My Photo scholarship 2010 entry
Australia | Sunday, October 17, 2010 | 
flickr photos
"Solitude"
A while ago I went to Moreton Island (just off the coast of Queensland, Australia) with some friends, and we were on the last day of our trip when we decided to visit the island’s beautiful sand dunes. The sheer expanse and total immensity of the dunes was the most stunning thing I had seen in a long time. Even though I was with friends, I felt totally alone, overwhelmingly insignificant and, above all, humbled by the simplicity and perfection of its size. Absurdly, it felt reassuringly safe out there, so naked and exposed, with nothing but the birds and the burning sun to watch over us. I wanted to capture that feeling as best I could, and when I saw my friend Emily lying alone by herself, drawing small circles in the sand, I knew that moment was it. She was so content to be out there; so open and vulnerable, yet trapped in her own creation beneath her fingertips. At the top of the dunes, I was able to capture the vast and epic dimensions of the landscape in a photograph of my friend Jordan as she trekked, while up above, a lone seagull was flitting dipping and soaring. It’s flight was matched by the sails of nearby paragliders, looking almost as though it was suspended by one of the sails. Down below, on the ocean shore, my friend Stefanie sat, curled up on the rocks like a solitary creature. I almost mistook her for part of the fauna, she was that immersed in her surroundings and at peace with herself. At the end of the day, I watched Emily as she leant against the railing of the barge, contemplating the water and the far-off horizons, and I knew the silence of the dunes had allowed her, as it had all of us, to fall into her own thoughts and to finally soar, float, and dip above the crazy existence of our everyday lives. On that boat ride home at the end of the day, not one of us said a word. We didn’t need to. Australia can be such an enigmatic and remote country that sometimes it speaks for itself, and it was this trip that helped me realise the power of a camera, how capturing one quintessentially beautiful photo can convey the emotion of an entire moment. There are so many breathtaking moments, people, creatures and sensations in existence that I want to hold onto them and never let go. Photography gives me a way of treasuring and crystallizing everything that catches both my heart and my eye. To me, a life in which I can continue creating, capturing, sharing and remembering experiences like these for a living, is a life I would love to live. I only hope that I am lucky enough to be given the chance to make my dream a reality, and to learn from what I know would be the most invaluable adventure and experience.
Shaneene Levey, 21.
Queensland, Australia.
colour-the-small-one@hotmail.com
