A summer to reflect on

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Monday, October 24, 2011 | 5 photos

Photography has changed the way I view the world on a daily basis. Waking up every day and seeing the world, every angle is a potential photograph. I especially love photographing people as the story behind each face leaves so much room for thought.

Visiting Yunnan, China with my family the past summer was an unforgettable experience for me. Growing up in a middle class family in Hong Kong, it is hard to imagine that in such a modern, industrialized era, there are still farmers in this world who work acres and acres of land with their bare hands. Women and children still have to walk miles to collect adequate wood for their cooking fires and children still have study in makeshift classrooms built of mud. Of course, we hear about these stories in the news, but the impact is far greater when you see it first hand.

Another thing that touched me in this trip was the beauty of the traditional arts and culture and a desperate hope grew in me that these traditions can be preserved. An elderly Chinese man was playing a traditional chinese instrument the 'er hu' and he sighed as he told us how this form of music was becoming less and less popular and he hasn't been able to recruit any new students in the past years. An elderly lady wearing an old traditional costume of her ethnic group... will these traditions be gone decades later when globalization and western culture reaches this part of China?

I hope through my photography, stories may be told, things deserving our attention will be brought to the spotlight and wonderful memories will captured forever.