National Geographic photographer and adventurer Cory Richards explains that your own vulnerability might just be the key to creating art that transcends photography. “You have to show up and you have to bring all your baggage with you,” says Richards, who sees the soulful essence of an image as the most exciting aspect.

Capturing people in the ‘in-between moment’ when subjects are thinking about something, “where they’ve left you and you are no longer present in their mind,” can reveal some very complex emotions.

Ironically, Richards reminiscences that the only photograph of his to make the cover of National Geographic was a selfie; a candid image taken while climbing 8,000 meters to the top of the Karakoram mountain range in 2011. He turned the camera on himself as a coping mechanism after he and his climbing partners were hit by an avalanche that very nearly killed them.

Richards believes that his willingness to show vulnerability is why the photograph resonated and he strives to look for that same emotion in his subjects - the very moment between moments.

2016-10-28 03:00