Kilimanjaro

My Scholarship Entry - The top of Africa - Mount Kilimanjaro

Tanzania | Wednesday, December 26, 2012 | 5 photos

I started taking photos when I was 15. I had a back condition known as 'Scheuermann's disease'. Basically, one of my vertebrae didn't form correctly so I had to stop all sport - which is what I loved to do - to allow it to recover. This began a very dark time of my life so my Dad bought me a 400D to try and keep me occupied.

I loved it.

I took more and more photos, I got addicted. I would invest my birthday money into getting new gear. I just couldn't stop shooting - bugs, landscapes, people, city, gigs, products, events; anything I had access to I shot.

Then I started studying Visual Arts & Design at ACU and I felt like it was a selfish, self absorbed career. I couldn't see how I could make the world a better place by taking photos.

So I moved to Frankston to help my brother and his wife (Salvation Army Ministers) with the youth work they did there. I was there for 2 years, seeing the most broken, abused, dis-advantaged and hurt people. I knew I couldn't live for myself, but for these people.

Recently I've discovered that I can combine what I love to do, with the people who I ought to help.

To use a camera to make a positive impact in this world is what I want to do.