell her own stories. For those two weeks they went out and photographed the area.
Sharing stories in Zambia
That same year, Bishop traveled to Zambia where he appeared on a radio show to talk about what he does. That’s when a listener came to the radio station telling Bishop how he knew how to use a camera, not by owning one but by reading the owner’s manual.
“I gave him a camera and now he’s one of the five best photographers in Zambia,” Bishop said.
Bishop believes he’s given about 20 technology packages away, estimating that 10 people have used them essentially as toys with the remaining using them as tools for storytelling (with the goal at some point) of making it their livelihoods. Regardless of how they decide to use the equipment, Bishop is supportive and pleased.
“Each of them (present) a different story, which is fine because that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want to be a foreigner (who comes) in and says, ‘this is how these people live and this is what they do.’ I’d rather have the tell their own story,” Bishop said.
'The man of the stars'
Over the years his travels have included meeting with a couple from Cuba and a woman who works for a news station in Namibia. He also befriended Beerma Bishnoi, a man who lives in India and is a member of the Bishnoi faith, an offshoot of Hinduism founded on 29 principles, most of which promote environmental stewardship.
“I gave him one camera back in 2017 and he has 400,000 followers on Facebook,” he said of Bishnoi.
His friendship has grown to the point that the pair recently opened the Bishnoi/Bishop Animal Sanctuary in Rajasthan, India, a facility that cares for any animal that gets injured.
While in Botswana, Bishop said he gave the bush people there the first camera they had ever seen in what is believed to be their 70,000 years of existence. They, in turn, dubbed him “the man of the stars.”
The moniker came after he photographed them at night under the stars in Ghanzi, Botswana, noting they don’t have permanent shelters.
Bishop said he enjoys helping people and especially likes to help out if he sees a need.
Traveling is about people, not places
Such was the case on an island off of Madagascar where he discovered a community whose only entertainment was creating a disco every Saturday night. Their only problem was that they had only enough gasoline to power lights and equipment for four hours.
“I went back there and I brought them a movie projector with a four-hour battery. I brought in a solar panel. I brought a battery and converter and now they have cinema at night,” said Bishop. “So that was a solution for those people.”
Bishop said his travel is not about geography, history or landmarks, but about people.
He frames it in another way as well, saying “almost everything you see on social media is made up. Everything I do is spontaneous.”
After talking with a pregnant waitress while traveling to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Bishop asked the manager about tipping. He was told the custom was that the tip would go to everyone. So, Bishop tipped the staff, along with an extra $10 he said was for the woman’s future child. He estimated that the tip was the equivalent of about three days wages.
“So I leave and I left my card and a month later, she named the baby after me. So that’s really nice, right?” Bishop said. He continues to have contact with the woman, Brenda Dube, and her son, Brandon, to this day, visiting them frequently.
“When I meet people, it’s not a one off — ‘oh this is really cute,’” he said. Instead, Bishop said he wants to develop longer term relationships with people.
Passing the torch of photography
Now he wants to turn over the work he does to those with the tech gear.
“They're going to take over. I’m calling this my ‘baton tour.’ I’m passing the baton,” Bishop said.
What he’s done is created a blog page , Earth Personally, with those folks to share their photos and stories.
“And what I want to spend the next two years doing is helping them to generate their own income from the blog and other social media,” he said, adding that the goal would be to help them with social media and content so they are able to earn their own money.
He said his isn’t a learn-to-help-yourself philosophy, rather it’s a learn-to-help-yourself-by-helping-others philosophy.
“It's not how do I get something for myself, but how do I learn something that I can share with others?” Bishop said.
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