Lotus summer camp

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Mongolia | Monday, October 11, 2010 | 5 photos

My career ambition is to be a documentary photographer and I believe this scholarship would be an important stepping-stone in helping me to realise this dream. Last year I undertook a workshop in Bangkok with photographers David Alan Harvey, Michael Yamashita and Ira Block. I found this a fantastic opportunity to learn unique techniques and styles from these photographers who were also able to provide both praise and some much needed criticism, which friends and family will not so readily give out. I hope this expedition will provide greater opportunity in this regard for one on one interaction, working alongside a professional national geographic photographer and to learn from his experiences and talents what is needed for getting great photos in remote locations and ultimately to help me pursue a career as a photographer for such publications as National Geographic. I am a keen traveller and photographer and would utilise every moment of the opportunity while assisting and travelling in Bhutan with Jason Edwards.

These images from the Lotus Centre Summer Camp in Mongolia were shot in late July 2010. Didi Kalika is the Australian born woman that started this orphanage in 1993 after coming to Mongolia as a yoga teacher. Didi was named the Mongolian Mother by the Mongolian government in 2001 and was awarded an Order of Australia by the Australian Government in 2009. Didi began by taking to the streets of Ulaan Bataar to provide children with food and medical care. Today the Lotus Centre cares for over 150 children. Some of the children Didi has taken in have been babies found under stairwells or left in rubbish bins in the middle of the harsh Mongolian winter – where temperatures drop to as low as -40 degrees Celsius.