After hearing that the Taliban had destroyed hundreds of religious statues and temples in Afghanistan several years ago, Brussels native Tito Dupret found his life's mission: to document UNESCO's World Heritage sites in QTVR panoramas.

Tito left on his mission in July of 2001, while the world was still a different place, with the plan of photographing the most fragile sites first. Since then, Tito's mission has captured people's imagination and he has been profiled in The New York Times, CNN and many other magazines.

We last talked to Tito over a year ago and recently caught up with him again to see how his mission is progressing. You can view all of Tito’s work on his website, World Heritage Tour.

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Tito, it’s been some time since we last caught up with you in New York, photographing the Statue of Liberty. Since then you’ve appeared on CNN and held an exhibition at the World Monument Fund gallery in New York, can you tell us how those turned out in terms of exposure for your project?

CNN brought only a hundred web visitors, while The New York Times article brought thousands of visitors and collaboration with Conde Nast Traveller, which has an audience of one million readers. It looks like TV is not as powerful as one can think ;-)

The role of the World Monument Fund has grown to a real partnership. Now they use panoramas as an important tool to raise awareness about monuments in difficulties and also to show what has been done far away from where the money and competences are. I have a special section on the WHTour's website for them.

Thanks to WMF, I was also assigned to record Ground Zero in New York twice (June and December 2004) for the governmental agencies in charge of the site. This is for archiving and informational purposes: those panoramas will hopefully appear in the future Memorial. This demonstrates that panography can build its own "ses lettres de noblesse" too.

You shot some panoramas of the New York Planetarium while you were in the city; can you tell us more about that?

The Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York is another project with WMF. We would like to organize an event with the World Monument Funds' trustees in order to raise funds and show work that has been done so far and work that needs to be done. The spectacular use of a dome in this situation can truly move minds and awaken awareness about endangered monuments.

So we did tests with Carter "Barbie" Emmart, who is in charge at the planetarium and tells the story of the galaxy to loads of school children and visitors. You can meet him as well. He is a fantastic guy; I just love him!

These tests took place in October 2003 during a short stay in NYC to meet WMF for the first time. I made a small presentation of the WHTour at their offices and Carter Emmart was there, thanks to another great VR enthusiast: David Mcconville.

I wish I could meet more people but as I am constantly on roads and working only through emails, it's difficult to make VR-friends when you constantly stay abroad in developing countries and emails are just what they are: emails.

I’m sure you’ve had a busy year Tito; what locations have you visited since we last caught up?

In order of traveling: Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Nepal again, India again, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. We are now heading to Armenia, Georgia and Central Asia. But more than ever in these regions: Incha Allah!

So you were recently in Afghanistan; what sites did you shoot there? Did you run into any difficulties?

There are two WH Sites in Afghanistan: The minaret of Jam and the Bamiyan Valley. This second place is one of the main reasons I began my project shortly before 9/11, in July. In 2001, the Taliban of Afghanistan destroyed the biggest standing Buddhas in the world and that made me out of control. I couldn't stay anymore in my little Belgian life.

So I was very excited to go there and we got our visa from Islamabad in Pakistan through a narrow lucky window because the Afghan embassy wanted a recommendation letter from my embassy and it didn't want to give it to me for security reasons. Anyway, we went in because we are patient, friendly and smiley people but it was a complete miss; Bamiyan was blocked by late snow and Minar-e-Jam was blocked because of first floods caused by the melting of snow.

We plan to go back as soon as possible as we are in the region. I find it important to cover these places because, while in the country, I could really feel how fragile the future is: at any moment, it can truly shift to the dark side while the new democracy is so hard and slow to build. Not a good perspective for what remains of the cultural heritage. In these conditions, documentation is more important from there than elsewhere.

Afghanistan would seem like a fairly dangerous place, and I know you’ve visited many unstable regions of the world, where did you feel the most personal danger?

The subway in New York City. This is the only place I have witnessed some danger in the last four years. Three black guys were searching for the money of a lone Latino while I came across them in that isolated tunnel between lines. But my subway connection was so quick that I only realized it all afterwards. The luck always comes to the unaware ;-)

To date, how many of the WH sites have you photographed to date, and how many are left for you to visit?

I’ve photographed 117 WH Sites now and there are 788 of them but they will list more next July, as they do every year. On average, we can cover 50-60 WH Sites per year.

I hear you have a travel partner, Ajun.

Ajun is my fiancée. We met in China almost three years ago and we share the adventure of the WHTour together. By now she's the best stitcher I know on earth and I would like to take this opportunity to thank her for the hard work because, as with everybody in the WHTour, she's simply volunteering. All this wouldn't be possible without her along with me 24/7/365.

Slowly with the relationship growing, she was also hijacking my laptop more and more often and longer. Finally, I bought her her own and that boosted the entire thing. She's really great with all that fantastic patience in details that Asian people can have. That's important when dealing with pixels, isn't it?

How far in advance to you plan your travels? For instance, right now do you know where you’ll be in the next 6, 12 months?

No further than what is printed in our passport. When I get a visa, I have that exact maximum period to cover and enjoy the job. Embassies and visa requirements are our second life. It is a LOT of energy and difficult to predict, especially traveling with Ajun who is a Chinese citizen.

This means that ALL countries are afraid she could become an illegal immigrant and also that her embassy will never ever help her. When traveling in her presence, you have an understanding of what it means to lack human rights. Lately, her embassy even refused to give her a simple letter stating that her passport is real. In my point-of-view, this is indeed the best way to push her into illegality.

What are your plans in the immediate future?

Vaguely and Incha Allah again: Armania, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkemnistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and back to Afghanistan. Then Bangkok, waiting for the answer from the Kaplan Fund for another grant to pursue the mission. Whatever their answer, I am here today thanks to their financial help and what has been done is already a fabulous thing for me. I have been further than my oldest wildest dreams and my only hope is to continue.

You’ve used the expression “Incha Allah” a couple times; what does that mean?

"Incha Allah" is the most heard Muslim expression and means "In God's will". It is used in different way according to what you want to say. Sometimes it is a nice way to say no, sometimes it is a hope that something will happen or will be possible thanks to efforts you made to obtain something, sometimes it is simply what it means: "In God's will'.

How do you travel from place to place and what type of accommodation do you stay in?

We travel by land almost exclusively, mostly by buses, minibuses, taxis, trains. We are public transportations addicts! We stay in hotels and our average budget is $15-30 US. As much as possible, we try to find a coffee shop for myself and Chinese restaurants for Ajun because it gives us a little taste of home.

Now this can change according to events of course: a friend we met on the plane from Islamabad to Kabul and who is enthusiastic about the WHTour now hosts us. We will go to Bamiyan tomorrow together with his company's armored jeep.

Last week we stayed in an American base south of Herat who are involved in the mission to build the new police headquarters for the province. That was very interesting to live with these 2000 men at work for a week. You had there Zimbabwean mine technicians, South African security guards, New Zealand and UK builders in collaboration with Egyptian contractors and hundreds of local ex-moujahiddins trying to learn American standards of building barracks.

Can you tell us more about the Kaplan fund that issues you grants to pursue your mission?

The contact I have there is really great, friendly and very encouraging. They let me work in total independence, I handle the project from a to z and update them about our advancements, realizations, intentions, itinerary, agenda from time to time to keep in touch and to say we're still alive and well and working hard on things. Their support and presence by email or on the phone lessen our sometimes-heavy feeling of isolation too.

The deal we have is they ask: How much money do you need to only pursue the WHTour's mission, doing nothing else? I reply by asking for money to cover only travel costs during a year. In fact, this same money will last a year and a half. I recently applied for a new grant and will know in June about it. Whatever their decision, the J.M. Kaplan Fund (I know them thanks to the World Monuments Fund) made it all possible so far and that's a miracle already. I'll always be very grateful to them for the trust they put in me and for such a challenging adventure.

That's what is wonderful with American people: whatever you propose, they will give you a chance. I can tell that instead, friends in Belgium are still waiting for me to return back home having failed. Anyway, so far so good: I feel like I have been further than my oldest dreams. It's a great sensation to every day do little by little and step-by-step much more than I ever thought I could.

How have the locals that you've met reacted to your mission? Are you able to show them your panos?

I often show the work on the computer but rarely to locals when in developing countries for obvious reasons. Anyway I am now quite efficient in introducing the VR world, including industry actors when the conversation goes deeper in the how-tos, which happens often actually. I wish I could lecture more because it's very useful and indispensable in raising awareness about the World Heritage issues and panography in general.

I know some people were worrying about you when the tsunami struck last December; where were you at that time?

That's nice for them to have thought about me! Actually, we were in Pakistan and I had a real slowdown because of that event. Indeed, I know a bit of the region. I had that guilty feeling for not being present when it all happened. I still have faces of people I met on the road in my mind and wonder what happened to them. In Sumatra, I remember the hardest trip I ever endured: 58 hours nonstop by bus from Dumai to Djakarta and that was just a normal trip for locals.

Also, I am sadly convinced that the village in the background of this picture and the fishing structure does not exist anymore.

Have you had any time to get back home to Belgium?

I haven’t made it yet. To make things possible, I've given up the idea of having a home, a car, a pet and a salary to feed all that for quite a few years. I am not sure where to go back in Belgium actually. This is the nomadic part of my life and it feels great. I strongly encourage everybody to leave it all behind and to travel at any cost. This gives freedom, love, happiness, curiosity, endless hope in the middle of chaos, stupidity, lack of education; fears and the usual drama we all like to show off in order to feel busy. In a word: it's life.

How difficult is it for you and your fiancée to travel in unstable regions such as Afghanistan and Iran and some of the more remote regions in Central Asia?

Generally speaking, as long as a country agrees to issue us a tourist visa, we don't see any reason not to cross a border. And while we are aware of news, we don't look too much at western media. They sell sensation instead of offering information. I learn more from local newspapers. We mostly gather and double-check information with hotels, drivers, waiters, people in the street.

BTW, Iran is one of the safest countries in the world and in every country, we just follow simple rules: avoid being out at night, take time in every step, dress simply, eat-drink-talk with locals, enjoy being where you are because it's a BIG luck to travel, feel no fear.

Sincerely, I have spent more time outside my country than inside for half of my life and apart from great joy, I n-e-v-e-r had the slightest feeling of real danger, even with Bedouins in Yemen or former moujahiddins here in Afghanistan this last week. The rule is easy to understand: as you depend on simple information from local people to move on, ask for their help. Who in this world will refuse to show a stranger the way?

Traveling is no more than just crossing a street: check right and left (or left and right) and go on.