Nicola Odemann: Restlessness and Wanderlust

Nicola Odemann

Teacher, Photographer

Age?

Where are you based?

I’m based in Germany and switch between Muenster and Bad Toelz in Germany

How do you make a living?

I’m still in uni to become a teacher. I fund my travels with vacation jobs or by selling some photos from time to time.

What camera do you use?

Nikon F65

How has travel made an impact on your life?

It made me so restless. It has become almost impossible for me to stay at one place for too long. I always want to go out and explore new places and cultures.

What is your relationship to travel/adventure, and what does it mean to you?

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.

Thakgil

This was my favorite day from my first trip to Iceland. By exploring the surrounding mountains of Thakgil we seemed to abandon our own world step after step and entered a whole new world where we had to learn about earthly dimension and human significance all over again.

Laugavegur

My sister and I hiked the Laugavegur trail in Iceland this year and this view showed up on the second day of our trek. It was such a magical moment to stand on that hilltop and to look down on the land where our path would lead through for the next couple of days. Somehow this mountain embodied all our expectations and longings and hiking towards it was absolute bliss.

Nusa Penida

When I lived in Bali for a few months, some of my favorite moments were spent on its small neighboring island called Nusa Penida. We were invited to take part in holy ceremonies in a temple within a mountain, were saved by friendly strangers when our motorbikes broke down in the middle of nowhere and discovered secret beaches and bays like this one.

Kerlingarfjöll

After we had driven for hours through the deserted Kjölur route in Iceland, we finally reached Kerlingarfjöll. Ever since I first saw a photo of it before we started our trip, I had been daydreaming about this place. But seeing it for real was better than any fantasy can ever be. We hiked through steaming mountain slopes, bathed in hot springs and watched as Northern Lights danced above our heads at night.

Hikers Kerlingarfjöll

Although Kerlingarfjöll seems like an oasis of the waste Icelandic highland today, it was seen as a hideaway for criminals for a long time and therefore avoided by most people. The first explorer reached those mountains in the middle of the 19^th century only and it wasn’t until the 1940s that this mountain range was truly explored.

Sunset

I’ll never get tired or used to the wonder of sunsets. There’s simply no better way to welcome the magic of the night than by embracing the explosion of the sky at dusk that covers the surrounding world in red and orange tones.

Hawaii

Hawaii was so special. I mean, we do have beautiful beaches here in Europe as well but there is something about those islands that made us so incredibly relaxed. Roadtripping and becoming a small part of that life even if for a limited time only, did evoke feelings of independence and detachedness that we’ve never felt before.

Llama

Last summer in South Tyrol we had already hiked for eight hours when we saw a storm coming in, so we hurried to reach a small mountain hut that we knew must be nearby. They keep all of those different animals there and this llama welcomed us shortly before we reached the hut just in time before rain started to pour in.

Karwendel

I love to travel but the thing I love most about traveling is coming back to this place. What a beautiful feeling to call these mountains home and to know that despite everything that might change throughout life, these mountains won’t.

South Tyrol

My family has been spending each summer at this particular mountain range in South Tyrol since I can remember and each year I’m surprised by its beauty once again. There is no better way to feel free than to be alone on top of a mountain with a wild valley beneath you and not a single body around you.

nicolaodemann.com

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.

Elsa Bleda: Finding light, finding home

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.

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.

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.

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