PICTURE THIS

EVERY JOURNEY MAY BEGIN

with a single footstep, but it’s the snap of the camera that lets you relive it long after you’ve put your feet up. And when the journey includes barren and unforgiving environments, adventurers like photographer Rick Smolan peel away the imposing layers of their locale to reveal portraits of the tranquility hidden within. For Smolan – whose celebrated A

Day in the Life photo book series explore life in various nations around the world – it was 1977 in the sweltering Australian desert. On assignment from National Geographic, he shot images of Robyn Davidson, an audacious 27-year-old who crossed the sandy expanse on foot with only her dog and four camels in tow.

“I should have been worried,” Smolan admits, when I ask him about his nerves while on the journey. “[Robyn] had spent two years learning about what plants to eat, how to navigate with a map. I was completely clueless.”

The 2014 film Tracks brings the odyssey back to life, with one of Hollywood’s hottest stars, Adam Driver, playing a young Smolan.

Meanwhile, Smolan’s new photo book, Inside Tracks (Oct. 21), boasts his original photos alongside stills from the film. But, true to Smolan’s inner techie, the book also includes cutting-edge technology that allows readers to swipe their smartphones over his original pics to view the same scene recreated in the film.

—Rick Smolan “I felt like I’d gone to Mars. I felt like I’d been wearing sunglasses my whole life and suddenly I was seeing colour and light unlike anything I’d ever seen in my whole life”