Mongolia is a journey into the past. In parts of the country, time hasn’t moved the way it has elsewhere, and that’s what makes it so compelling.
I was lucky to be guided by Chris McLennan on one of his Intrepid photo expeditions. His access to remote communities and landscapes that most creatives would find impossible to reach opened doors I couldn’t have stepped through on my own.
We moved through country that rarely sees outsiders. At times, it felt like the land was holding something older than us.
The eagle hunters blew my mind. They opened their homes without hesitation and shared a culture I knew little about. Sitting in a yurt beside a 9.5kg eagle, listening to how the tradition is passed down, then seeing those birds in flight is etched in my mind.
I keep coming back to Aymoldir. Fourteen years old, the first female to win the Golden Eagle Festival. She stood with her eagle without hesitation. Nothing performative. Just presence. The way she handled that bird has stayed with me.
I’ll never forget the snow leopard. Days of travel, then twelve hours in a hide on the Russian border to capture it feeding on its prey. No photo can explain what it’s like to watch an animal like that in its own territory after you’ve spent days earning the right to be there.
This was a journey not just of imagery but of discovery.
If you asked me, “Would you go back?”
I wouldn’t hesitate.
I’d pack light.
And I’d leave tonight.
See more of Daz’s work @dazqt
Letting Go / Getting Lost began as a journey through Vietnam, but it quickly became something else entirely. I set out with my camera, hoping to capture the textures and rhythms of a place unfamiliar to me. What I found, instead, was a slow and quiet unraveling; an exploration not just of landscape, but of surrender.
Each photograph in this series marks a moment where I allowed myself to stop searching and simply notice. A deserted palace in a forgotten province. The hypnotic geometry of rice terraces. Unique details half-buried in time. These images became fragments of something larger; evidence of how beauty often hides in stillness, and how presence can live inside absence.
The first photo I selected to be a part of this series was of a doorway. Looking back, I see it now as an invitation: a threshold between knowing and not knowing. As I moved through villages, mountains, and shifting light, I began to understand the work as a kind of map. Not one with directions, but one that embraces disorientation as a necessary part of discovery.
The final image is one of my favorites: the shadow of a limestone mountain stretching across the water just as the sun disappears. It’s a moment suspended between light and dark, clarity and blur. To me, it speaks to the heart of this series: the quiet power of getting lost, the grace of letting go, and the unexpected possibility found in what fades.
See more of Lea’s work
Words by SIMONE SMITH @maison.smiths
Images from SIMON UPTON @simonuptonpics, NADENE DUNCAN @nadeneduncanstylist,
BRUNO STEFANI @bruno_stefani
Shot on location at InterContinental Hayman Great Barrier Reef @ichaymangreatbarrierreef
See more of Lucy Pinter’s work @lucypinterpics
CAMOGLI, a SMALL FISHING VILLAGE on the GOLFO PARADISO, was more than PHOTOGRAPHER SIMON UPTON EVER IMAGINED. AFTER TEN YEARS’ ABSENCE from LIGURIA, he DISCOVERED a PICTURESQUE TOWN UNTOUCHED by TIME. UNCHARACTERISTICALLY LARGE WAVES POUNDED the COASTLINE, INVITING HOURS of BODY SURFING IN-BETWEEN EXPLORING EVERY LANEWAY, NOOK and CRANNY.
For ART DIRECTOR AMBYR WOOD, the EXPERIENCE of WALKING ALONE and WITHOUT a FIXED DESTINATION, ALLOWED ITALY to REVEAL ITSELF in SMALL and QUIET GLIMPSES. SOLITUDE was FOUND AMONGST the CROWDED CITIES and in the THRONG of TOURIST TOWNS. EVERY CORNER REVEALED a new VISUAL gift. AMBYR was INSPIRED by the BEAUTY of PEOPLE, ART and ARCHITECTURE in MILAN, the FAIRYTALE VISTAS of LAKE COMO, the DREAMSCAPES of the CINQUE TERRE, the MEDIEVAL STORIES of BOLOGNA and the GELATO EVERYWHERE.
TASMANIA. TUCKED AWAY at the BOTTOM of the PLANET THERE’S an ISLAND THAT’S STILL WILD, STILL RAW, and WHERE THERE’S STILL TIME for FOLK to SAY HELLO in the STREET. HEAD off the MAIN ROAD and DISCOVER the SOUL of TASMANIA THROUGH INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED PHOTOGRAPHER, SIMON UPTON’S, LENS. WORDS by ALICE HANSEN.
There’s still a place where the wilderness runs free. Where time can stand still in the temperate rainforests. Some 40 per cent of Tasmania is protected through national parks and reserves. Located off the south east tip of Australia, the island is more than just a wild playground where Tassie devils roam.
There’s a bounty of produce revered by Australia’s best chefs, local artisans producing small batch single malt through to wasabi, heirloom tomatoes and truffles. And we haven’t even mentioned the early inhabitants, some forging a life sealing off the wild west coast, or the convicts sent to its shores.
Tasmania is a place of contradiction; of brutal beauty, of world-stopping Mona creativity, of small-town good feels. Nothing is ordinary. The best way to discover the island is to go beyond the tourist trail. Get amongst the locals, drive to the end of winding roads, pull on your boots and most of all, slow down.
Let Tasmania’s rhythm guide you; it’s okay to sip slowly, to ferry across to an offshore island, to watch waves crash boulders dressed in fiery orange lichen until time is lost. There is no rush in these parts – breathe deeply knowing it’s some of the world’s freshest air.
Need some inspo? Follow in some of Simon’s steps … roll slowly into Trial Harbour, explore Lettes Bay at fisherman’s pace, watch dusk fall over Cradle Mountain and just be … Tassie style.
