Matthew VanDyke in Libya
When he was 27 years old, Matthew VanDyke left home and a sheltered, quiet life in Baltimore – where all cooking and washing was done by his mum – looking for adventure and what he called a "crash course in manhood".
Equipped with a motorbike and a video camera, he rode 56,000 kilometres across the Middle East, embedding with US forces in Iraq and getting into increasingly strange, adrenaline-fuelled situations in places such as Libya and Afghanistan.
Images courtesy of Matthew VanDyke.
The images in this gallery are used with permission and are subject to copyright conditions.