About larrytoh
The camera is my tool for investigation. It collects evidence and records them in black & white, and since I shoot mostly in black and white, I mean this quite literally.
There are many cases to investigate. Some cases are faraway and some nearby. Social issues particularly interest me. For this, I have threaded shaky wooden stilt platforms to visit a community made up mostly of immigrants, talked to transvestites and rode a bike up a mountain to visit a village. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to brag about my courage at all. On the contrary, I'm usually terrified, sometimes of the risks involved and sometimes of what I see. Being terrified helps me as a photographer. I think it makes me appear more human and this helps when my projects are of social issues. I hope I would never lose this feeling, because I would rather stay a human than become anything else. (You must first be a human, and then a photographer. Otherwise it would be meaningless)
Most of my investigations touch on merely residues of greater social issues. They carry with them some moral weight, but not much. I hope to one day be empowered to cover larger current issues, such as the after effects of war, poverty and the lack of living facilities in third world countries. What I believe is this, that there are many stories that need to be told, and photography is the medium that is the most honest. I dream of becoming a photographer/photojournalist for this very reason.
Winning the scholarship would be a huge opportunity to bring this dream a little closer.
