Sometimes I’d get the rare assignment where I could breathe—for example, photographing an article on teas for an airline magazine. I was in the Darjeeling area of north India, at the foothills of the Himalaya, a region known for producing the “Champagne of teas.” I took the job hoping to make playful, almost cinematic images, but at the end of the day, I found I’d made nothing of the sort. Packing up my camera, I felt like a failure.

On the drive back to the hotel, I noticed heavy steam rising from a building up ahead. Arriving at the scene, I opened the car door—and realized I was at the Ghum station for the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway,