My Photo scholarship 2010 entry
Nicaragua | Monday, September 27, 2010 | 5 photos
07/07/2009 I was travelling through Central America and upon meeting a professor of Latin American History, was invited to a march of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), as a special guest. This march was to commemorate the 30 year anniversary of these Guerilla fighters driving American forces from their city. Ten thousand marched from the central square to El Fortin, along cobbled streets, past colourful stone walls to the old American base overlooking the town. The march began outside the guerilla headquarters, where the distaste for George Bush was clearly evident in the Graffiti 'Bush Genosida, Enemigo de la Humanidad, Muerte al invasor.' Home made grenade launchers were fired into the air all around me. A humble taxi driver pulled me aside to ask me to picture him with a t-shirt baring the face of Daniel Ortega, Nicaraguan president and former leader fo the FSLN. Never before had I know such immersion into a foreign city, nor felt the political undercurrents of such a society, quite so strongly. The men who welcomed me and American Professor were welcoming, polite and proud in a way I can only just hope to comprehend considering many of them were only teenagers fighting running gun battles against American troops 30 years ago. I am a 22 year old graduate in Geological sciences who is enthused by the opportunity presented by this competition. Throughout my life I have lived to travel and take photographs of human and animal life as a preference, this is something I wish to continue. Every time I have picked up a National Geographic magazine I feel a longing to have opportunities and guidance enough to take photos so able to portray and delve into other cultures. Any opportunity such as this could allow me to portray such things in my own way, which I have the drive and, I feel, the ability. I have no training in Photography but love to read learn, and take inspiration from others.
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