Strangers in a strange land

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Worldwide | Friday, August 20, 2010 | flickr photos

When I met Caitlin in Beirut, we hadn't spoken in nearly nine months. I had flown to Lebanon in secret, anticipating the fear of my family at my traveling in the Middle East. The only person who knew where I was was waiting for me at the Rafic Hariri International Airport.

The city drummed steadily with tension. In our first few days, we confronted military tanks, checkpoints and cool stares. We woke alternately to church bells and Islamic calls to prayer. The warm, humid air smelled of cedar and fire smoke, the radio bleated Arabic pop songs and Beirut's beleaguered cats followed us lazily. Often we were invited in for dark, silty coffee and spent several afternoons in caffeinated conversation. We learned to find our way without maps, making squares around the city. Yet we couldn't shake the feeling that we were out of place. And so we chose instead to surrender to being peculiar.

The week passed like a dream, at times lonely and terrifying. In my photographs from the trip, a blurred edge, puff of smoke, uncertain reflection, dazed view or wild cityscape serves to express the odd, intangible quality of dreams. If these photographs are successful, they convey my sense of wonder and confusion in the beauty of the utterly unfamiliar. Of being strangers in a strange land.

This experience would offer me both the invaluable gift of working with an expert photographer and the rare joy of obscure, isolated travel. In making photographs, I hope to urge the viewer to reconsider, to go beyond boundaries and to experience the unknown. While my voice remains unique, there is always something to learn, reexamine or discover in photographing in a new environment or under new guidance. I would revel gratefully in such an opportunity.