Welcome to our first in a new Roam series: "Fellow Traveler," featuring Los Angeles-based photographer Jason Travis's images of world travelers and their go-to travel gear.

For the past nine years Los Angeles-based photographer Jason Travis has been documenting people and the contents of their bags in his quirky, fun "Persona" photo series. His split-screen images of hipsters, housewives, grannies, kids and entrepreneurs' bags have allowed viewers to peek into the private lives of people contained in their bags. Among the more than 450 people he has photographed are John Oliver, John Taylor and Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Michael Stipe of R.E.M. His work has been featured in USA Today and Marie Claire.

"My goal with the Persona project is to tell a personal story with photographs," says Travis. "I was always curious what people carried with them, and then I simply started asking people to empty their bags. The idea is in the name: I wanted to show how we use our possessions to define ourselves, to create our personas. The items don’t make the person—they’re manifestations of the self."

You can see some of Travis's portraits of animals in the Persona style on our sister site HGTV.

Roam was lucky enough to entice Travis to recast his series with travelers in mind, photographing the items travelers frequently pack for their journeys by car, boat or plane. Check out our first "Fellow Traveler" in this new Roam series, featuring a New York photographer who never leaves home without his camera and his Domke bag.

You Are: Erik Tanner

Profession: Photographer

Home Base: Brooklyn, NY

Where Were You Going?: This was the fourth stop of five shooting portraits of notable alumni for Oberlin College around the U.S.

One Travel Essential You Always Pack: Honestly, my Domke bag. I use it all the time whether I am carrying a camera or not. Thing goes everywhere with me.