Cordelia

Cordelia lives in Bristol and has a busy job in the international development sector. A lot of her work involves engaging with people from around the world. Because they are not in the same country, her work can feel very abstract.

Exercise is an important part of her lifestyle for connecting to the real world.

Cordelia and I went wild camping and hiking for a night in Dartmoor National Park. She said, ‘While I love walking with my male partner, I am learning I get something special out of walking by myself and with other women. If men are around, I can end up relying on them to read the map. I’ve been trying to do more walking myself – being in control of the route and having adventures as a woman.’

She loves reading travel and hiking books and has noticed how they are often male dominated.

‘Adventures are just as much a part of being a woman, but we don’t always tell those stories.’

She has been writing about the adventures she has been going on.

The Photoshoot

We found a remote and beautiful spot to set up our wild camp. The next day we hiked up a hill, through a woodland and down to a river for a cold dip.

Cordelia says that she likes the element of focus that hiking gives her, ‘When you’re walking from one point to another and trying to find a route, you are entirely engaged with the landscape in all its different dimensions and finding a path through that.’

Especially since the pandemic, she’s felt a strong need to be outdoors and connecting with nature, ‘It’s very human. We are part of nature and we sometimes forget that. Having some time to remember that we’re part of a bigger system and connected to an environment is essential for my mental health.’

I really enjoyed the photoshoot – we had plenty of time rambling around the landscape, where everything was beautiful, so it felt very easy to capture some nice images.

It was nice to move from shooting the detail of Cordelia’s feet on the blades of grass, to wider angles where she was almost hidden in the landscape. I felt it captured the sense of flow that comes from losing yourself in nature.

24

hours in flow