Kien Lam: around the world
in under 5 minutes

Lam quit his job as a financial strategist in San Francisco to travel. In a recent interview with a travel blogger, Lam said, "I wanted to travel for more than 2 weeks at a time. Whenever I used to visit a country and meet other travelers, I was always envious that they had 2 months or 6 months or a year to travel. My entire “vacation” or “travels” was just one of a long list of places they were visiting on one trip. I felt like I wanted to do it now, rather than put it off for later."

How did he decide which countries to visit? "That was hard. I wanted to start in London to see some friends and then follow the sun and warm weather. 2010 was a particularly cold year in San Francisco and I just wanted to go where it was warm. I had places I wanted to visit, and made my decisions from country to country as I arrived."

Lam attributed his interest in photography to his early days at Penn — and the DP. "I took a Introductory Photography course my freshman year in college," and then joined the DP. "Having access to professional equipment and shooting real events taught me a lot about photography," he said. "The rest I learned on my own through shooting and a lot of trial and error."