Our travel photocards are journeys-in-an-envelope, putting a thousand worlds in your hands. And 8"x12" studio enlargements make the world's best destinations a part of your home.
We’re Mark + Allen, and we count 11 passports’ worth of trekking between us, most of it over the past 30+ years, but with so many points far and near yet to explore.
Across the decades we’ve created and shared with family and friends more than 45,000 photocards recording the places and stories of our travels. And for just as long our family and friends have asked, “Where can I buy these?”
The answer, finally, is, “In our VastCompassShop on Etsy!”
It's is our way to make these unique photocards accessible by you on any screen, any time. The photos and stories we capture are a digital campfire to experience with those you care about most, because we believe the world is a better place when shared and celebrated, together. A written note on a photocard from our VastCompassShop traverses more than time and distance—your words thoughtfully impressed on bespoke linen paper have a life span far beyond the abbreviated flicker of a text or DM, or the ephemeral ‘sell by’ date of a FaceTime chat.
Our photocards and your words matter enough to be treasured for re-re-reading and framing. For safekeeping, across generations. They are touchpoints and keepsakes—deeply personal, tangible, and timeless. That’s what matters most. When you send a photocard from our VastCompassShop you make a lasting difference in the lives of those you care about.
They also remind those in our orbit just how awesome this planet is, with its multitudes of vistas and natural wonders, its pristine solitudes and gravity-defying structures raised to the sky, its grandeur and its vulnerability, its beauty and its impossibility.
We know our family and friends agree, because many over the years have decided not to use the photocards as designed, but instead have framed them to bring the world to their home's walls. Which is why we also offer a vast range of 8"x12" enlargements, either singly, or by groupings of two and three themed prints.
A bounty of travel nourishes us and we can guess you feel the same, so stop by often. The destinations on offer in our shop are fleeting because we’re either in the studio, crafting even more photocards featuring even more destinations and stories from an itinerary 30+ years in the making, or we’re on the go, camera and curiosity at the ready, to capture another tranche of the world’s best places and the stories that bring them to life.
It’s a vast compass out there, with boundless reasons to share a thousand worlds.
Mark + Allen