Pure Peru

A 'place' I have visited

loverock — Fri, 5 Jul 2013 09:34:57 GMT

Photography is heart and soul work - work that nourishes a deep aspect within (me, at least): it feeds a deeper yearning. It is the ephemeral present moment, distilled, stored, for just a little bit longer (before hard-drives melt or film fades) - it gives the moment a moment more. It has been a lifelong dream to work as a photographer (I make my trade as an artist - close enough, some suppose) - to be witness to the world's underbelly, it's sunny demeanour, it's harsh realities - to be witness to it all is a privilege few are able (or willing) to document.

For the pure and simple love of *doing* photography. That should be all one needs! Philosophy can follow - but when my heart swells at the capture of a great frame, that is something that an explanation can do little to elucidate (describe a rollercoaster to someone who has never seen one. Describe that experience. It's never as good as the real thing - it is a box in which the experience itself is limited and contained. That image is worth a thousand words).

I love photography.
It brings me joy.
I want to work for national geographic.

Motivations & Seredipity

loverock — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:55:00 GMT

I was sat in a blue bus on it's way north to a desert town by the sea, several months deep on a journey through Peru.
Playing on a dinky TV was a Jackie Chan movie with Spanish subtitles. The chairs were covered in poly-corduroy and smelled ever so slightly like a stale cupboard. The bus was fairly empty, except for the large family on the other side of the aisle. The daughter was transfixed by Chan's on-screen dance. I looked out the tinted window, to see an expanse of desert lit by the afternoon sun. On occasion, we would pass burning piles of trash, the lighter parts of which had been strewn like confetti across the Pan-American highway and surrounding desert. To my left, over a series of smaller dunes with rocky crowns, lay the Pacific ocean.

The forward motion of that bus - it's direction and intent - flipped me straight into that present moment. A wave of joy rose through my body and welled up in my heart, so great my chest felt as if it could hardly hold the vast expanse of it. The sheer pleasure of being "there" (which really meant HERE) made me grin from ear to ear. I still think of it when I get sad, not because the location, the smell, or the view was so astounding (it also was, in as much as it was a completely unique combination of factors, something I had never been witness to before), but simply because I was so completely present.

Photography is adventure. A chance to see that great wild expanse of the world. From the most beautiful mountain peaks to the most sordid underbelly of a human metropolis. It is a reflection, and as such, a powerful tool. A tool that can be used to inspire into action, to evoke joy or sadness. To solidify serendipity.

For years I have wanted to work for National Geographic. It has played a huge role in my life, in expanding my view of the world, educating me about the lives of others (human, animal and mineral). A single photo stuck in my mind for years: one of a monk sitting in ruins surrounded by roots that looked like melted wax. It led to one of the most transformative journeys of my life, to the heart of Cambodia and the temples of Angkor Wat, something that will stay with me to the day I die. If a photo I take could move just one individual in the way that National Geographic cover moved me, I would be happy. That is my intent, and the motivation for all the work I create.

Photos: My Scholarship entry - Pure Peru

loverock — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 01:33:00 GMT

As an artist, my passion is to create honest, evocative work, free of pretense. The same desire motivates my photography: reflect the world & it's emotional impact on me as honestly as possible. To MOVE people, something very hard in a generation so anesthetized & oversaturated. A NatGeo cover of AngkorWat was all I needed to embark on a pilgrimage thru SE Asia. A photo of a Shipibo shaman all the motivation required to explore Peru. Other than memory (eroding away) Photography is the closest thing I have to an emotional bookmark, one to share with others, to evoke wonder. It maintains the purity of the NOW, untainted by bigotry or opinion. Billions of lives, each as vivid & complex as my own, with their own dreams, routines & rituals, exist. Some star as background extras, or as minor speaking roles as waiters serving tea. Some have changed my life immeasurably. Photography becomes reason enough to engage with these lives in a real way, or a motivation for adventure in the untamed wild - to record not for you alone but for everyone who would see that photo. To share a seemingly mundane scene with someone to whom it is unfamiliar & enchanting. A lost moment in time, restored.