What is Nomad Earth Catalog?
Nomad Earth Catalog is a window into another mode of existence. We publish things and make things that prompt people to think critically and experimentally about how they live.
Who is behind The Catalog?
I'm a solo female traveler, and I prefer to keep my privacy.
In a sphere saturated by hypervisibility of creators and personal brands, I want The Catalog to exist as something else: a body of work not dependent on a (my) face or body.
While I shape and steward The Catalog, I tend to use “we” rather than “I.” This is not to obscure authorship, but to instead speak of The Catalog as a whole, as an ethos.
You won’t find any selfies here. This is my work, but it isn’t about "me."
Why aren’t you on social media?
The Catalog exists on Pinterest and Are.na, where visual archiving can still feel reflective. But we’ve chosen not to be on Instagram, Facebook, or other Meta-owned platforms, not just for privacy, but as a principled refusal.
These platforms operate on extractive rhythms: constant visibility, algorithmic pressure, and the commodification of self. That logic doesn’t align with our ethics, our tempo, or our trust in slow resonance.
We're not trying to grow the largest audience possible. We're trying to reach the right people.
Personally, we are also quite protective of our time, our nervous system, and our attention.
What camera gear do you use and why?
See the Photography Gear tag in our Tools Directory for the exact gear we shoot with.
Our preferred camera brand is Fujifilm, and most of the photography you’ll see here is shot on the X-T5 paired with the XF16–55mm F2.8 R LM WR II lens.
There are more advanced cameras on the market in terms of technical capability (like the Sony A7R5), but we choose Fujifilm for the way it feels: the tactile dials, the color science, the ergonomics. The images come out beautiful straight from the camera, and the process of shooting remains intentional, not automated.
For the kind of travel and documentation we practice—low-profile, observational, textured—Fujifilm just fits.
Do you travel all year?
Yes, but slowly. I generally try to spend 1-3 months in each place, visas permitting. I don't have a base anywhere, though I do have places I frequently return to.
Favorite things to photograph?
The everyday and the ordinary, street scenes, and strange architecture.
I’m drawn to quiet details. Fruit on a windowsill, ferments in jars, feral gardens. I enjoy deep texture.
I’m especially enjoy photographing people living otherwise: those enacting lifeways not driven by 21st-century globalized corporate capitalism. The unspectacular magic of subsistence, ritual, or refusal. The ways people shape their lives in relation to land, memory, or each other.
Lately, I’ve been yearning to photograph more directly into tension: to make images that hold the social, political, economic, and ecological frictions of this moment. Especially where those tensions intersect with global mobility: who moves, who stays, and under what conditions.
Is all photography your own?
About 95% is with the exception of the rare circumstances where we do not have a suitable photo or forgot to take one. This excludes curated content. For instance, when linking to external sources such as accommodation or the items in our Tools Directory, we generally usually use images from those external sources. Our Compendium is also entirely externally sourced images. If it isn't our own, we always reference the source.
Why do you only include vegan food options in your guides?
I’m vegan, and I can only write of what I know.
Highlighting vegan options also aligns with The Catalog’s broader ethics of ecological care, harm reduction, and animal liberation. While we recognize that food is culturally complex and that “harm” is rarely linear, we choose to center plant-based establishments and options because they reflect a commitment to our values.
This isn’t about moral superiority. We acknowledge that circumstances and the choices they invite are not always clear-cut. Sometimes, the more ecological or ethical choice may not be the strictly vegan one, especially when labor, land, or supply chains come into view. A banana from a chemically treated plantation may carry more unseen harm than a neighbor’s backyard egg.
We also hold awareness that food is not just fuel or footprint; it’s memory, ancestry, and relationship. Many cultures include animals-based foods in ways that are deeply reciprocal, place-based, and regenerative. Our emphasis on vegan options is not a dismissal of those traditions, but a refusal of the industrial systems that have severed food from context, care, and accountability.
In centering plant-based recommendations, we’re also writing from a Global North perspective where veganism is often a choice, not a necessity. We acknowledge that the ability to abstain from animal products is a form of privilege. This context matters. So does the way food traditions from the Global South are often critiqued without understanding the conditions they arise from.
We invite readers to explore with openness, ask thoughtful questions, and consider what nourishment means in each shifting context of place, culture, and consequence.
We offer our food recommendations not as prescriptions or forms of moral one-upmanship, but simply as invitations to enjoy what we’ve enjoyed.
