Hungary and Transylvania: Shadows of Transformation

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Worldwide | Friday, October 15, 2010 | flickr photos

1/250th of a second exposure: capturing a fragment of time's narrative. I am a photographer because I believe in the power of individual’s stories to express and heal societies.That belief drives me to improve my passion so I might better convey those tales.Yet just as a photo can tell a story beyond the limits of its frame, so too can music echo the complexities of our existence. Because of that parallel I am a student of global studies and music at Arizona State University, and I plan to spend next year in Bosnia researching how musical processes can facilitate peace building after the genocide.Later I hope to circumnavigate the world, exploring how individuals use music and arts to express trauma, and how their strategies of expression can be employed in other situations around the globe.

Photography, like music, can lend a voice to unspoken parts of humanity.In my upcoming travels, in addition to studying the notes of a culture’s music, I will strive to portray the visual and emotional tales of the musicians, storytellers, healers, and their surroundings.This opportunity would help me to better capture their stories, and to more justly show others their lives.

I challenge myself both in life and in my photography to overcome the biases and prejudices that divide our inextricably intertwined nature as humans. Even as I observed the remarkable diversity between rural and urban life in Eastern Europe this past summer, I felt my eyes open to the commonalities which transcend all borders – diversity and commonalities I sought to collect in the personal and cultural expanse of photography. The Bhutan Travel Photography scholarship offers an exceptional route for me to better frame those stories found inside the countless seconds and boundless music of human existence.