Barbara Vetter and Vincent Heiland live in Jena/Germany and work as freelance travel journalists and speakers. They are well known in the German speaking countries due to their award winning slide show ‘Jena – Yemen’. Since 2004, they are appointed members of the GBV, the association of professional travel journalists and speakers.

 

Barbara Vetter and Vincent Heiland organize an extensive slide show program in Jena, called the ‘Lichtbildarena’. The speakers of the event are renowned photographers, travel journalists, and scientists, as well as amateur reporters. The Lichtbildarena weekend, with an audience of over 8000, is one of the largest slide show festivals in Germany.

 

The couple started their carrier as travel journalists with a one year long bike tour from Jena/Germany to Yemen, which they did as college students of biology and geography. It was as a ‘thank you’ to local sponsors and supporters that they created the warmhearted slide show ‘Jena – Yemen’, out of the substantial amount of photos, text and sounds that they brought back. One year later, the baptism of fire took place at the ‘Weitsicht Festival’ in Frankfurt in front of 800 guests. More travel projects to different parts of the world followed. The preferred means of transportation is always slow, which allows for a more intense contact with nature and the locals.

 

Since 1^st of April, 2006, little daughter Saba is also involved in all the projects, and adds completely new perspectives.