‘Ignored Itinerary’ is an ongoing series that started at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Not being able to leave the house for non-essential travel and adventure, Laura Chen turned the situation into an opportunity to creatively exhaust her local area. She went on many long walks during lockdown. Laura expresses how it was the ideal way to clear her mind, by simply focussing on taking pictures; observing her immediate surroundings through a different lens. She discovered some new places where she lives in London that she had never seen or been to before, and later on when she was able to travel back to her family home in the Netherlands, revisited some old familiar sights from her childhood. The walks also rekindled my relationship with nature. The calmness Chen found within organic shapes and landscapes became her primary focus when photographing. Flowers, trees, clouds, animals — Laura talks about how they remind her of her own earthly existence, and how she is just one tiny particle in this infinite sea of beings.

"The past two years have brought a lot of our unawareness and ignorance about the impact we have on the world and the consequences of our actions on other living beings and the climate, to the fore. I believe it would do us all good if we look down at the ground every once in a while, see what is already there or used to be, get our heads out of the clouds and take time to reflect, face and battle our issues, and most importantly take our own responsibility and initiative, one step at a time."