Star Snow

My Scholarship entry - Qoyllurit'i

Peru | Monday, November 17, 2014 | 5 photos

These photos are from the Qoyllurit'i (Star Snow) Festival at Sinakara glacier in Southern Peru. The festival takes place over five days and has deep roots in pagan tradition. Every year, ten thousand pilgrims make the 4-hour plus trek in the dark to the bottom of Sinakara glacier, dancing and singing the whole way.

I spent three months this year working as a filmmaker for a few NGOs in Peru's Sacred Valley. Coming from Australia I thought such a small country would be easy to experience in the months I had there. But such was the intensity and depth of the landscape and the culture that I spent those three months within a few square kilometres, every day finding new places and new images of which I never before would have conceived.

The chance to explore the rest of Peru, in all its difference and fluctuation and in the company of a master of his craft, would be a privilege beyond imagining. I am deeply passionate about both photography and the moving image and would be deeply honoured to learn under the tutelage of Mr Edwards, whose work I greatly admire. I believe his insight would help to develop my skills and my confidence in being able to support myself off my camera. I have but scratched the surface of Peru - this trip would give me the chance to burrow in deep and discover the power of its natural beauty.