Near Mount Bromo, Java, Indonesia · 2026

I have something in my heart for people who eat chillies. You know it might burn. You eat it anyway.

I arrived near Mount Bromo exhausted. I was supposed to climb it the same day, but I was so tired that I postponed the trip and slept at the hostel instead.

I woke up the next morning with nothing really to do. I was staying somewhere quite isolated, no bike, so I just started walking.

And then I found the farmers.

I had travelled all the way to Java for the volcanoes. Hours of buses, sleepless nights, hiking Ijen, almost fainting. But this photograph happened on the day I couldn’t do any of that.

Maybe some things are like that.

You get tired. You postpone. You get scared. You almost don’t go.

On days like these, do it anyway.

Part of A Human Trace — Collection 01.