My Photo scholarship 2010 entry
Worldwide | Saturday, October 16, 2010 | 5 photos
Like George Orwell said of good writing, a good photograph should be like a window pane. It should frame and contextualise its subject. Good photography needs no hyperbole, no colour saturation, no photoshop - it simply tells a story.
My story is taken from the village of Sapa in the far north of Thailand, where I travelled last year. The women there struck me - from young girls selling bracelets by the side of trekking tracks, to old toothless crones smoking pipes over bowls of night-market noodles - as having a particular strength and beauty, perhaps stemming from - and mirrored in - the dramatic, paddy-stepped landscapes that they live in. They are the ones who do the work, leading the tourist treks and selling their homemade wares.
In terms of why I deserve to win the internship, I can only say that I would like to learn to do women like these justice when I take their picture in the future. I would dearly like my photography to be like Orwell's window pane - to simply and honestly frame the story of people, places and things without the distraction of my less-than-brilliant technical abilities.
In nine months last year, I took 8,000 photographs and I was rarely happy with a single one. I am thirsty to learn!
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