Travel Blog
In September, 2018 I packed up my suitcase, a backpack filled with camera gear, and embarked on my newest adventure: spending the next year abroad studying at the University of Exeter, England. Taking this step into the unknown is challenging me in powerful and exciting ways as a visual storyteller, thinker, and creative. As a result, I am beginning a long-term photo project photographing my experience in Exeter for thirty minutes every day. Inspired by Robert Miller’s 30 minute walks, documented in his recent piece “Capturing life in the streets of Washington”, I hope to use this time to engage with and explore the city.
My passion as a photographer is the process of creating visual story. One of my favorite parts of this is the interactions I get to have with others, whose paths I am privileged merged onto, if even for a moment. Through this, the camera opens the opportunity to see and capture a world in movement and transition through great joy and pain. Throughout this next year, I am excited to use this page as a kind of “digital notebook” in which to share my recent work, adventures, and photo assignments as I get to know my new home in Exeter and travel throughout the UK and Europe. Part of the excitement of this being online is the larger community I get to engage with. Please comment! Share ideas, suggestions, questions -- I am excited to see the possibilities this project has in my own experience of travel and my becoming as a photographer.
A series of photos from my morning walk through East London.
Caught in an intensive week of essays and projects, as I worked to meet my first (of two) major project deadlines, I escaped to the Dawlish Coast with a couple of friends. Predicted to be one of the last warm weekends before the cold, dampness of fall set in, this short trip provided to be not only a nourishing break but also much-needed change of perspective.
At the beginning of the year, my Professor casually mentioned Bonfire Night, a fire-barrel carrying event in a nearby town, held annually on the 5th of November. It sounded crazy, a spectacle like nothing I had ever seen. But the idea also captivated me. I was curious. What was at the core of this event: its motivation? Why was this such a deeply rooted tradition in Ottery St. Mary?
So. How do you capture place with only a few hours of shooting? I played with this exciting challenge during my visit this past weekend to Oxford. From the first moment I stepped off the train from London, I was captivated by the light: a stark blue that stretched across the sky in all directions. As the day went on, light cast sharp shadows across the town. Playing with light and shadow became a focus during my trip.
At the Borough Market the oldest food market in London, food becomes more than a line of products, but a performance that captivates the senses. Wandering through the market to shoot a magazine project for my Charles Dickens class, I was drawn to the enormous displays of color and texture that layer the space.
The financial district is regal in appearance. Large blocks of marble frame suited businessmen and women as they weave between crosswalks. Below is a short curation of images taken late Friday afternoon -- a couple blocks from St. Pauls Cathedral.
My journey through Edinburgh in photos.
While in London, I had the opportunity to photograph the October 20th Brexit Demonstration while on route to a course play. A report from the Guardian revealed this protest to be the largest since 2003 (against the Iraq War) with about 700,000 demonstrators. In these images, protestors are organizing flags and signs for the march.
Over the past few years, my relationship with the places in which I live has changed. As a 20-year-old college student, this is perhaps one of the normal and perspective-altering aspects of growing up: expanding my understanding of a location in relation to myself. Moments where my place of residence shifts from being where I reside to a deeper part of my identity: home.