Go out. Dream big. Repeat.

Hi, I'm Lucas.

Photographer, adventurer, globetrotter and quite often a little lost. I grew up in Vorarlberg, in the very west of Austria, where the mountains start right behind the house. I have been trying to get to the top of them ever since.

It all started with landscapes. From there I kept adding things: skiers in deep powder, couples in the mountains, light painting and whatever idea won't leave my head.

This album is my story so far. It all comes down to one sentence that I still have to remind myself of far too often: go out, dream big, repeat.

Believe it or not, I hated hiking.

Strange, considering I was born in 2000 in the middle of the mountains and stood on skis before I could properly walk. My parents took me up there all the time and I always wanted to know what was around the next corner. A little explorer with an even bigger appetite, as you can see.

The hiking itself was another story. I had a head of my own, or as we say in Vorarlberg, my own "Grind". I was a sweet kid, honestly, but now and then, when something didn't go my way, the whole valley heard about it. A handful of gummy bears usually saved the day.

These days I'm a lot calmer.

It all started with my parents' old camera.

One day I borrowed their Olympus, an old film camera where all you could do was press the shutter. You only got to see the pictures once they had been developed. And I loved exactly that.

The turning point came when my older brother started taking photos too. Only he bought a camera that actually took sharp pictures. The envy of a little brother is a powerful thing, so I saved up for my very first DSLR, a Canon 700D. That is when my journey really began.

YouTube became my teacher, photo books my bibles and online courses my university.

I was always a daydreamer.

On the train to school my head was always somewhere else. I'd stare out of the window, lost in thoughts of wild places and nature, until I almost forgot to get off at the right station.

Going out has never been as easy for me as it might look. I often have doubts, motivation doesn't always show up and a lot of the time I'm simply sitting at my computer working.

That's exactly what my photos are meant to show. I know these struggles too. More often than not I get past them. And every time I'm reminded how beautiful our world is, even in chaotic times like these.

I just had to try.

Making photography my job had been my dream since school. So after business school I decided not to go to university and to follow this passion instead.

Plenty of people were sceptical. But I knew I had to try. If it didn't work out, at least I would have tried. It was a jump in at the deep end, especially since I was quite introverted back then and terrible at selling myself.

Then my first tourism jobs came in. Oh my god, what a feeling.

At 19, I set off around the world.

Seeing the world had always been my biggest dream. I had travelled on my own before, but for years I put every bit of money aside for this one trip. After my first jobs the day finally came.

Between Hawaii and the remote islands of the South Pacific I found a whole new world below the surface. With marine biologists I dived with sharks. At first I had a really queasy feeling. Then I looked down and saw around twenty of them gliding peacefully below me.

It was incredible and it changed my life. It showed me how much beauty is out there and how much this world is worth protecting.

I never thought I'd even enter.

For years I looked up to Red Bull Illume, one of the biggest adventure photo contests out there. Me, taking part? Never crossed my mind.

In 2023 I entered anyway, with a long exposure of a skier at night in Zürs. It took hours in the freezing cold and made the final, among the top 50 in the Creative category.

Two years later came first place in nature and wildlife at Austria's national award for professional photography, for a guanaco in Patagonia that walked into my frame right after I had dug my car out of the mud.

If someone had told my teenage self, I would never have believed it.

I love creating things nobody has seen before.

Looking back, that Illume photo was no coincidence. I'm always chasing new ideas and the feeling of creating something that didn't exist before. That's the part of my work I completely lose myself in.

The Lünersee Heart was an idea I carried around in my head for years. Andreas Gerhard flew the drone with the light around the heart-shaped lake at night while I stood behind the camera. It's one single exposure.

Above a blossoming cherry tree in Fraxern, a drone drew a single line of light across the stars. Most of these ideas sound a little crazy at first. But when they finally work, there's no better feeling for me.

Now I take others with me.

I kept sharing my adventures on social media. More and more people wrote to me asking if they could come along next time.

So in July 2023 I invited anyone who wanted to join me for a sunrise on the Sünser Spitze. At 2 a.m. nobody came. Two months later I tried again on the Hohe Matona. This time people showed up.

Since then we've slept in tents on summits, crawled through caves and shared cheese fondue in the snow. Strangers who became friends. And it's always free.