Homo Sacer - People Without a Place

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Tanzania | Tuesday, November 8, 2011 | 5 photos

This collection of photographs was taken on a trip to Zanzibar, the renowned spice island off the coast of Tanzania, Africa. The five pictures paint a picture of the many different faces of this haunting land, evoking the past while stridently carving out a resolute future. From historic Stone Town, a World Heritage Site, with its spidery, labyrinthine alleyways and ornately etched doorways, to its rural spice farms and azure seas, there is no one way to truly capture this culturally rich and diverse island.
Michael Cook is a self-taught photographer from Sydney, Australia. Michael has honed his craft across nine African nations, continental Europe and Malaysian Borneo, capturing the people, landscapes and rituals that shape these very disparate locales. With a keen eye for the subtleties of a place, Michael is drawn to images that at once epitomise the culture of a region and stimulate a sense of adventure. The dramatic stories that can be wrought upon a furrowed brow, and the simplicity of seizing a moment in time.
Over the past five years, Michael has taken more than 10 000 images, from the inner city grime of Sydney to the surrealist starkness of the Sossusvlei, Namibia.
Michael’s photo, “Spice Harvesting, Zanzibar” was named Runner Up in the Touch category for the 2010 Gap Adventure’s Sense Appeal photo competition with the Matador Network. His collection on the Twa villagers of Lake Bunyoni, Uganda, Homer Sacer, People without Place, was shortlisted in the World Nomads Travel Photography Scholarship 2010. He also received an honourable mention in the 2011 Corona Extra, From Where You’d Rather Be Photo Competition.
When he’s not out on a photo taking expedition, Michael is completing a Bachelor of Psychology at the University of Wollongong.