There's a scholarship for that!

So...

I'm throwing my hat into the ring for the upcoming World Nomads 2024 Photo and Film Safari scholarship.

Part of the application requires a photo essay or short video (no longer than 1 minute 😮) to be submitted along with a whopping 150-word justification for why they ought to pick me and not the likely hundreds of other hopefuls.  No pressure!

The video is cut from a longer feature I shot during my last season of fieldwork in Belize.  We were trying to get to the Maya site of Xunantunich in the Cayo District, when the skies opened up and we were totally rained out.  One of our collaborators was from the nearby town of San Antonio, and suggested we go for coffee instead.

I thought that meant going to a coffee shop.  But Oxmul Coffee Co. turned out to be so much better than a coffee shop!  I hope you... and the fine judges at World Nomads enjoy it! 😁

Also, I've shared those beggaring 150-words as well.

It doesn't matter how much you practice...  writing is hard! 

I use fieldwork to travel and to understand, and my camera to share what I’ve learned.

I’m not a scientist, but getting to work with them is an amazing gift! Travelling as a field researcher gives you a different kind of access. It can be a vehicle to a less-well-travelled world. And because research usually takes longer than recreation, you have time to truly discover it.

I work mostly with archaeologists. I’m drawn to their ideas of looking closely at a community’s past and present; of seeing a place from the inside and discovering its fine details. Merging archaeology and travel with photography and video has taught me how to build a rapport all sorts of people, and to explore the intermixed dimensions of a place’s landscapes and cultures.  When I imagine where a mentorship in production and publication might lead, I see an ever-expanding horizon illustrated with compelling pictures!

P.S.  A couple of weeks later, we did get to Xunantunich.