Kensho Coast

A 'place' I have visited

children_of_india — Mon, 1 Jul 2013 05:08:36 GMT

My name is Vincent, 28, and I'll keep this simple. Two facts why I am obsessed with travelling. Fact no. 1: exploring places I have never seen before fills my inside up like nothing else, it not only helps me understand the world around but takes me closer to my true self as well (which is the ultimate journey in my opinion). Fact no. 2: I love sharing my experiences and inspiring people to step outside their comfort zone and take the risk to see the world from a totally different perspective than before. My tools in this are writing, photography and music. I run a blog on my adventures, I take heaps of photos wherever I go; and I sing about my inner journey taking place on trips done in the world. I was born in Australia, I have been closely associated to India and I have settled in Hungary. This three-pointed heritage keeps my perspective on things fresh and unique, and I simply can't wait to start on my next trip to explore, to capture the moment and to share.

My Scholarship entry - A local encounter that changed my life

children_of_india — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 22:56:02 GMT

The most special new moon of the year awaits us as the Indian heat lessens in the breeze after sunset. Many pilgrims coming to the ashram of Puttaparthi spend the night awake to taste the magic of the new moon which is said to shift consciousness beyond the mind.
My companion suggests we should spend the night in the village. This is exactly what I feared.
As a child I have been to India several times, but I often relied on the protectiveness of the ashram. The village was a completely different world; loud, bustling, incomprehensible. Street mongers, beggars, children in rags, poor ladies carrying underfed babies, shrunken old people all around. As I grew up, I got used to the milieu, still the thought of the village at night somewhat alarmed the child within me. But my companion insists, so I give in.
We decide to go see how the locals celebrate the sacred new moon. First I weigh by-passers with suspicion, but slowly I realize that the streets hostile in my mind are actually friendlier than in the daytime. Enthused chanting filters out from the shrines. We enter a Hanuman temple, where we suddenly find ourselves amidst a pack of loud children. They shake our hands and cling to our arms, overjoyed by the fact that we have come to celebrate with them. We hardly believe the way we are welcomed in a temple where we have never been before. My heart eases off.
We continue our stroll and soon come across another group of youngsters playing badminton under the street lamps. As they notice us, they immediately pass over their rackets for us to play, as if this was the most obvious way to treat foreigners. I am so astonished at the turn of events that I miss every service, still the Indians observe my clumsy moves with the most innocent smile.
So much for the boogiemen. The frightened child within me had been surrounded by laughing, friendly kids, and the thought comes to me that eventually there is no such place on Earth where life would not be ready to receive us.

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

children_of_india — Wed, 2 Nov 2011 05:15:18 GMT

The true essence of people and nature - this is what I am into. After studying landscape architecture I became a journalist writing on environmental issues, then continued as a climate change project manager at a civil organization in Hungary. You can see how nature and people are in the focus of my career. At the same time the focus of my camera is also set to nature and people. My passion is photography, the recording of the beauties and the richness of nature, of cultures rooted in true essence. I've been to amazing places all around and I believe that as I have been granted the chance to see beyond the fence, it is an act of gratitude on my side to document the experiences of my travels and share them - to inspire, to provoke different thought processes, to constantly remind myself and all those who see my photos that there are several other aspects to life. I wish to become a photographer because I love to seize the magic of the moment and the necessary creativity lies within me to find the apparent or hidden beauty of a smile, a movement or a landscape. I feel that I could serve better if I added my passion and creativity to my profession. I could be a more authentic person if instead of reasoning from the office I was out there, taking it all in personally and thus interpreting my message about the importance of true values, be it natural or cultural. The photos I have submitted were taken at a poor primary school in rural India. I just happened to walk into their small little chamber and I was absolutely blown away by their hospitality, their warmth. True, innocent children, the looks they gave are simply incomparable to Western society schools. There was such a depth to everything about them, I really wanted to take these looks and smiles home with me.