The other side of Beijing

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

China | Monday, November 7, 2011 | 4 photos

My love for discovering new cultures led me to make important choices about my future; one of these was the choice of studying Chinese in university. Studying Chinese doesn’t only mean learning thousand of characters, but also merging completely in their culture. I thought I knew it, but I had to reconsider this when I went to Beijing. After two years of studying Chinese I felt I had to see this by myself, no more filtered by the pages of a book, so I left on my own for this world that I thought I knew. I found myself in a country of contrasts; like in every developing country there are three Mercedes every three millions rusty bicycles and narrow alleys where old men play chess are being replaced by buildings reaching for the sky. Those narrow alleys, the Hutongs, is the part of Beijing that struck me the most; it’s the old heart of the city, where you can catch with your lens a humanity that is dying out. This is the reason why I would like to be a National Geographic photographer; I would have the opportunity to see many different realities and to show this through my photography to the world.
I think I’m the right person for this scholarship because my love for adventures and cultures is reflected in my pictures. This is what I want to do; I want to dig in the heart of every culture and capture its essence. This is all combined with a passion for photography, a passion I have nurtured since I have memory and that hopefully will give shape to an uncertain future.