A few days from now I’m off to Hong Kong. It’s always fun to go there and be overwhelmed by the ceaseless cacophony the city is known for. To feel like a stranger in a strange land. I always believe that travelling is not much about finding yourself, but more about losing yourself. There is something humbling about ignorance, and when you’re on the road, you are always ignorant.

And something happens to your photography too each time you travel. You force yourself to see differently. Which is why I highly recommend that if you are serious about the craft, move about. Travel a lot. Don’t be stuck in one place.

That’s one reason why a few months from now, I’m off to the Inner Mongolia. Home to Genghis Khan, it’s a vast grassland beyond the Great Wall and the Gobi Desert. It is frighteningly far from the madding crowd but with even more possibilities of losing yourself in a very desolate landscape. Which is great. For more than a week I’ll be carrying my hotel room on my back. For a photographer who is comfortable doing portraits in a controlled environment, this is totally different. I can’t imagine the limitless photographic promise waiting for me there.

And that‘s what’s good with photography. There is always a boundless room to grow in any direction you want. You can redefine yourself every now and then. Which is another thing that I highly recommend. Keep yourself fresh and don’t get trapped in the quagmire of sameness. If you get bogged down in similarities, you’ll eventually find yourself in ennui.

Being consistently good is great. Being consistently the same is doldrums waiting to happen. So keep shooting. Keep travelling. Keep experimenting. Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself.

Even Inner Mongolia used to call itself Outer Mongolia. Click.