People in Place

Here is an easy to grab a hold of philosophy: if people can change an environment through their own choices and decisions, then should people not also be influenced by their environment?

Let’s face it, hot environments mean a certain type of clothing, but also how a person interacts with that heat on a personal level. Same with a very cold environment right? Those extremes leave easily recognizable examples of how people must alter their own behaviour, transportation, what they eat and where they sleep. It molds who they become.

Political and cultural extremes can also alter how a person engages with their surroundings as well. Look no further than the countries of Asia and the tumultuous history and degradation individual generations have endured? The great wealth of kingdoms of the past. Poverty and income inequality have hardened people, but have also brought with it a happiness in more simple things perhaps? An enviable outlook to life’s past, present and future by that of a Western mind maybe? Probably something to learn for Earth’s wealthy minority?

It is an environment that surrounds people which molds them into beings that endure and seek riches beyond gold and gems: family, tradition, a sense of purpose and creativity. It brings with it vibrant, lurid colours. It finds spicy and eclectic flavours in food and drink. Smells are both inspiring and repugnant. Music and the arts make up a cultural mosaic that tells of history and place.

Ancient cultures find their way to the present in much of these places. Myriad of folklore and customs meld and overlap with one another to form a blanket of humanity and commonality. Yet the difference found by travel, however minor, are blatant to the discerning and sensitive voyager.

Lastly, let’s not forget that by actually being there, visiting those locations, we are now indelibly and irreversibly linked to that environment and therefore to the people there. Like the Butterfly Effect, we cause ripples in the pond, altering the fabric of those people, just as we are altered by them. Making the most of this exchange appears to be the only way to reconcile?

My photography work has existed for me as a way to find and make that connection a more visceral one. This collection is meant to do exactly that. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have in being lucky enough to be there to capture and feel these moments?