The images in this book were captured during travels across fourteen South West Asian and North African nations over a decade. As well as conveying soulful, honest reflections of individuals, landscapes and scenes encountered upon these trips, the work offers a glance at the personal and artistic journey of discovery that unfolded internally over that time. This voyage, ignited and deepened by countless moments of connection with fellow citizens of the region, eventually saw the artist embrace his once-discomfiting, given, middle name as a chosen emblem of his self-hood. It's this entire self that imbues the photographic journal with palpable curiosity and ease, capturing subjects, living and man-made, with an expansive yet personal conceptualisation of beauty beyond the western gaze.