Peru

My Scholarship entry - The Inti Raymi Festival

Peru | Monday, November 24, 2014 | 5 photos

It was my father who inspired my love of photography. Every vacation he had his trusty Minolta up to his eye, firing away. Then came the slide show for the family back home. Some say that TV is the modern day campfire where our collective stories are told, but for me it will always be that humming Kodak projector.

Ten years ago I finally picked up a camera and two years ago I fulfilled my lifelong dream of hiking the Inca Trail and seeing the Andes, where the Andean people still have a spiritual connection to their environment. I have traveled to Peru a few times, It's in my blood. I have been on the edge of the Amazon, but never to its heart. I think about it every day and dream about it at night. Seriously. It was in Peru, high in the Andes, that I realized that my path lay not in front of a desk, but out in the field as a photographer, documenting people's lives, those of the species who share this planet with us; our collective journey. It’ll require dedication, patience and hard work, but at this point in my life I’m ready and to have a mentor guide me along that path would be invaluable.

I wish to inspire people to travel for the first time or learn about other cultures with my photos. Maybe they'll discover their life’s path or strive to accomplish something greater than themselves. That’s what photography did for me and to give that gift to someone else, well that would be something.