Samsara

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

India | Tuesday, November 8, 2011 | 5 photos

While I have been traveling abroad off and on for the last six years, I have not always been a photographer. My love for travel and photography have been growing exponentially and quite radically over the last two years with adventures to India (twice) and side excursions to Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Turkey. As a solo traveler, my camera has become my companion on journeys and the alluring images that result from my experiences are the only souvenirs that I will ever take home with me.
While I was first introduced to film photography and dark room development in high school in 1995, I can't recall being overly awed by the intricacies and artfulness of the hobby. Even though my father was and still is a rather avid and accomplished picture taker and exposed me to this art, it wasn't until my recent travels that I began to see how utterly beautiful it is to capture a story in images.
I realized in 2008, after losing a camera to the muddy Nam Khan River in Laos, (with a subsequent mad dash down the Mekong to Chiang Mai, Thailand to buy a new one), that I love photography. I am thrilled with the convergence of technology and art and I become giddy when I organize, edit, print and ponder the hundreds of images that I take. I have no formal photographic training and I am ready to take the "next step" in my endeavors as an artist and traveler. I have yanked at the sleeve of a total stranger walking down the sidewalk with a camera slung around his hand just so I could ask his opinion on a particular lens. I spend hours poring over random flickr accounts and gawking at the awe-inspiring photography. I am hungry to learn more and to become the best that I can be and establish myself as an artist with an amazing eye. I hope that winning this opportunity will help me get there.