International Trip

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

Turkey | Friday, July 5, 2013 | 5 photos

As a 22 year old fashion design student in Bologna, Italy, I always studied photography through the lens of fashion. Ever since I was young, I fawned over the stylized photographs that graced the pages of Vogue Italia while I also idolized the visual-essays in National Geographic. In my university I studied the dynamics between photographer and subject in the studio with perfect lighting and equally perfect models. However, it was only during my 5 months' stay in Istanbul, Turkey that I started to truly exercise my photography “in the field” skills. I found myself in the middle of the Taksim Square during the demonstrations. Against the advice of my family and friends in Italy, I decided to push forward, in the middle of danger, and protest with my Turkish friends. I took pictures; I took a risk; I wanted to immortalize what I saw. It was my very first time taking reportage pictures, but in the field of photography, I've decided that sometimes great photos are worth the risk. In the same way that my study abroad experience was challenging, life-changing and inspiring, I hope that my experience with National Geographic, in a location I've never been to, would be the same.