Working on my travel grant submission. Here is the project description I am submitting. The bold sentences are questions the EAC wants answered. If I can get the grant which is $750 I can travel to Thailand for free (combined with the earlier photography money I earned).
Project Description
Why are you traveling?
I want to continue my documentary photography in the Mae Sot garbage dump in Thailand. Previously I photographed in the dump in May and November of 2013 with 35mm cameras. This time I want to do more formal style portraits with a large format 5x7 film camera.
What is your purpose?
I am working on my large format photography series “Forgotten Laughter”. This project is a portrait project dealing with children living in poverty in South East Asia. I will make photographs that will highlight the children’s humanity, show them with dignity and strength despite their difficult lives.
Where are you travelling?
I am traveling to Mae Sot, Thailand.
Are you travelling alone or as part of a group?
I am traveling alone. This will be my 14th trip traveling alone to Thailand to make photographs.
How are you travelling? (Airplane, bus, car etc)
3 airplanes to Thailand along with a bus to Mae Sot, a bus and 3 airplanes back to Edmonton.
In what ways will this project benefit Edmonton’s art community and audiences?
An exhibition of the work. In 2011 I had a a show of work in the Kaasa Gallery (Northern Jubilee Auditorium) shot in the Klong Toey slum of Bangkok, partly funded by a EAC travel grant. I have also shown work numerous times in other Edmonton galleries.
How will you use what you have learned when you return?
I will produce work that will be exhibited in the city as well as my photography blog. I will also develop a blurb book with the hopes of eventually finding a publisher.
What do you hope to achieve from this project?
Educate, inform, teach the people of Edmonton about important often forgotten lives of children living in poverty in Asia. I also want to dedicate the book part of the project to my father who passed away in February 2015. Dad always loved and worried about children, I want to dedicate this book about the lives of children in need to his memory.
How will this affect your future career?
An ongoing never ending development as an artist. Every time I travel to do my social documentary photography I grow as an artist and as human being. This latest trip is a continuation of that journey.
