Unsettled TCK Visits with an Unsettled TCK

My Photo Scholarship 2010 Entry

Hong Kong | Thursday, October 7, 2010 | flickr photos

I use photography as a medium through which I can share myself, the sights, sounds, and feelings of the world as I experience it. For me, there is nothing more thrilling than feeling like I have captured the perfect moment. As someone who aspires to become a photographer for National Geographic, this opportunity is invaluable, and what I learn through this internship will help me get closer to reaching my goals.

I have spent the last four years at the University of Virginia, and after I graduated in May, I flew across the world to Hong Kong. Since I was born in Hong Kong and have visited it every year, I wanted to take this opportunity to explore a side of the city that I had never seen. Armed with only an Octopus Card (very difficult to get around without one) and my camera, I have come to love just how unexpected Hong Kong can be. Every time I turn a corner, there is something new waiting for me, such as a meat market nestled between two metropolitan buildings.

I work as an English teacher in a tutoring center and lately we have been teaching our kids idioms such as 'out of the blue.' I have decided to incorporate this idiom into my photography, and so the story that I am telling with my submitted photos revolves around the theme of the unexpected, of sights that come from out of the blue. Each of these photos were chosen with this theme in mind, and each represents an individual story amidst the wider context of the surprises that await any traveler on the streets of Hong Kong.