AWARD-WINNING ADVENTURE PHOTOGRAPHER, Cat Vinton started her journey in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Leaving the UK as soon as she graduated from Camberwell College of Arts when she was 21, Cat was desperate to explore the world, so headed for Vietnam to travel the length of the country, backpacking with a friend. She then found a way to cross the border into the lesser-known Laos… “Laos was incredible back in the late 90s — no tourists, just a handful of (mainly) young French people carving out a simple life alongside the beautiful people of this landlocked mountainous country,” she says. “I ditched my return flight home and stayed for nearly three years.” Those years opened her eyes to a world she didn’t know existed and Cat ended up photographing (on an old
