Interrailing meant I could visit some of Europe’s best art museums, and one artist I discovered along the way is Caspar David Friedrich (his paintings inspired these photos from my Copenhagen trip). The German Romantic took numerous walks across Saxony—galvanised by the impressive rock formations and waterfalls—200 years later, and a 112km hiking trail named 'Malerweg (Painters Way)', lets you physically actualise the oils of the past.

One painting, ’Felsenpartie im Elbsandsteingebirge (Rocky Landscape in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, 1822)’ intrigued and inspired me: it depicts the Bastei rock formation years before construction of a bridge across it. Fredrich’s exquisite brushwork captures enormous amounts of shadow detail: subtle reds, pastel oranges, and dusty brown hues, emphasise delicate vivid green foliage in the darker areas of the canvas. A tense, dramatic work.

I wanted to follow in Fredrich’s footsteps; translating into photography his paintings colour, mood and tone. Pontificate on the sublime, unfathomable, and eternal solitude of life… you know, emotions that arise hiking through a German forest in the middle of winter.