I think most of us are holding a few things at once: work, relationships, health, home. When one of them goes wrong, the others hold you up and you can cope. But when two or more go at once, it can be hard to find something to lean on.

A few years ago, three of mine went at the same time. My relationship, my career and my health. My mind became a place I couldn't rest in and I couldn't think clearly enough to find my way out.

I’d never had such an overwhelming feeling of needing to get away from my life. So I went to Croatia, on my own, to a tent in the pines above a hidden beach.

I wasn't expecting much - just some breathing room. But something happened there that I hadn't been able to make happen anywhere else; the noise dropped and I could hear myself again.

What I took from it was how much our surroundings actually do. The right space thats considered, quiet, and close to nature can give you room that you can't manufacture at home, no matter how hard you try.

I've made it a habit ever since. But finding those places was harder than it should have been. Hours of research, and I still got it wrong sometimes. Plenty that looked beautiful but felt wrong, listed in ways that told you nothing about how they'd actually make you feel.

So I built the thing I was looking for.

Present Tense is a collection of places chosen not for how they photograph, but for how they hold you when you need it most. Ten of them, across seven countries, each one found and chosen by me, and each one good for something different because rest isn't one thing.

I know what its like when your mind feels like a prison. I hope Present Tense gives you what it gave me: some peace.