Brazil today

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Brazil | Tuesday, November 8, 2011 | 5 photos

Life is about people. This is the source of my interest in travel photography.

I live and work in Switzerland but grew up in England. My forefathers come from the island of Mauritius, in Africa, yet we are of Chinese descent. This gives me a heightened awareness of cultural distinctions encouraging me to seek new vistas, opinions and visions, as well as helping me connect with new people.

A mathematician by education, I was always unusually visually perceptive. Discovering the alluring blend of science and art in photography has thus been a revelation which I wish to pursue.

As a teenager I realised that it is not the material objects that we obtain and possess, but the characters we spend time with, that bring us genuine (and mostly, free!) happiness. Since then, from humble cleaners of offices to powerful captains of industry, I value each person I come across for their innate character. After all, each one is unique. It is this uniqueness in people and their circumstances, and capturing this forever for others to see, that fascinates me.

In recent years, this has led me to develop proficiency in seven languages (not so common for someone with a British passport!), which has transformed my experiences, especially in Brazil, China, Italy and Mauritius. An important part of deepening relationships and resulting images captured is to speak a local language. There is little more exciting than observing a peculiarity of someone's culture which they may not have considered, pointing it out in their tongue, and sharing laughter about it.

Just as reading a book is no substitute for practical experience in a country, there is no substitute for learning from a professional to see if, as my instincts suggest, I could be successful in travel photography.