Monastic life

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

Cambodia | Thursday, May 30, 2013 | 5 photos

I was 19 when I produced what I consider my first photo story. It was a portrait series of a girl named Angel whose family was living a life of uncertainty as their community awaited an impending displacement to give rise to a foreign-owned shipbuilding facility.

I produced the story while at a local photojournalism workshop. I had the opportunity to be mentored by practicing photojournalists themselves, and that helped me to visually communicate a story for the first time. Since then, even as I worked as a newspaper reporter and is a communication researcher by education, photography has become my real passion.

Producing something out of love for the craft and the big, big opportunity to learn from a Nat Geo photographer is, as what this Web site says, a once in a lifetime opportunity. A life translating this potential energy--this wander lust--into tangible work has always been what I see myself doing and this scholarship can be a window to such life.

For my journal entry, I uploaded five photos depicting peace in the lives of Buddhist nuns in Siem Reap, Cambodia. In a little over two days I was able to know a few of them. Some nuns even invited me and my tuktuk (local transportation vehicle) driver, Saroeun Sok, to pray with them inside the temple.

Before I left Cambodia, I gave them a small digital print of their portraits.