Durians are among the most photogenic of fruits. With their severe outer spiky rindscapes contrasting with colorful, delicate, and sensuous fruit flesh inside, their otherworldly appearance and construction, and with their tremendous variation in every aspect of the fruit, I've found durians to be a most fascinating photographic subject. During my numerous visits to southeast Asia in 1998-2001, I consumed (with delight) a total of over 250 durians, and photographed many of them, resulting in literally thousands of mostly digital photos. I've managed to sift through them up to August 2000 and present the best here in a Web photogallery — over 600 images. (There are many more great photos from the past year since August 2000 yet to appear here, which I've not yet made time to process!) No doubt this is the largest collection of durian photos on the Internet, or perhaps anywhere. 

There are three qualities of images evident in this collection, corresponding to the cameras I was using. In the beginning I was using just a cheap very basic $30 35mm camera, taking photos for travel souvenirs but not too concerned with quality. Photos taken with that camera have been scanned and digitally enhanced as much as possible, but the image quality remains fairly low. In 1999 I was traveling with a little USB video-camera attachment for my notebook computer, which I thought was ultra-cool at the time, though I now know the image quality was also not so great. It did do a very good job of extreme close-up shots, especially durian rinds — I discovered that viewed at very close range, durian rinds are amazing landscapes. Many of those 1999 photos are included here, easily identified by their small size (352 X 288 pixels), and remain favorites of mine, despite sometimes less-than-stellar image quality. In early 2000 I acquired a 2-megapixel Casio QV-2000UX digital camera, which has brought a revolution in my photography in many ways. I may never use film again, the digital process is far more convenient, editable, and inexpensive. There are many photos taken with the Casio here, which are easily recognized by their high quality, even at large image size. 

Durians are some of Nature's most amazing fruit creations. Enjoy the view!