Dr. Andrew Weil: The Photo That Influenced Me Most

To celebrate the launch of TIME’s new multimedia project – 100 Photographs: The Most Influential Images of All Time – we asked leaders in a number of fields, from technology to the arts to business, to share the single photograph that most influenced their lives. Purchase the 100 Photographs book now.

In 1959-60 I traveled around the world with an experimental school, the International School of America, staying with native families in 17 countries. Japan was our first stop outside the U.S. and my first in-depth experience of another culture. Japan was a different place in 1959, still struggling economically to recover from the Second World War. I took this picture in a tiny fishing village. When I look at it, I realize how much of my philosophy of life and medicine has been shaped by my travels. For example, my many subsequent trips to Japan and other Asian countries led me to study Eastern medicine and incorporate some of its core principles into the system of Integrative Medicine that I teach and practice.

Dr. Andrew Weil is a physician, best-selling author and pioneer of integrative medicine.