'Travel Diaries' - Lucas Lux
03/11/2020
Hi Lucas, thanks so much for sharing your work with us today. The first question i'd like to ask is what got you into travel photography?
Hey there, thanks for having me! Since I was a kid i've always been interested in photography. I remember being fascinated when my dad had the camera on family days out and I always wanted to know more about how it worked. Obviously being way too young to be trusted with this expensive memory capturing contraption, it sparked more and more curiosity which led to asking for my own from Father Christmas.
I've also always had a strong passion for planet Earth and all of it's mysteries, natural or man-made. I love how every setting has a story shown by a certain subtle quirk or apparent subject. To think of a time before I stumbled upon it and a time after I am gone is a powerful feeling and sometimes quite unsettling in some situations. To be able to carry a camera on my travels and capture moments as I go is incredibly therapeutic and creates memories of the places I visit that may have gone unnoticed.
Your series 'Travel Diaries' features some stunning travel/documentary from your recent charity walk titled #BERLON. Talk us through how this journey came about?
So a good friend of mine and published author Mark Cundy walked 5,500 miles for charity around 15 years ago. We'd got to talking and ended up planning, saving up and walking 700 miles from Berlin to London in 2019 for BBC Children in Need. We raised £4100 and published a book #BERLON A Walk Across Europe which features many full page photos from the challenge. There are some photos that unfortunately couldn't make it to the finished product, so I decided to release the others as a full photo series.
We certainly experienced some extreme highs and lows during the 55 day trek across 5 countries. Some architecturally beautiful places one day followed by endless forrest the next... It was an absolutely incredible experience, meeting some lovely people and enjoying some lovely food, absorbing the culture and taking every day as it came. It was incredibly challenging and gruelling but proved well worth it in the end.
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What was your favourite moment from your travels?
What was your favourite moment from your travels?
My favourite moment from #BERLON has to be the walk from Helmond to Eindhoven in Holland. It was this beautiful and straight pathway next to a canal, leading us straight to the city centre! It was October so a slight nip in the air accompanied by vibrant bursts of oranges, reds and yellows in the trees, reflecting beautifully on the still water. I captured this rich and earthy photograph looking into the water and flipped it vertically. It's definitely one of my most favourite photos I have taken. It's so dream-like and easy but still has a lot going on. It captures the day perfectly.
Last question - If you had one piece of advice for someone starting photography, what would it be?
Keep taking photos! Sounds very obvious but you will get better and better with every shoot. You start to discover who you are, how you see things, what looks better in certain light etc. You just become more attuned to the world and it's a beautiful feeling. More importantly however, shoot whatever you want to shoot... If your passion is taking photographs of camels wearing top hats, then take photos of camels wearing top hats! That's the wonderful thing about photography and Art in general. There are no limitations, no end point, no soul to validly tell you you can't do something. Be who you want to be and never give up.
