The light in your eyes

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

USA | Saturday, December 22, 2012 | 4 photos

As a finalist in this competition last year, I wrote about how I love the powerful empathetic connection created between subject and viewer of a photograph - how this compassion gives meaning to my life. While this is still true, my relationship to photography has become even richer and more mature since my last submission.

Now I have more responsibilities in my life. I run my own business and people who depend on me in a multitude of ways. Sometimes it feels as if all four burners on a stovetop were all bubbling forth at once. But whenever I can, I schedule a photo shoot or take my camera out into the city. And quick as that, the noise of everyday life dies down. Every fiber of my being zeroes in on the frame, focus, and shutter release between my hands. I am calm. I am relieved. I am replenished.

Now, I care just as much about the process of capturing an image as I do about the image itself. I feel myself becoming more and more of a photographer not just by passion but by identity. The change only makes my appetite for photography more insatiable. This scholarship would take me from photographer to Photographer. Nothing excites me more.