Rena Thiagarajan grew up on the east coast of India in the city formerly known as Madras. A recovering corporate attorney, Rena spent almost seven years in Silicon Valley working with start- up companies to fund her passions for design, art and travel. Before law school, Rena worked for a while as an engineer on oil-rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, during which period she learned that Drum tobacco can lead to many a friendship. Rena is also a painter, and has traveled to over fifty countries, often solo. Close

Born to parents who met in the Yemen and lived in cities around the world, Katherine Preston's childhood in London was spent listening to adventure tales. When she graduated from university she set off on the typically British 'gap year'; swimming with crocodiles in Kenya, learning how to salsa dance in Cuba and hiking through the jungles of Laos. After a stint doing a very sensible job in asset management, she decided to pursue her passion for writing and spent a year hitch-hiking, dumpster-diving and couch-surfing around America researching and writing her first book, Out With It (published by Simon & Schuster). Besides storytelling for Project Bly, Katherine has been published in the London Times, Salon, Tatler, The Millions and is a regular contributor for the Huffington Post and Psychology Today. Close

Matt Sears was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. He spent most of his childhood drawing and painting, and as a junior even designed a mural for his local high school featuring a pair of polar bears—apparently the school's mascot. Realizing that this arctic frieze would be nearly impossible to top, Matt soon moved into the digital world, earning a degree in computer science/business. He would go on to co-found Littlelines, a web development and design firm, with his brother, Josh, in 2007. A proud Ruby on Rails engineer, these days Matt strives to combine the high-tech with the aesthetically pleasing. Close

After a brilliant elementary school acting career, in which she thrilled audiences with her penetrating portrayal of Templeton the Rat in an otherwise mediocre production of Charlotte's Web, Corianne developed a terrible case of stage fright and was forced to retire from the spotlight. She soon turned her creative impulses towards writing, where she found ample opportunity for hamming it up with none of the attendant cold sweats. Since then, she has been a finalist for Glimmer Train's Short-Story Award for New Writers, and graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a degree in Literature. Close

Chris began his web-developing career programming Pacman games on his Texas Instruments calculator in the eighth grade. Ready for the big screen, he soon moved on to computers, creating a flash game website at the age of sixteen. Today he works as a Ruby on Rails engineer at Littlelines, in Dayton, Ohio. Away from the office, he enjoys reading Alastair Reynolds science fiction novels and watching movies with his wife; having exhausted the supply of available chick flicks, they are currently waiting impatiently for something as good as Music and Lyrics to come out. Close

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Caitlin Flemming grew up shopping the world’s flea markets with her mother, and developed a love for interiors early on. Having moved from Mexico City to Portland, OR in the 3rd grade, Caitlin spent most of her time at the barre in ballet class, but her career as a dancer was cut short by a stress fracture. She would go on to major in International Business in college, and started her popular design and lifestyle blog Sacramento Street as a creative journal in 2009. Today she is an independent interior designer and stylist based in San Francisco. Close

Rex Sorgatz is a designer, writer, entrepreneur, and media consultant based in New York. His consulting agency, Kinda Sorta Media, develops digital strategies for media companies, startups, and brands. Wide-ranging clients have included NBC Olympics, Newsweek, Saturday Night Live, Rookie, IFC, and Buzzfeed. He is a former Executive Producer of msnbc.com and a contributing editor at Wired. His writing has appeared in New York, Spin, NPR, and many other places. He interacts with the internet at @fimoculous. Offline, he's been seen longboarding in Montauk. Close

Growing up in China, India and Indonesia, Theodore Kaye found a natural passion in photographing the world. While majoring in Film at Yale, he studied Uzbek and Farsi and then went to work as a newspaper editor and mountain guide in Central Asia before settling on a photo career. As a former staff photographer at Rhythms Monthly, a Chinese-language geographic magazine, he has covered stories throughout South, Central and East Asia. His award-winning work has been featured in the New York Times, the Associated Press, McSweeney’s, CNN, and the National Film Board of Canada, among others. He enjoys rock climbing and learning new languages. Close

Jessica Comingore grew up doing competitive gymnastics in the glamorous San Fernando Valley. She would later make good use of her perfectionist ways at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, where she studied interior design. After graduating, she worked for a few L.A. design firms, lending her good taste to people with nice real estate. A triple threat, Jessica helps clients with branding, web design, and photography. Recent travel adventures include a trip to Spain, from which she brought back no few bottles of Ribera del Duero wine. She started her popular lifestyle blog, blog.jessicacomingore.com, in 2007.Close

A theatre major at San Francisco State, Rod Hipskind was perusing the message board one day after school when he saw an ad for a job at the now-defunct Beaver Brothers Prop House. Over the course of the next few years, he mastered the art of prop-management, and post-graduation, landed a gig schlepping merchandise from warehouse to studio for Restoration Hardware. Through talent, charm, and hard work, Rod eventually became a stylist, and these days he splits his time between freelance assignments for major retailers and running an antiques store called The Perish Trust with his best friend, photographer Kelly Ishikawa. He also still finds time for acting, having most recently appeared as Grendel in Brooklyn-based theatre troupe Banana Bag & Bodice’s production of Beowolf. Close

Kelly Ishikawa began her career as all great photographers do: working on her high school yearbook. After honing her skills while studying abroad in London, Kelly headed to art school, and from there to Sandbox Studio, where, one fateful shoot, she met her aesthetic soulmate and partner-in-crime, Rod Hipskind. Together, they would hatch a plan to take over the living rooms of the world with industrial age Americana by opening up their own store, The Perish Trust. These days Kelly alternates between keeping shop and taking on the odd freelance assignment. Her most recent? A whirlwind tour of pop-up restaurants in Japan. Close

Justina Blakeney is a designer, author and stylist with a bohemian heart. Her award-winning blog, blog.justinablakeney.com inspires thousands of people every day to get creative with their home decor. Justina styled the Hanoi Lookbook for Project Bly. Close

Michael David Rose grew up in the Midwest and currently resides in San Francisco. He opened his own photography firm, MDRP, in 2003, and has worked with architects, theaters, designers, and manufacturers across the country. Recent favorite experiences include a journey up the Panama Canal aboard the National Geographic vessel the Sea Lion, and a trip to Washington, during which he photographed 64 locations in 15 days. Michael’s favorite camera to use is a Horseman SW-D II Pro. When he’s not snapping away, you can find him hiking, sailing, or using the special fly-fishing pattern he's developed to catch some monster salmon. Close

Photography entered the life of Shriti Banerjee like a thunderbolt. Born in Bombay, Shriti spent the first eighteen years of her life in Kuwait, before returning to the city of her birth for college, where she would study fashion design and business. She started taking pictures while working for a designer, and soon found herself smitten with her new hobby, dreaming about angles and compositions every night. A mild identity crisis ensued, but Shriti would eventually give in to her photographic urges when a cinematographer (who would become her husband) gave her his camera and told her to go forth. An animal person—dogs follow her around the streets of Bombay in a way that could only be described as "piedpiperesque"-Shriti is currently working on projects related to animal welfare and wildlife conservation. She recently returned from the Goan jungle, where she had some amazing experiences with giant moths. Close

Growing up in China, India and Indonesia, Theodore Kaye found a natural passion in photographing the world. While majoring in Film at Yale, he studied Uzbek and Farsi and then went to work as a newspaper editor and mountain guide in Central Asia before settling on a photo career. As a former staff photographer at Rhythms Monthly, a Chinese-language geographic magazine, he has covered stories throughout South, Central and East Asia. His award-winning work has been featured in the New York Times, the Associated Press, McSweeney’s, CNN, and the National Film Board of Canada, among others. He enjoys rock climbing and learning new languages. Close

In June 2012, Shantanu Starick, a professional photographer from Byron Bay Australia, set out with the not-so-unusual plan to see the world. What made his journey unique was his decision to travel for as long as possible without spending a single cent. Using the age-old barter system he started trading his photography services for food, shelter and transport. To date he has traveled five of the seven continents of the globe, trading with everyone from companies like VSCO, Vimeo and Wunderlist to local artists, musicians and designers. Having made the decision to continue the journey until the well of human curiosity and kindness dries up, there seems to be no end in sight. You can follow Shantanu's journey over on the http://thepixeltrade.com/. Close

Szymon Kochański’s girlfriend will tell you that something happens to her normally-reserved boyfriend when he’s behind a camera; suddenly, he’s smiling; suddenly, he’s outgoing; suddenly, he’s communicating with total strangers, often in a language he doesn’t speak. Growing up in the seaside city of Gdynia, Poland, Kochański dreamed of traveling well before he had the means to do so. After graduating with a degree in computer science, he worked as an IT guy until he’d saved up enough money to quit his job and go see the world, headphones on and camera in hand. For a year-and-a-half he backpacked through places like Thailand, China, and Mexico, upgrading his camera along the way. Eventually he found himself in Bolivia, where he met a woman who told him that he “danced quite well—for a gringo,” and fell in love. He’s been living there ever since and still feels like he’s traveling. His assistant on this project was Olivier Rios. Close

Having grown up in Holt, Michigan, David Hagerman’s love affair with Asia began in college when he traveled to the Philippines to visit his parents, who’d moved there after his biologist father was assigned to the International Rice Institute in Los Banos. Just a few years later, Hagerman would head to China to teach English, arriving with a brand new camera and 14 rolls of color slide film—the most he’d ever seen at one time. These days, he lives in George Town, Malaysia, and might take that many shots in a single morning on assignment for publications like the New York Times, Saveur, and the Wall Street Journal. Recently returned from Tamil Nadu, India, where he explored the bazaars and street food of Chennai and Madurai, Hagerman is now looking forward to his next project—a book on Turkish food in collaboration with his wife, food writer Robyn Eckhardt. In his spare time, you might find him moonlighting as DJ Rubberlegs on Turkish radio, where he spins grooves by the likes of James Brown, Otis Redding, and the Four Tops. Close

Born in the Netherlands to a Dutch mother and an American Father, Ehrin Macksey’s thirst for travel began as a teenager when his mother who homeschooled him took him on the ultimate field trip to Israel and Egypt just before the Gulf War. It was a lesson in history, politics, religion and culture he will never forget. After graduating from the University of Florida, Ehrin left to explore the world once again, spending time working in the New Zealand film industry before serendipitously finding himself in Hanoi in 2006. He fell in love with the city and rumor has it, a women, and has called Hanoi home ever since. An award winning photojournalist, videographer and Eddie Adams Workshop alumnus, Ehrin has created unique images and videos for nonprofits, magazines and Fortune 500 companies such as Monocle, M·A·C Aids, Travel + Leisure, BBC, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Canon, Johnson & Johnson, UNICEF, UNESCO and Save The Children. When he is not exploring the world camera in hand, Ehrin can be found on the banks of Tay Ho Lake with his wife and new son. Wise words from Ehrin who married the women he met years ago in Hanoi: “Experimenting and keeping things fresh is what it's about in all relationships and photography is no different.”

Born in India to a Ghanaian father and Filipina mother, and having lived in countries as diverse as Swaziland and Australia, Nyani Quarmyne has met a lot of different kinds of people. What has all this diverse experience taught him? Well, basically that we’re all the same, and it is this sense of our shared humanity that Nyani attempts to show in his photography. Having previously worked as a guitarist, pilot, entrepreneur and over-paid corporate consultant, these days Nyani is a full-time professional photographer. Recent projects include documenting a mental health clinic in Koidu, Sierra Leone that uses both medicine-based psychiatry and faith healers to treat its patients, and examining the effects of climate change for people living on the Ghanaian coast. Nyani’s work has been featured in The Guardian, The Independent, and the New York Times, amongst many other publications. He lives in Accra, Ghana. Close

Marcela Taboada was born in Puebla, Mexico, the daughter of a pilot and grandniece of an astronomer. A self-taught photographer, she learned how to take pictures on weekend jaunts with her father, who flew her and her siblings to explore surrounding towns. After graduating with a B.A. in Graphic Arts from the University of the Americas A.C., she initially worked at a design firm. Her career as a photographer began when she started documenting the nursing home where her great-aunt was living, and she would go on to photograph subjects as diverse as the Oaxaca Guerreros AAA baseball team, Indonesia, and the women of a Oaxacan town called San Miguel Amatitlán, who rebuilt their town after a devastating earthquake. Her work has appeared in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including Cuartoscuro, México Desconocido, Elle Décor, Hasselblad Forum, GEO Germany, and the New York Times. She has lived in Oaxaca, Mexico since 1986. Close

Jakub Śliwa is a Kraków native, whose early fascination with photography and the magic of the darkroom became a lifelong pursuit. Though he has worked for major Polish publishing houses and advertising agencies, his primary interest is documentary photography, focused on the human condition in the contemporary world. His portfolio spans subjects as diverse as the Communist era “Milk Bars” of Krakow, illegal gold mining in northern Sudan, and the Cairo garbage collectors known as zabaleen. He has received numerous awards for his work, including second place in the BZ WBK Press Foto Contest and an honorable mention in the Prix de la Photographie, Paris. He is a graduate of the National Film School in Lodz, as well as the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where he studied Oriental Philology. He says his knowledge of Sanskrit still comes in handy in India, where he is currently working on several projects. Close

As an artistic kid growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, Erika Kohnen spent her early days making papier-mâché canopic jars for her ever-appreciative mother. At Brown University, she studied International Relations and thought she might like to join the CIA, but wasn’t good enough at keeping secrets. After a stint working for a multinational company that specializes in consumer goods, she considered a career as a starving artist, but in the end a desire for basic nourishment won out and she headed off to Miami Ad School in San Francisco, where she studies art direction. Her favorite traveling experience was visiting Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Close

Kyana Moghadam was born in the East Bay, California, and raised throughout the country. She landed her first job as a waitress when she was just a kid, carrying her father's famous kebab koobideh from the kitchen to the dining table. Later, she began to write short stories with her mother, a poet. Eventually, both jobs turned real-world, and she spent many years working in restaurants, newspapers and small publishing houses. After graduating college, Kyana set off on a mission to learn more about her Iranian ancestry. Her travels took her throughout northern Tajikistan and southern India, and eventually landed her in an oral history Masters program at Columbia University, where she produced a multimedia collection of life histories with Iranian Americans. Since then, Kyana has returned to the city of her birth, where she still works in the kitchen, writes stories, and asks a whole lot of questions. Close

Beth Morris grew up near Lake Erie in a town called Vermilion, named for its famous red clay. As a child she was always drawing or painting, and would later be inspired by artists as diverse as Georgia O’Keefe and Michelangelo. Having originally started college as a business major, Beth kept taking art class and eventually graduated from The School of Advertising Art. Now she now works as a web designer at Littlelines. She currently lives in Dayton, Ohio, where you can find her whizzing down the pavement with her husband on a long board. Close

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Josh Sears grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and credits the art of graphic novels as much as posters by Alphonse Mucha for steering him onto the artistic path. After working as Visual Marketing Manager at Scott Hull Associates, he would go on to co-found Littlelines, a web design and development firm. He is also the founder and standing Creative Director of PaperTelevision, where he creates mobile apps and websites. In his spare time, Josh can be found nostalgically perusing flea markets for vintage comic books, along with various and assorted specimens of '80s gadgetry. Close