This past fall, the New York-based photographer Adam Friedlander visited the Scottish Highlands, with no intentions for an artistic project. But as he traveled the craggy, moody countryside, he was being reminded of the stark images by photographers like Bill Brandt and Michael Kenna that had shaped his ideas of the region’s landscape. He realized that “with such a vast and layered subject, landscapes provide the photographer with the freedom to project their own emotions and point of view onto the image.” He took out his own camera and started shooting this portfolio, which he calls As the Crow Flies.

Having not planned to shoot on the trip, Friedlander had no tripod in tow and chose to embrace the “happy accident” of motion blur. Movement texturizes the environment. “Because of the motion blur, the images feel experiential rather than observational,” he says. “It is more reminiscent of how we remember a scene: details are blurred and the overall impression of the scene is what lasts in our memory.”

Friedlander visited known sites like Glencoe village and Eilean Donan Castle, as well as some more out of the way locales. However, his photos largely document the spaces between—as if we are on a journey with him. “I found myself so excited with each turn we took, with each new row of hills and mountains in the distance,” Friedlander recalls of seeing the passing landscape through his van’s window. “It’s so lush and green yet it feels empty. It brings on a sense of profound insignificance, yet one that I find peace in.”

While some shots feature homes or sheep, their relative isolation and smallness imbue the images with an existential import: the emotional power of the landscape. Shots of peaks almost read as if they’re snow-topped under high-contrast black-and-white. “I wanted this series to focus on atmosphere and form, which I enhanced through my process in post as well via heavy dodging and burning,” Friedlander explains. “Instead of creating a photorealistic representation of the Highlands, my goal was to convey the overwhelming beauty of the landscape as well as the range and intensity of emotions I felt during my time there.”