I was nine years old when my mother took me away from home for the first time – to Leningrad. For those of us behind the Iron Curtain, this was a Big Trip. Later, I couldn’t remember anything I had seen or done except for a large, colourful tourist bus from Switzerland – the only object with which I wanted to be photographed. That bus symbolized the world for me – large and beckoning, full of travel and adventure.

Now I am 35 and I’ve been to 39 countries. 20 years of wandering around the world with a camera makes one wonder – why on earth do I want to travel?