More than a trip.

Discovering Tam Coc

morokii — Thu, 28 May 2015 08:50:37 GMT

For me, a place becomes a treasure when you expect nothing of it. It's easy to fall for all the photographs you can see on a magazine, but what happens when suddenly you get lost and you are surrounded by beauty? That's what have happened to me and my travel companion Sara while we were in Vietnam.

We traveled from amazing Halong Bay to Ninh Binh, a place that had "nothing special", apparently. We arrived at night so the next morning we decided to rent a motorbike. We were a little bit tired of touristic packs and depending on others when distances where big. We started our trip, trying to follow a map while the other was driving. While we were getting into a road between the mountains I realized I was smiling and laughing. We discovered we were near Tam Coc, the "Halong Bay on earth" and we were delighted by the landscape. The mountains and the green sorrounding us while we were feeling free on the motorbikes was almost perfect. Something even better had to happen to complete our sublime experience.

We stopped on a park and we went to paddle on a little boat through the Ngô Ð?ng river. The water, the caves and the silence made me feel I was floating. The place was perfect, but it improved when I sat for a minute near a temple and I start listening to a flute. It was strange, since nobody seemed to be near by. The flute's sound became stronger and stronger until I looked into the direction where the music came from. Suddenly, a man on his own boat was playing the flaute with his hands while he was paddling with his feet. I felt really touched even though he never noticed my presence. It was somehow a gift, an unforgettable surprise.

In my opinion, there might be a lot of amazing places to travel to, but somehow places are even more special when you have anecdotes to tell, when magic things happen, when the atmosphere, the people you are with and the place itself make a unique piece all together.

Photos: Chapicuy, where the monument stands.

morokii — Wed, 2 Jan 2013 14:32:00 GMT

The answer to "What is reality?" is no other thing but something subjective. I was thinking that my reality is NOW . My reality is what I am today. Today I am a passionate, active and emotive person. Today I know I think a lot about tomorrow, because once in a while what I deeply want visits me. I know there are a billion photographers, a billion people with a dream, with the same dream, but tonight on 2013 I would like to wish and I would like to say that I want to be a fantastic photographer, I would like to tell I have learned from the best professionals. I would like to say that I had this one opportunity in life. The single idea of having this opportunity makes me collapse, in a wonderful way. Now, today, I think I am a good amateur photographer but I want to go further. I know the best part depends on us, taking lot of pictures and improving everyday but also I would like to be tested, to hear "you have to improve a lot" but, inspite of that, keep on trying and not giving up. That's my motto, that's Carolina, that's how I am.

My story

morokii — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 11:44:00 GMT

I would like to say that my love for photography started when I got as a present my first reflex camera, but no. On exchange when I was about eight years old, my sister's godfather gave me as a present the Kodak Instamatic 110 that immortalized my memories, my trips and my childhood. I was not born in the digital era, when I was little people still listen to cassettes (and record music from the radio on them) and videos still were recorded on film. So film as much as every analogic thing were very present in my life.

Maybe when I was young I justed wanted to have some memories on a paper. Nowadays photography for me is about observation but also it means to calm down my eternal anxiety from inside.

I "clicked" when I started to register people on my photographs, travelling. People are what I like most about making photographs. I do not know if this has a psycological meaning but is true that I feel a huge feeling of brotherhood with the world. I think I get in communion with it through photography and when I talk and communicate with the people of a specific country or a specific region.

I have a deep interest in people, their stories, even though sometimes all of that is just reduced to a click. But what people want to read in each photography depends on theirselves. I feel satisfied if the people who see my photographs travel with me while seeing them.

Sometimes I wonder where does this passion come from? And an image appears suddenly, a photograph: my grandfather and I, walking peacefully, about twenty one years ago, and hanging on my grandfather's neck from a strap, an old kodak camera.