A complex and contradicting journey through holiness

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Sunday, November 6, 2011 | 5 photos

I believe one can never truly know their place in the world, until they see the world. All my life I’ve held a fascination with the world and a desire to make a positive change for it’s people. I believe through photography, I can give hope to those who need it most and help change the way we treat each other.

When I arrived in India I was simultaneously excited and terrified. I had no idea what to expect, but I went with an open heart and open mind.

The mystical city of Varanasi held cool brick tunnels filled with silk shops and food stalls, women in bright saris' walking side by side with burka-clad women floating through the tunnels like a pack of ghosts. The scorching hot, demanding city streets lingered just outside the exits, with rickshaw drivers pulling me toward their carts and beggars anxiously pushing their bowls in my face.

Journeying down to the waters edge would be greeted by young children selling postcards, old men offering cheap massages, priests offering salvation. Women bathed draped in colorful saris, men lazed on the steps resting in the heat. Laundry was washed, alms were collected, cows were fed, and bodies were burned. Life in Varanasi was based on the river; everyone made the daily pilgrimage to the waters edge for one reason or another.

I was troubled by one thing. The women. They had no voice, no jobs, and little education.

I wanted to photograph these women, but I faltered. The few photos I have of these women are weak and timid attempts to capture the complexity that is life in India for women.

I want to learn the art of photojournalism to be able to tell the stories of these women and the millions just like them across the world, without exploiting them.