Still Glaring from the City Lights

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Tuesday, November 8, 2011 | 5 photos

I shot these photos during my two-month stay in Mongolia, where I taught a paper maché making class at an orphanage in the poor yurt districts of Ulaanbaatar in exchange for food and room. These photos show a contrast between the true nomads living in the countryside and the suburban former nomads living in the yurt districts around the capital.

I'm currently a journalism student at the University of Missouri. I've been moving from place to place since early childhood, and I speak more or less six languages. I originally wanted to become a writer, but my interest in photography has grown through courses at the university and travels abroad.

To me, experiencing a place is much more important than seeing all the sights. I rarely travel just to travel, and my experiences abroad mostly involve some kind of work. In addition to Mongolia, I've also painted murals in a Mexican jungle, reported for an English newspaper in Panama City, and did design work in Paris and Hong Kong.

I'm highly adaptable to most situations - in Mongolia, I lived in a yurt without running water and had to burn cow dung to stay warm in a place where it still snowed in June. I'm also very adept at learning local customs and I absorb languages like a sponge. With these qualities and an eye for composition and design, I feel like I would be a great fit for a career as an international photographer.

However, I have not been able to find much guidance in this area. Our school isn't not very strong in international reporting, and my internships abroad have been only loosely supervised. I believe that this opportunity will help me learn how to fully utilize my talents and push my photography to the next level.