Travelling with intent

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Tuesday, November 8, 2011 | flickr photos

I got my first camera at 18 and had worn it through a couple years latter, bringing it everywhere I went and looking at everything I could through it. Early on, I figured photography was my way of saying something, so I got myself an education to help make sense of the world's apparently chaotic ebullience. Starting with journalism I followed up with cultural anthropology learning to look at human societies with respect and understanding. Presently starting a Ph. D. in cultural anthropology, my heart is unambiguously set on photography. My research on peasant communities in Bosnia is a foundation for the photographic documentation of their realities. Once I get my head around an issue I can trust myself to put the intellectual part on hold without forgetting the issues and concerns it has raised and use my heart to meet the people and share their quotidian realities. I have an aesthete's heart and an intellectual's mind.

As field assistant for Jason Edwards, I can bring sustained determination and a healthy balance of abidance and initiative. He runs the show, I sweat while oiling the machine. I want to perfect my craft and learn new viewpoints into human existence. Wildlife photography is new to me, so I will learn a lot from this scholarship knowing I can respectfully approach a subject I want to photograph. Different subject, different approach. Same respect. I want to experience, to suffer, to overcome, to push my limits by exploring news ways to approach human societies' relations with their environment. I want to get dirt close to the subjects that will be photographed so as to hear their breath, smell their sweat, and taste their lives. My goal is to continue my documentary projects and work with the best publications to experience and share the world through photography.