It was gray and cold when the train pulled into the Novosibirsk train station on the way from Beijing to Moscow in May 2012. The beautiful pastel-colored building was a welcome respite as I inched close to window pane to capture the shot. Taking pictures from a dining booth in a cramped cabin is tricky. I wanted so much to hop off the train and spend hours there, absorbing the architecture’s aching beauty, visual salve to my eyes tired of the stark tundra and birch forests to which I had become accustomed the few past days. But Moscow, still 48 hours away, awaited. And 10-minute pit stops on a six-day journey waited for no one.

I sat there shooting until the train pulled away.