This photograph is from the Travellers series by Justyna Badach. It appeared in our 10 Year Anniversary Exhibition : Time in two directions. This portrait of a young woman with her dog is graphic and painterly. Rich color baths this image in a lush, vibrant palate that catches our eye while the photograph’s modest scale draws us closer. As we approach to a more intimate distance, the worn-in look of apathy we thought we saw in this young woman is melted by her gaze into something more stoic. Badach encounters the self-described “Travellers” by accident. These photographs were collected over 10 years. They are made in a moment of serendipity, when the artist, encountered the subject. They met, voyaging through life, and marked the meeting with a photograph. This work speaks to many themes and bridges connections, universal and personal. It speaks to the economic and social uncertainty of the moment. It aligns with the trajectory of the artist-refugee’s story. This work strikes a chord now more acute in all of us: the common element rises above them all. This photograph speaks to the nature of the free spirit present in us all. Post-lockdown we know what it is to long for adventures, experiences, resources lay that just over the next horizon. Popularized by cultural currents like the Beat movement, complicated by more contemporary narratives like the film Nomadland or friction along any number of international borders over immigration, we realize now- migration is a primal aspect of contemporary existence.