Eid al Adha in Morocco

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

Morocco | Wednesday, December 12, 2012 | 5 photos

As a Peace and Justice Studies major with a minor in Arab language and culture at Vassar College, my interest in photography started two years ago when I began to experiment with my father’s Olympus OM-1. I shoot primarily in black and white film because I love the purity and drama of the photos. They are stripped of the distractions of color and leave the viewer focusing on the beauty of the shapes, forms, lines and contrasts of light. I was inspired to pursue photojournalism by a course on the ethics of photographing war and political violence. I am drawn by my belief in the potential of images to mobilize civil society and inspire policy change. I believe in activist journalism; using the power of the image to move hearts and minds. I traveled with my film camera in Oregon, New York, Mississippi, Nicaragua, Western Europe, and Morocco in the last two years. I look for juxtaposition and contrast, not only in light and form, but also in subject. I love seeing inconsistencies and opposites coexisting side by side. Black and white photography reduces the world into simple dimensions of beauty, yet also draw their viewers in deeper with hints at the layers of complexity.