Travel Photography Scholarship 2010 Application

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Thailand | Friday, October 8, 2010 | 5 photos

As a photographer I like to focus on the subjects that would recieve little or no attention from most people, even though sometimes they are always present in our daily lives. The theme here is poverty on the city street. The photos were taken in the heart of the Bangkok, on the street where the most famous shopping malls are located.

The main subject in each photograph is the beggar and the homeless on the street, but I want to present them in two different ways. First is the way most people would see them, with the main subject not being dominant but more like a less significant part of the composition. Just like in real life, I suspect there would be no connection between the viewer and the subject in photograph.

The other way I tried to present the subject was to show the subject from another perspective that most people would never see. I got down to their level, got up close and let each individual subject be the single focus in each photograph. My hope was to establish some emotional connection between the viewer and the human shown in the photograph. If people start seeing another person in these photos, they might start caring. And hopefully people will take action to address the issue of poverty.

Before taking each of these photos, I gave them some money and asked for their permission. All photos were taken with analog SLR camera with black & white films. The digital files were scanned from the negatives.

I was borned and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. I am an aspiring photojournalist. I have photographed the red shirt rally for the past two years including during the fighting on May 19 of this year. As photography is concerned, my highest personal goal is to have my photograph on the cover of National Geographic magazine.

Thank you for this opportunity.