Unsettled TCK Visits with an Unsettled TCK

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

China | Tuesday, November 1, 2011 | flickr photos

Travel photography is a very competitive field and requires a balance between talent and luck. I photograph so that I can document life and the life I chose to document for my submission is the Norbulingka. The Norbulingka is a major tourist attraction in Lhasa. It is the site of the summer palace of the Dalai Lamas and has a beautiful compound filled with gardens. The Norbulingka also has a zoo. As colorful as the rest of the Norbulingka is, that is how barren the zoo is. The cages are concrete and there isn’t any green. The zoo should be renamed the zoo of despair and insanity.

Every animal in that desolate place must by on the edge of madness from years of abuse; they pace and rock continuously. I have seen children throw rocks while their parents goad them on, and trash litters the cages.

I have taken many photographs, but this is the first time that I have felt strongly about a subject. I hope to be chosen so that I can go to South Africa and photograph animals in their natural habitat; living, winning – and even losing – but with their own dignity. I want to be able to contrast how animals should be living with how the sad animals of Norbulingka endure their days.

A willing learner, I hope to improve my photography technique. I lived in Hong Kong last year working as an English tutor while squeezing in what photography I could. I now shuttle between Lhasa, Hong Kong, and India, and hope to be able to expand my range and my skills through what I learn and am exposed to. I aim to make the most of going to South Africa by closely observing Jason Edwards and absorbing as much as I can.