Chile

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

Chile | Monday, January 14, 2013 | 5 photos

In 1993 at age 13, my Dad took me to Oman. He’d met a Captain Higgins of the British Navy at an Army training course he’d taken in Canberra and was able to get visas for us to visit there. We traveled a lot and Dad always wanted to show us somewhere unique.

Staying at the Captain’s house I became friends with the gardener, ‘Rashid’ who made me sailing boats from the cuttlefish shells that littered the beach, a beach that still had oil blotches from the fires Saddam had lit during the first Gulf War. After a week we left and Rashid gave me a cassette tape with a message translated in Arabic and English and a key ring with a photo of himself in traditional dress and a pair of aviator glasses.

That early fascination of culture and travel instilled by my Dad has never left me and I’ve since managed to make telling people’s stories my career, as first a magazine editor and now a director, primarily working in documentary. Photography has always been my way to capture and hold onto those places and people.

I would love to go back to Oman as an adult. Find Rashid, learn from Jason and capture this unique place and culture for myself and for anyone who wants to see my photos.

Shukran