Elsa Bleda: Finding light, finding home

Elsa Bleda

Art director, photographer, actress

Name?

Elsa Bleda

Age?

Where are you Based?

Johannesburg, South Africa.

How do you make a living?

I work as an art director, photographer and actress.

What camera do you use?

Mostly Canon 5d mark II.

How has travel made an impact on your life?

I believe that exploring, discovering new places, meeting new cultures and hearing their stories make you grow as a person. Broadens your perspective. It is inspiring and definitely exciting. Keeps you young(:

What is your relationship to travel/adventure, and what does it mean to you?
My family loved traveling and adventures when I was a kid. I grew up in different places. I still love traveling and discovering places for the first time. There is so much beauty and thrill in it. I feel like a child when I travel, I love that feeling.

Arriving in Cape Town after a few days of a really fun road trip that started in Johannesburg. The sun was setting and the colors were beautiful as usual. This was such an odd little cloud that made me really laugh, I took this image from the car.

Sitting on a rooftop in Johannesburg, August 2016. Such a calm and beautiful scene. James Blake’s Overgrown started playing in my mind when I saw it; ‘Time passes in the constant state’.

Road trips and Cape Town sunsets.. Cape Town always has the best colors when it comes to sunsets.

I know everything about you.. // Driving through foggy Cape Town. April and May have always been my favorite months in Cape Town. All the mist and fog turn this city into a magical place. I took this on our way back from a shoot. Somewhere after Muizenberg.

Misty Cliffs, Cape Town, 2015. One of my favorite places in the world since I was a teenager. The first place I’ve fell in love with after moving to South Africa. The smell of ocean, the mist, the mountains and huge rocks.

Passing through Karoo, South Africa. This was our second day on the train, we were shooting a music video. Woke up to a rainy weather. I’ve always loved train travels but never experienced rain while traveling. Magical. It was around 6.30am on a September morning, a few days after my birthday last year. We were drinking coffee and watching the mountains as we waited for the camera to set up. I took this photo when my friend Adam reached out to the window from his bed.

Years ago, driving through Muizenberg in Cape Town on a cold winter morning.

From my On The Train series in South Africa. 2015. There is a comfort in sitting in a diner on a train, have some coffee and watch everything pass. I try to do this as much as possible.

Riding bikes through Cape of Good Hope. My favorite thing to do in the city. It was a windy day but it didn’t bother us. We rode bikes, took so many photographs. It was a happy day and I sometimes wish I could go back to that day.

“That’s sad. How plastic and artificial life has become. It gets harder and harder to find something real.” // Self portrait, Cape Town.

@elsableda

Nick Harwart: Sensory overload in Morocco

“During my first trip to Morocco 2014, I thought I wouldn’t be able to stand the stress my camera caused, with all its continual negotiations. On my return trip two years later, I found that if I wanted to make images that showed more than souks and camels in the desert, I had to learn to relax in chaotic places.”

Luca Tombolini: LS X

We live in a frame of mind which is determined by where and when we’re born and the kind of culture we are exposed to. Seeking what we might be outside of this frame is what I’m trying to do in my solo trips.

Catherine Lemblé: Arctic Silence

It’s been three years since I’ve been travelling alone. A lot of people ask whether I felt lonely during these trips. I went to the French Alps and stayed in a cabin alone for a month but felt neither alone nor scared. I’m surrounded by the splendour of nature and I meet beautiful and interesting people.

Jonathon Collins: Towards Eastern Suns

The greatest part of any adventure is the unknown: a real adventure comes from no plan, spontaneity in decision-making, meeting people from all walks of life, interacting with cultures or religions that you previously haven’t, and a sense of resetting your life with each new place or journey.

Kevin Faingnaert: Far-flung cultures and everyday lives

I try to never lose the ability to wonder or to be amazed by people I meet and places I come across, even in my own street.

James Wright – Somewhere in Scotland

I spent years of my childhood pouring over atlases and leafing through National Geographic Magazines which ignited my travel lust. Experiencing different landscape, smells, sounds and cultures first hand makes the world seem both big and small.

Richard Gaston: A Year in Scotland

Adventure has given me the opportunity to develop my character as a person and as a professional; discovering my interest in exploration came late on in my life, I was tired, impatient and my priorities were all wrong.

Chris Round: Round the Place

I am primarily interested in documenting the everyday world around me, with a particular interest in landscapes featuring human interventions that visually activate their surroundings in strangely compelling ways.

Hanna Ukura: Widening Your View of Life

I try to go on longer trips at least once every other year and leep on any adventure that’s handed to me, both small and big ones. Without travelling I feel trapped. To see and experience new things makes life so much bigger and helps me to widen my mind and actually makes me feel more at ease with myself and life.

Benjamin Rutherford: Nyama

The fear of the unknown is what holds many back, getting out there is challenging, it’s not supposed to be easy. But you will never get the experiences you dream of from your desk.

Mickey Ross: Moments and Situations

Travel has shaped who I am. I’ve spent most of my life chasing winters and snow. Now it’s good to live in one place but still be able to travel for work and for shorter travel missions. I guess now I seek out moments and light instead of snow.

Randy P Martin: Some things I saw when I left Chicago

For me, leaving the easy things behind, getting into situations that I’m not used is where it all starts. Maybe you’re not ready for it, or even intially interested in, but you go. And you figure it out along the way.

Darsh Seneviratne: From what you won’t forget, to who you will remember

Being able to save up, drop everything and travel for months is a privilege I take for granted so often, I’ve been trying to be more aware of how lucky I am. I like to keep a balance between visiting new places and old favourites; it keeps things fresh, whilst also forging emotional ties with locations that aren’t my place of birth.

Simon Deadman: Half-remembered places

Adventure means getting out of your comfort zone. Lots good things in life can only happen after you do something uncomfortable.
Travel has completely changed my life in terms of how I see photography.

Anne Moffat: Half Lives

Travel has taught me to question things and keep curious. I’m constantly reminded that I actually don’t know that much; it’s a very humbling experience which both keeps me in check and open to new possibilities.

Cian Oba-Smith: Affinity

Seeing how people interact differently with their environment and ultimately how adaptable the human spirit is has opened my eyes and mind to other ways of existing within cultures around the world.

William Broadhurst: Australia (2015-16)

Travel has helped me to slowly gather knowledge and an understanding of the land, as well as the shared history of those living on it.

John Laurie: Wanderings

Remoteness, untouched cultures, open landscapes, campfires, great waves, hiking, sunsets, sunrises, stars, reading, meeting people, being still and present.

Yumna Al-Arashi: Above and Below

I love to learn, have fun, and create honestly. I believe my photography reflects each life I live: the political, the cultural and the adventurous.

Mustafah Abdulaziz: The Planet We Share

There’s a part of travel that is an act of submission towards experiences greater than yourself. I’ve learned through weeks and months on the road that there’s no end.

Nick Green: Wild Youth

Adventure can be something as small as going for a walk with your dog down the street or as insane as jumping out of aeroplane on the other side of the world, its all about your perception of things.

Edie Sunday: Between the Darkness & Light

Travel of course also means creation—I make the majority of my work when I am not at home, when new atmospheres are stimulating my mind.

Lauren Withrow: Here, There

I’ve grown to appreciate the little things, mostly, in regards to people, places, and experiences. I don’t need objects for happiness. It’s even brought me closer to the people around me.

Kellen Mohr: A Breath of Fresh Air

I think most of all, I am constantly pursuing new and different experiences, and travel is the most surefire way I’ve found so far that is guaranteed to play host to whatever types of new experiences you want to dive into!

Elliot Kramer: Across the Pacific and back again

Adventuring keeps the inspiration flowing for me. Either heading to new places or really exploring the areas that are close by its always great to get out and adventure somehow. Something to look forward to, to enjoy and then re-live, and do all over again!

Tamara Lichtenstein: Nostalgia

Travel changes everything. Being on the road is so inspiring. There’s always new, refreshing things to see and capture. I love it. Most of the time I’m a homebody, but then I get cabin fever and have to see new things.

Leo Berne: I Barely Remember

I take pictures like a tourist, mostly to create nice images and souvenirs but in a way, I feel that photography is a weak way to help you to remember. It creates images that become stronger than your memories and consumes them.

Hollie Fernando: We Can Dream

I believe travelling is the best form of education. You can get very isolated in the bubble you call your life and just getting out there and experiencing how others live theirs makes you very aware of the lovely diversity in the world.

Emmanuel Rosario: Life on The Road

It has opened me up to new places, new friends, and over all a new outlook on life. It has allowed me to be more confident in my decision-making and it has provided a new sense of adventure that I never had before.

Cole Barash: Get Gone

I have not been in one place for more than 40 days at a time since I was 16. I like to spend 50% of the time on the road making new work and then the other 50% of the time in my studio working on the images.

Alana Patterson: Born to Lurk Forced to Work

Being away from your safety net for that long really makes you a more sympathetic person…I hope..I think. These days it’s shorter trips but I like to go out there you know. I feel like I get soft if I sleep in my own bed too many nights in a row.

Anuar Patjane: In Pursuit of Water

Traveling is the best thing to achieve what some call enlightenment, not books nor teachers. Traveling since I was a little kid was the best thing that could ever happen to me, I thank my family for that.

Chris Beecroft – On the Move

Travel has really influenced a lot of my ideals and perspectives and has certainly given me a sharper sense of what’s actually important in life and what’s not. I find it incredibly easy to get clogged up in a lot of nonsense when I’m in the city.

Jessica Antola: Near and far

Whether I was sleeping on the floor of a monastery in Tibet, at the age of sixteen, or wandering the souks of Damascus, or staying in a Yali tribal village in the highlands of West Papua, there was no location too off the beaten path or fellow human being too challenging with whom to communicate.

John Kilar: Happy Trails

Traveling has enabled me the space to practice and embody my spiritual beliefs most seamlessly while exploring my freedom to new heights. I have found so much beauty in diversity while creating more space for heartfelt connections.

Morgan Maassen: A Life-long Dream in Motion

I spent my years in school dreaming of how to travel, so as soon as I formulated a plan, I did everything in my power to escape and hit the road. I find myself constantly in situations where I am learning both of the world and myself, and have based my life around being able to visit the places that inspire me.

Nicola Abraham: Wandering North

The idea of searching for something new to discover always gives me something exciting to look forward to and work towards. Every adventure I embark on teaches something new, about myself, about cultures, and about the world.

Nicola Odemann: Restlessness and Wanderlust

There’s just this wanderlust inside of me that always makes me want to go to somewhere new. I love mountains and nature and wild places, so I try to travel to places with great natural wonders and diversity. For me there’s nothing better than exploring new places or hiking mountains together with close friends or family.

Peter Bohler: Strange Gatherings & Remote Places

I’ve learned so much about the world through traveling. Bringing that knowledge (whether it’s how to make Pho, or what life is like on a ranch in Montana) back has made my life at home so much richer. I’ve always wanted to live a thousand different lives in a hundred different places. Traveling, and photography, let me do that.

Receive postcards from us

Elsa Bleda: Finding light, finding home

Elsa Bleda

Pin It on Pinterest

Sign up to receive digital postcards, full of storytelling, interviews music and all that good stuff.

You have Successfully Subscribed!