A photographer doesn’t just capture a moment; they put themselves in the position to capture it.

Few photographers have scoured the world as ravenously as National Geographic‘s Cory Richards. He is a journeyman, adventurer, and expedition photographer. (He’s also the first American to summit any of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks in winter.) While many photographers find themselves on adventures because of their photography, Richards is an adventurer first and foremost. “As I started to climb more, and have more success in this arena—as I started to become a professional climber, and make money from this—I was able to travel more,” he says. “As I traveled more, I started to become somewhat disenchanted with what I was doing. Not that I didn’t love climbing, but it seemed like there were bigger stories around me that needed to be told. The climbing started to feel myopic; it started to feel selfish. How could I, coming from a privileged background, use that privilege to simply climb a mountain and celebrate myself, and not celebrate everything that was around me? The human stories around me were incredible, and stories that I wanted to tell.”

In Richards’ work we find the world’s beauty on a massive scale. Whether it be a marooned polar bear in Russia, corrugated fog in Myanmar, or a deep-sea diver in Indonesia, the subjects in his photos seem to transcend proportion altogether.

You can read more about his journey becoming a photographer here.