Piura, the Slums of Peru

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Sunday, November 6, 2011 | 5 photos

The photo series is of when I went on a service trip to Piura, Peru with a group from my high school when I was 17. Our goal was to help build houses and to give hope to the locals, and although our stay was more of "showboating the Americans" instead of focusing on the actual work needed to be accomplished, it was still a very rewarding experience.
I grew up in Newport Beach, CA, and started taking pictures of my sister to satisfy her radiantly artistic spirit. I immediately loved it, and it stuck with me ever since. Now I go to NYU where I'm planning on doing an internal transfer to the arts school for photography. I must confess, though, my main focus so far has been in portraiture and fashion, seeing how I was brought into the medium photographing my sister around my hometown. This isn't to say, though, that I don't love exploring. I would love to travel the world to see different peoples, to experience new cultures, and to learn much more of photography and of myself. The big difference I see with fashion and travel photography is that travel photography allows so much more insight, whether it be on a global or individual scale. I've loved fashion photography for so long because of its practically unlimited creativity that it comes along with, but to be able to go to South Africa to convey a whole culture through a picture or just even one individual would be an indescribable learning experience. Even though I haven't traveled to many places (due to the lack of Benjamins that I unfortunately don't have) I have no doubt that this experience would thrust my already sparked interest in travel photography to the forefront of my desires. Thanks for the opportunity, and I hope you enjoy the series.