EP.5 • NIC HARIMAN

Nic Hariman is a 25 years old 360° content creator focused on video direction, photography and graphic making. He's currently living in Buenos Aires cooperating on various projects.

In your photographic exhibition in Argentina, at Teatro Roma, you deal with the theme of modern man's disenchantment and his feeling of loneliness. Can travel attempt to reverse this trend by bringing us to a new worldview?

Tra sentirsi soli ed esserlo c’è una sottile differenza. Ritengo che la solitudine provata dall’uomo moderno coincida con l’assenza del desiderio: egli percorre generalmente un cammino verso mete e/o obiettivi che non hanno a che vedere con l’emotività. Allora questo fa sì che io mi trovi circondato da molte persone, da molte cose, da mille azioni, ma mi senta solo perché nulla di tutto ciò alimenta il mio vero desiderio, che è personale di ognuno. L’uomo moderno solitamente persegue ciò che la cultura ti “impone” attraverso modelli e in Occidente affonda le sue radici nell’industrialismo, nel progresso scientifico e tecnologico che sono stati caratteri distintivi del passaggio tra il XIX e il XX secolo, un processo di inarrestabile portata che si è acutizzato sempre di più fino al giorno d’oggi. Questo modello vuole un uomo uguale all’altro, perché pressapoco tutti quanti perseguiremmo lo stesso obiettivo, ma il desiderio interiore non vedo perchè debba coincidere con tutto ciò. Per questo c’è molta gente che si sente sola trovandosi circondata da persone, perchè molte volte ciò che gli si presenta come qualcosa di importante che dovrebbe perseguire, in realtà non lo desidera, mentre l’uomo in viaggio è un uomo che ha un forte desiderio. Quale? Beh, lo stesso desiderio di viaggiare, di conoscere, quello di entrare in contatto con la natura, e il desiderio è ciò che non ti fa sentire solo. Penso che ci sentiamo persi quando non desideriamo. Quindi personalmente considero che il viaggio può assolutamente invertire questa tendenza. Nel mio caso, quando mi trovo in viaggio da solo, di fronte alla maestosità e immensità della natura o quando entro in contatto con le popolazioni autoctone si verifica in me un forte ridimensionamento dell’ego ed emerge una sensazione di umiltà che a volte nella quotidianità viene dimenticata facilmente , non c’è un modello a cui adeguarsi se non il proprio, ai propri ritmi e al proprio tempo. Si elimina il superfluo perché si vuole viaggiare leggeri non solo metaforicamente , ma anche nella pratica. Cesare Pavesi diceva che viaggiare obbliga ad avere fiducia in estranei e a perdere di vista tutto ciò che ti risulta familiare e confortante. Nulla è tuo tranne l’essenziale: l’aria, le ore di sonno, il mare, il cielo; tutto ciò che è eterno o che consideriamo come tale, e per questo è incantevole.

I think we feel lost when we don't desire. In my case, when I am traveling alone, in front of the majesty and immensity of nature or when I get in contact with indigenous peoples a strong downsizing of the ego occurs in me and a feeling of humility emerges: there is no model to conform to except one's own, to one's own rhythms and time. 

Cesare Pavesi said that traveling forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that is familiar and comforting to you. Nothing is yours except the essential: the air, the hours of sleep, the sea, the sky; everything that is eternal or that we consider as such, and for that reason is enchanting.

 Do you think nature desires to be explored or would it prefer to continue its growth process undisturbed? What benefit would it derive from being discovered?

I believe that nature itself finds no advantage in being explored, indeed the less it comes in contact with man the more it lives in balance and the more it develops the tools it needs to continue to exist.

The only one who can benefit from the exploration of nature is man, who could not live without it. But I believe that its exploration and contemplation should take place silently and inwardly; no trace of its passage should remain.

I like to think of the idea that nature wishes to be discovered to remind man of his subalternity and the fact that we are all her children.

How might the journey change between those who, like you, create photographic images and videos along the way and those who do not?

 I imagine that those who work in the world of content creation fulfill a need, or at any rate a personal desire to make known and disseminate to an audience their experience through the most varied forms of art, including precisely for example photographic images or videos, and in my case, this desire is followed by a purpose that is partly composed of a motivational/inspirational character towards those who want to undertake their journey and secondly is composed of an informative character in that I often choose destinations that are not tokenistic and little known.

Could you identify an important moment that happened on the trip while you were with company and one while traveling alone?

I can only mention the Cotopaxi volcano expedition; I was not really alone because I was accompanied by the local guide Juan Quintuña. But for a few moments I can claim to have completely forgotten about it, and more specifically I am referring to the point when starting to climb the Yanasacha ramp (5700 m) and I began to feel the effects of altitude sickness, experiencing hallucinations and falling asleep whenever I blinked.

It was the first time I had experienced those sensations, so I identify that moment as one of the most significant. As for an important moment that happened in Ecuador while I was in the company I would like to mention the despedida party that the guys from Greenstep.ec, a tour operator with whom I trained and acclimatized preparing for the climbs, organized for me; they were like family during the two months I spent in Cuenca.

Do you think it can actually be said that the world is made up of lines and boundaries? What defines one place from another?

Yes, if we want to make the answer fall within the political sphere so to speak, we can say that the world is made up of lines and boundaries that someone once drew, but personally I think that what sanctions one place from another falls within the cultural sphere and so I am referring to language, history, customs, traditions, art and music. So we will find different places within the same boundaries and similar places separated by a line.

If you had to assign a piece of music to this journey, what would it be?

 If I would need to relate this journey to a lyrics, this would be “If I can dream” by Elvis Presley, while the soundtrack that comes with me was “The rapture pt.II” by &ME