dtali

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Tuesday, November 8, 2011 | flickr photos

In the summer 2011, I had the chance to go to Africa to volunteer in an orphanage and to have an internship in journalism, and to backpack in East Africa.

During this trip, I had a visit to a remote and deprived Maasai village in rural Tanzania, that penetrated into my thoughts deeply and kept me thinking about life and the ways to live it. Seeing that village wasn’t my first encounter with extreme poverty. So it wasn’t the poverty that got me in that village, but it was the way that people carried themselves despite famine, AIDS, and all the complications brought by poverty. What Maasai’s had was a pride and a joy that I’ve never seen anywhere else. With the huge smile that they never fail to carry, they seemed to be in peace with the world and themselves more than anything.

It was in Africa, when I realized that it was possible to bring change to the places I travel to, by taking photographs and telling stories to the world. Because it was the only way of letting others know about the existance of some forgetten people & places. I became a fierce believer of the motto “One photograph tells more than thousand words.” This is how I decided to pursue a career in photojournalism. Instead of a “hunter”-photographer who just takes photograhps and goes away, I want to be able to touch to some lives.

I’m about to get a post-grad in development studies which will make me gain an in-depth perspective about the developing world, so that I can make a knowledgeable photojournalist. In the meanwhile, I am hoping to take every opportunity to perfect my photography skills in order to become the best photojournalist I can be and change the world.