The Saddest Pleasure

Los Pescadores

Ecuador | Thursday, July 4, 2013 | 3 photos

My grandfather died on a sidewalk last Christmas. Being Czech, he'd spent his life smoking, drinking šlivovice, and eating the richest food he could find. But he had been the only grandparent I had ever had. We flew out to Prague for the funeral. When we arrived, my step-grandmother took me aside and gave me a box. This is Dendo's camera, she said. He wanted you to have it.

Until that point, my relationship to photography had been tenuous, marked by fits of interest and apathy. At some point in high school I made a pinhole camera and took pictures of my feet, and thought it was pretty cool. But my grandfather's passing changed something in me, and the Canon 350D he left behind became more than a camera. He'd never made it to South America, so at 23 I quit my job, bought a one-way flight to Medellin and began travelling and taking pictures. I learned Spanish and worked as a guide in Ecuador for six months, and my favorite part of the job was showing volunteers things they had never seen before; dipping fireflies, a fishnet hammock. A group of fishermen on an empty beach. I want and need to learn how to show people more, and I hope this scholarship will afford me that opportunity.