Cabbage seller at Futog
I am always excited to tell the stories that lie behind photos, interested in what is just outside the viewfinder; so even though I studied fine art and photography at high school, this is I guess is why I chose not to continue on that path at university. Instead, I began an academic journey that would last for 12 years, and stretch across 6 countries. I became an anthropologist, and in the course of my academic career, I have often had the opportunity to interact with communities whose ways of living are remarkably different from my own.
A grounding in anthropological enquiry has given me the skills to become an empathetic and ethically aware researcher. Through my writing I am often charged with giving these communities voice, and a return to photography allows me to give them a face as well. This course is a way to broaden my photography experiences and to reach out to the community.
I love nothing better than a seemingly serendipitous capture, an intimate picture of life rooted to a place and a time, although in my experience, the production of such a picture is often as not, less a product of chance encounter, than of proper research and trust-building with people and places.
I am constantly awestruck by the images of Sebastiao Salgado, and Eric Valli, and love the work of New Zealand photographer Marti Friedlander, as well as old favorites such as Sally Mann, and Steve McCurry. Every object has a story that binds it to a person. Every great capture pulls the viewer though it to a location and an experience. To me, a photograph that captures this context leaves us always wanting to know more, whether we seek to focus our gaze on the subject captured, broaden the scale of what is shown, or perhaps most interestingly, to search for what is left outside the frame.
