In 1895, at 59 years of age, Mark Twain was the preeminent entertainer in the world.

And he was broke.

So Twain, his wife Olivia and their daughter, Clara, embarked on an around-the-world lecture tour.

When he finished, he wrote "Following the Equator".

In researching this project, I read his book many times as well as every letter written by every member of the group. And I have pulled passages from the book and passages from letters and paired them with my photographs in an effort to show how the world has changed and, in some cases, how it has not changed.

In all, this project took me through 11 countries in 10 months and was financed with 9 credit cards and a film grant from Kodak.

Some highlights were photographing and being blessed by Mother Teresa, photographing Nelson Mandela in New Zealand, South Africa and England (with the Queen).

I photographed an elephant-relocation project in South Africa's Kruger National Park and a Tamil Tiger terrorist bombing in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

But basically the book is comprised of my color photographs of everyday life.

I've received back-cover review blurbs from legendary photo editor John G. Morris, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss and documentary photographer Ken Light.

This is a 13x11 book with 141 pages, 83 of my color photos and 7 black-and-white photos of Twain.