Bastiaan Woudt · 30 works
Peak is a visual journey into the heart of the Himalayas — a body of work that captures the raw power of the mountains and the quiet resilience of the people who inhabit them. More than a record of landscape, it is an exploration of endurance, solitude, culture, and human connection at altitude.
Woudt's fascination with being in the mountains grew after standing at the 5,895-meter peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. It was this fascination that led him, at the end of 2018, to contact Snow Leopard — a company that organizes expeditions to the world's highest peaks, founded and run by René de Bos, the first Dutchman to climb Mount Everest. Because of his domestic situation — happily married with four children — and the lack of extreme climbing experience, conquering the highest peaks was never the goal. But being there, walking the same paths as the great climbers, and looking from the halfway point to think what if — that was everything.
The search for the right destination led to the Annapurna — the 55-kilometer-long massif that includes Annapurna I, which at 8,091 meters is the world's 9th highest peak. After consulting with René, they chose not to go to Everest: busy, commercial, and photographically perhaps not as interesting as it was 30 years ago. Instead, they took what locals call "the hard way" — a 26-day walk away from the crowds, away from all tourists, and for the most part away from all basic comforts. His brother Aryan came along — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to share this adventure. Supported by a team of porters, guides, and a cook who set up camp on the slopes and carried food for the trip, they trekked through the most remote areas, pitching tents at heights above 5,000 meters. For days on end they met no one, except the occasional local mountain dwellers.
The route began in warm, humid jungle and ascended through roughly 3,000 meters to snow, mist, and treacherous mountain passes such as the Namun La. Woudt describes the expedition as one of the greatest adventures of his life and career — physically gruelling but creatively transformative.
Peak was not about conquering summits. It was about experiencing the mountains on their own terms — through the eyes of those who call them home. As Robert McFarlane writes in Mountains of the Mind: "The true blessing of the mountains is not that they provide a challenge or a contest, something to be overcome and dominated. It is that they offer something gentler and infinitely more powerful: they make us ready to credit marvels — whether it is the dark swirl which water makes beneath the plate of ice, or the feel of soft belts of moss which form on the lee sides of boulders. Being in the mountains reignites our astonishment at the simplest transactions of the physical world."
For Woudt, the unforgettable journey was heightened by the endless mountain passes and the hypnotic rhythm of walking — being so far removed from the rest of the world gave him time and space to reflect on life. Where am I now, and where do I want to go? Literally during the journey, but also as a metaphor for life. "There are so many different reasons, but in the end also not at all. It is because you are looking for something in yourself. And like McFarlane said: half because you love yourself, and half because you have no idea."
Peak is not simply about beautiful mountains. It is about the combination of rugged landscapes, still lifes, and above all the proud Nepalese people encountered along the way. Woudt wanted to show that Nepal is more than mountaineering: it is about culture, daily scenes, silence, and spirituality in the high mountains.
The result is a series of monochrome images that move between vast, towering peaks and intimate moments shared with Nepalese villagers, monks, and porters. From thirteen aspirant monks at a monastery to the owner of a tea house, the portraits testify to the grace and pride, the strength and wisdom of the Nepalese — received everywhere with warmth, despite hardship and isolation. It is their hospitality that gives this project its deeply human aspect. In this project, landscape takes centre stage for the first time in Woudt's practice, yet the human presence remains inseparable from his visual language.
The images align with Woudt's signature graphic, timeless black-and-white style: strong contrasts, minimalism, and an almost abstract approach to form in both landscape and portrait. His use of chiaroscuro — rooted in a deep admiration for Rembrandt — gives the work its striking tonal depth. The choice to photograph entirely in black and white removes the images from the literal and allows the viewer to focus more deeply on form, texture, and emotion.
Unlike earlier projects with comfortable conditions — cars, hotels — Woudt worked in tents, at high altitude and in extreme cold, which forced him to keep photographing even in discomfort. He emphasises that you must be "always on": even when exhausted or ill, you need to be able to see and capture composition, light, and moments. The unpredictability — sudden snow, fog, dangerous paths — meant he often had to react quickly and rely on intuition and experience rather than elaborate on-site preparation.
As he told Metal Magazine: "One of the things I learned during this journey is to be aware of your surroundings and to be constantly scanning and alert from making work while walking, even if you don't feel like it or feel miserable. After having slept in a tent for 26 days, and often walking more than 20–30 km a day at altitudes between 3,000 and 6,000 meters, sometimes you don't think about photographing the mountains around you anymore. Still, at those moments you look differently, you start looking for different shapes, abstract lines — and when you meet people you are glad they want to stand in front of your camera, so every encounter becomes special."