One of the great things about travelling solo is a personal openness that I experience, to changing environments and people. To look for the unexpected and engage in it; something often lost when travelling with a partner, removing that necessity to have the tide bring you places.
Being on the road by oneself for an extended period of time, is where this fundamental human desire to connect in some way, flourishes. Among its fruit are the many great encounters I’ve had with people along the way.
One of them is during diner in my hostel at Lake Karakul. Whilst outside a snowstorm is raging, the dining room is toasty and the food abundant. Here I meet Roman and Sandra, an Austrian couple living in Thailand. Roman is an avid analogue black&white photographer, and has brought an old medium format Hasselblad with him. Fascinated by this timeless piece of kit we get talking and he is kind enough to spend some of the frames he has left for this trip on me, the next morning.
Dawn is the incarnation of ‘calm after the storm’, with beautiful skies and the mountains draped in a pristine mantle of white. It must be a combination of the high altitude and low humidity that has an amazing effect on the light up here, giving extraordinary intensity to the snowy peaks and clouds. Great day for a shoot!
These pictures are taken by, and property of, the gracious Roman Jirka. Thank you for the great company!