Erika Larsen is a contributor to National Geographic Magazine, and her work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, but it is her dedication to immersing herself in the cultures that she is seeking to understand that is so inspiring. Erika literally lives and breathes the cultures she photographs, and sets out not as an outsider seeking to tell the story of another culture to the world, but rather as an individual seeking to deeply understand the people and their way of life. She sees her role as a photographer to be 100% present in the experience she is having, and if she is 100% there, then the shots create themselves.