Embarkation

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.” - Anaïs Nin

A child of my wanderlust, Embarkation began simply as a document of my personal and professional travels. Over the years it became apparent that in taking these pictures, I was documenting my emotions, and focusing my camera on landscapes that embodied them. Photography helps me understand the tension of my conflicting emotions I feel surrounding the act of traveling, and of “embarking” on something and somewhere entirely new. Like most of us, I’m curious and excited about my new surroundings but also slightly fearful about the unknown people and places that wait ahead. What lies at the end of a road, around a corner, or beyond the crest of a hill? Perhaps it doesn’t matter. For me, the most important part of a journey is its beginning: my point of departure. These photographs are my attempt to capture that moment of pause and hesitation that we all feel before embarking on a new journey, where curiosity and excitement mix with trepidation. In documenting that moment and sharing it, I am reminded why we begin any journey in the first place. Seeing new places and meeting new people forces us out of our comfort zones, and when we put ourselves in different surroundings we’re both transformed and reminded of the person we were at the beginning of our journey. - GRJ