Emilie Ristevski’s endless love for photography began nearly 10 years ago when she discovered black and white film photography in a tiny dark room in school. Since joining Instagram in 2010 as @helloemilie, she has gained a worldwide audience of over 1 million followers and her distinctive style of dreamy imagery has inspired many around the world. Working with some of the world’s leading brands such as Adobe and Mercedes-Benz, Emilie has travelled to the far corners of the globe. With an appreciation for environmental consciousness, she hopes her work will inspire and educate others to recognise both the beauty and fragility that surrounds our planet Earth. Forever Wandering is her first book.
Today, we have an edited extract from Forever Wandering to share with you. Read on …
Always being in motion, I travelled throughout some of the most unforgettable parts of our planet – places I never even knew existed. Standing within some of the most remote and harshest landscapes and seeing their fragility led me to ask myself deeper questions. I started to ponder what the future will hold, and I wondered if the coming generations will always be able to experience such sights, or if these fragile pieces of our world will end up only existing in books and photographs. It is through these very experiences that I became awakened to the impact of our choices. I began to realise how even the tiniest of things can create ripple effects and that so many of us exist without recognising how inherent nature is to us, and how interconnected our relationship with nature truly is.
I saw the paradox that surrounds travelling to appreciate our diverse landscapes, and the effects this travel has on the natural world. I even began to question myself and my own intentions: why I choose the things I do in life and where my career path has taken me. I saw the consequences of our current way of life and could not ignore the guilt I felt from travelling so extensively, knowing the enormous impact it has on our environment. In a world that is under threat, I began to question how I can love this beautiful planet of ours and continue to photograph our natural world without also feeling the need to protect it.
Left feeling at odds with myself, I knew that each choice I make has a consequence. As travel became overwhelming, I started to learn how to slow down and began to search for a new path in our ever-changing world. While these thoughts began in some of the most unexpected places around the globe, it was slowing down and being still at home that allowed me to see the bigger picture, and in recent years I’ve consciously made the time to pause and reflect. By choosing to travel less, I was able to give myself time to focus on the things that are close to my heart. Consequently, travel became much more meaningful, and the new perspective I’d gained reminded me to travel mindfully, always being aware of the impact of my actions and choosing the path that treads lightly.
With pieces of my mind and heart scattered all over the globe, I’ve felt the urge for my images to do and say more with the hope that I can encourage a greater awareness of our Earth’s beauty and also its ever-present fragility. Nature has taught me to keep an open heart, how to live with less and to always find gratitude in the smallest of things. It has shown me the importance of staying curious and the power of letting go. Seeing the harmony and balance only found in the natural world and how each and every part is connected to form the larger picture, I’ve realised that this connection can be found all around us when we choose to look – not just on the other side of our planet but within our own surroundings. I began to see that we don’t need to wander far at all to appreciate the beauty in the smallest of things – light beaming between the clouds to form shadows, the path of raindrops falling on a window, tall trees leaning in the wind. I am always learning from nature – understanding how to live in harmony, how to be still, how to give freely and only take what I need. I’m forever learning how to truly live at one with nature, in the hope that we can leave a vibrant planet full of abundance and life for all.
I hold an immense gratitude for having seen so much of our beautiful planet; wandering far and wide and encountering the unknown has allowed me to experience things I would never have dreamed of. The moments documented throughout each of these pages have led me to see our planet in a new light, and by reading these words and immersing yourself in my images, I hope I can transport you into the wilderness of our beautiful world and help you discover a depth of wonder and awe for our planet. I hope these pages will inspire you to re-ignite your connection with Earth and see the beauty that is hidden within every corner of our planet.
To always learning, always growing, forever wandering within and without …
—Forever Wandering by Emilie Ristevski (Hardie Grant Publishing) is out on the 7th of October.
Forever Wandering
Our Natural World through the Eyes of Hello Emilie
Forever Wandering documents the endless beauty of our natural world. Photographer and the creative mind behind @helloemilie, Emilie Ristevski, invites you on a journey through her lens with a collection of otherworldly landscapes and photographic studies of the delicate ecosystems that make our planet unique.
The photography that fills these pages shows our world’s immense diversity, from the vast desert landscapes in Namibia to the frozen glacial icecaps in Greenland and...
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