Through a Different Eye South Africa; a rich landscape with history at every turn.

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

South Africa | Saturday, October 16, 2010 | 5 photos

My name is Nicole, and I'm a 21 year old, self-taught amateur photographer. I am a student and I love to learn, because I love to see things in different ways--visually and intellectually. When I go somewhere with a camera, I think about that place differently because I'm not satisfied with producing a picture that I feel like I've seen before.

I like the honesty that photography provides, but I also like that as the photographer, I can find the whimsy and beauty in the places I visit. To me, art must always have some kind of beauty. Whether it's conventional, unexpected, dark, or surprising, it's important that the people viewing the images enjoy it in some way and want to look at it more closely.

My favorite camera to use is my Holga. I both love and hate that I never know what I'll end up with, but I know that it's always an adventure. I think that the images I get with my Holga are representative of the world in which we live because most of the time, especially when traveling, we are surprised by what we see and experience.

When I visited South Africa, I was stricken with how many emotions everything I saw evoked. There was something beautiful and thought-provoking everywhere and that is what I wanted to capture. Behind the amazing scenery was a looming history, which for me, added tremendously to the scenery. The politics and tension of the people truly added to the setting, and that is what I tried to capture in my photos.