between two identities

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Worldwide | Friday, October 15, 2010 | 5 photos

My name is Clarisa Dandolo, I am 26 years old and I was born and still living in Argentina.
My pictures where taken with a small non digital camera that I had in 2001 when I travelled to Salta, Argentina. There I met the Wichis, which are a small aborigine comunity, that was absorved by our comunity. When you are there, you can see how they turned into a strange hibrid that doesn´t really know were they belong. Wichis still follows their roots, but, on the opposite, they are obliged to follow our way of living. They lost their land, houses, some of them, their language, the drinking water, the capability to choose and vote and their sense of belonging. At the end of my trip I realized they taught me simplicity, and I taught them nothing.
Since that trip, and by studying a little bit of Anthropology at school (nothing professional) I keep a dilemma: surely they are not ok in this situation, but which way it´s best for them. It is possible to turn it around, or it´s better to lead them to our way of living.
I am aware that by scanning my photos, it looses a lot of definition, and that there not extraordinary, but I have never studied nothing of photography and I love this photos, so I needed to show them and tell their story.
I had two dreams in life. One is dancing, and the other one is photography. I never had the posibility to make them true, and I was too afraid to fail, or not being good enough. I think this is the best chance to beat it. This is the best thing that could happen to me at the moment, travel, meet you people, and learn photography. At last, I bought recently with my savings a canon 1000D, and I am trying to get some knowledge.
Sory for my poor English.
Clarisa.