Have you noticed that in the photographs we choose, the people are always small — so small you must look twice to find them?
This is not a photographic technique; it is a worldview. Mainstream travel photography places the person at the centre — proof of having been. We prefer the other composition: a figure on the ridge of a dune, reduced to a grain; a ship among icebergs, a fleck of white.
In such frames, nature is no longer a backdrop — the person is. And strangely, guests returning from such journeys rarely reach for the word “spectacular”. The words they use are “quiet”, “settled” — sometimes, “forgiven”.
Psychology has a word for it: awe. Researchers find that people who experience awe grow more generous, more patient; their sense of time slows. We claim no understanding of the mechanics. We have simply watched it happen, again and again: in making themselves small, people recover something very large.
So if you ask why one should fly half the world to look at a stretch of grassland — the answer may be this: to stand before something vast enough, and practise being small.