when I go

My Scholarship entry - Women of the Yucatan

Mexico | Wednesday, May 22, 2013 | 5 photos

20 years ago my father and his closest friends jumped in to their VW bus 'Elsie' and drove from Switzerland to India.On the road they used their Leicas to take pictures and bathrooms to develop them. I grew up watching my father's slideshows, wishing that one day I could do the same. He finally handed me his Leica with the words "Do not lose this camera Katja, the lens is more expensive than your sister's car." Since that day I don't go out without a camera. Going to high school in India I had plenty of opportunity to develop my photographic skills. Because my parents are not able to travel with me. I capture moments for them. I want them to see what I see. I want them to meet who I meet.
Last winter I spent living in a pueblo in Mexico. The life in the village was so different from my life anywhere else. They live their life with what they have and they are happy. For a brief moment they shared their utopia with me. I have a dream that one day everywhere I go I can find a place like this. I want to find it and I too want to share it. I want them to see the beauty, that even people living in extreme poverty can be happy, that the woman with the hardest past has the biggest smile.