Seeing Things

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Togo | Sunday, October 17, 2010 | 5 photos

I am currently a volunteer in Togo, West Africa with the Peace Corps, a development program run by the United States government. I chose to join Peace Corps because I wanted more of an adventure than the office job my friends sought after college. I have lived in Togo for just over a year, and for much of it I have entertained myself by walking around my village with a camera. I enjoy taking photos and I also enjoy sharing them with anyone who wants to see them.

Over the course of my travels, I've realized that many people don't have the ability or the opportunity to do the travelling that I have had. I know that I have been challenged by some of the things I've experienced, but I've also had of fun and learned a lot in the process. So when I am able to present other places, people and cultures to an audience back home, I feel like I'm sharing a little bit of something that has been really important to me.

The five photos I've submitted to this contest show different ways that people in and around Tittigbe (the village in which I live) control and are controlled by their food supply. One image shows a boy preparing a field for the upcoming rainy season while another shows two young sisters preparing a meal for their family. The others show that despite the good conditions for farming, many children are still malnourished due to poor crop choices caused by unexamined adherence to tradition.

I want to win this competition so that I can learn to shoot more compelling images that will better tell the stories of the people I meet and the places I go. Since my love of photography developed after I chose to go to school for engineering, I know that I have a lot of room to develop as a photographer. I would love to do it with a little help.