Have you ever gone on a solo trip to discover new places and excite your inner wanderlust? Or just simply to explore and take a walk on a fine weather? Our artist, Jiani, a Graphic Designer by profession, went on a solo trip to discover what she considered as her "newly found land". Trivia: Newfoundland is actually a name of an island; a large Canadian island off the east coast of the North American mainland, and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Read on and check out her journey and amazing photos!

Q: Who/what is the project for?
In July 2014, I began an ongoing personal project delving into the theme of exploration - self exploration and exploration in the physical world. The photo series currently document self portraits taken on solo ventures in remote landscapes in Iceland, Oman, Portugal, and the eastern Canadian Island, Newfoundland. Using an elementary set up comprising of a camera, tripod and shutter remote, the images are photographed in instantaneous, experimental and unrehearsed ways.

- Jiani Lu

Q: How long it took you to complete the project?
This Newfoundland strand of the project took place throughout my 35 days traveling across the island. 30 days were spent living out of a small cabin in a Northern Peninsula on the Island. There were a lot of beautiful hiking trails and spectacular panoramic views that I took the time exploring and documenting. While the weather was quite windy and extreme, I spent my days there in intervals - working out of the cabin in bad weather, and out hiking on sunny days.

- Jiani Lu

Q: How you came up with the idea?
I think the desire to travel was a large part due to my parents and my upbringing. My parents were avid travellers, my dad moved from a small farming town to Shanghai in his early university years. He then continued his studies in Berlin where my mom and I followed. Growing up, my parents often made weekend trips to cities across Germany, we went to France, and Austria.

-Jiani Lu

Photography was something I took interest in when I was around 15. I would browse DeviantArt and admire all the incredible photographers, and remember wanting to be a part of that community. I saved up for months for my first Canon DSLR camera. I took it everywhere with me, first experimenting with nature and still-life photography, before I began recruiting friends to be my portrait models. I focused the next four or five years solely on portrait photography.

-Jiani Lu

I started experimenting in landscape photography only recently during my travels. I began integrating travel as a significant part of my life in the last 2 years after moving abroad to Dubai for work. Dubai being an international air travel hub, destinations that were once distant and pricy from Canada, were now relatively more affordable and accessible for me. The solo ventures first began as a result of mismatched schedules with friends. We could never find a time where we could all travel together. So by default, I found myself going to places alone.

-Jiani Lu

Q: What materials or software have you used.
I sold my desktop set-up recently for a more portable work set-up that consists of my Macbook Pro, a laptop stand, Wacom Bamboo tablet and an external monitor. For photography, I have my Canon 60D, 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 lens and Benro tripod. I always have my sketchbook and my iPad mini on me for reading and note taking on the go.

I find myself mostly dabbling in Adobe Illustrator, Indesign and keynote for design work and presentations. While using Lightroom and Photoshop for photo processing. I also use quite an array of management tools such as Toggl for time tracking, Evernote for writing and notes, Wunderlist for to-do lists, iCalendar for scheduling, Latergramme for managing my Instagram, and RescueTime for informing me on how I spend my time at the computer.

-Jiani Lu

Q: Any advise to aspiring artists?
Seek Discomfort. I came across the phrase during Stefan Sagmeister’s exhibit, The Happy Show. I now live by the quote, I think it’s important to be comfortable with the idea of being uncomfortable. To grow as a creative, often times it means consistently putting yourself in situations that are outside of what you already know and are familiar with. In order to explore, learn and progress, you need to be prepared to experience discomfort temporarily in order to continually expand your comfort zone and ultimately reach your goals.

-Jiani Lu

ABOUT JIANI LU

Jiani Lu is currently a freelance Graphic Designer; specializing in print, packaging and branding. She got her Bachelors in Design from York/Sheridan Program in Design in 2013, and has been working in the industry for over 2 years now. Freelance is a relatively new element in her life, as up until June of this year, she is still working at a Design Agency. She made the decision to quit a stable job in pursue of breaking out of the routine and bringing more flexibility into her work and her travels.

See more of her artworks in Behance and her website. Follow her amazing travels on her Instagram account.