My Photo scholarship 2011 entry
Worldwide | Monday, November 7, 2011 | 5 photos
These photos are from a recent trip to Vanuatu, where I spent time with a local community on Pele Island 7km off the main Island of Efate. I find it encouraging and enriching to spend time with and learn about local cultures, their customs and the way they exist, the ways of old and interestingly the way in which some old ways are discreetly blended in with modern ways.
Vanuatu men and women still hold a traditional place in the community, women are gatherers and men are hunters. They rarely do things together, in both adult and childhood.
People of Vanuatu live simple lives, their houses are made from off-cut materials, the women tend the house’s external and internal walls and roofs by weaving flax to provide necessary protection from the environment. People of Vanuatu are proud and do not accept anything without giving something in return.
Pigs are very important in these communities as they represent wealth, however animals fend for themselves.
I am a part-time law student intending to specialise in Human Rights. I am doing photography as a hobby and do courses at Sydney Community College to improve my skills and techniques. I want to learn how to capture raw emotion and the true story behind people’s eyes. We who live in First World Countries become so misguided about the world and its wonderful people. We even pay money to go and sit in a box to shoot endangered animals and by the time our children have children those animals may cease to exist. Being able to learn to take a photo and to capture raw emotion, I will be able to be successful in my quest to teach people about Humanity, Compassion, Kindness and to be more Humane again, as we have lost it somewhere along the way.
Photo Galleries
Where I've been
My trip journals
