Why do I take photographs?

Have you ever wondered why you take photographs?  At the weekend the photography club I'm a member of held their annual Salon - a review of the years work over dinner (we shan't mention the food).

On display and up for judging were  images taken by various members of the group over the previous 12 months. A wide range of images from landscape and cityscape to portrait, travel photos and abstract. Even when the topic for the photo was the same the resulting images were very different.

I guess that is one thing about photography We each come to it with the accumulation of different life experiences and as a result a different life view and thus we perceive things from a different perspective born of that experience.

This leaves me pondering - is my view of the world one that is worth sharing - I really don't know. 

Lake Wanaka

I can take photos, I've learnt what a reasonably proportion of the dials and knobs on my camera do... I generally get something that is acceptable - but is it worthwhile, will it make a different?

For me this has become the quest - to take photos which make a difference - be that a photo which has someone stop and ask why, or look and wonder or, if I'm lucky, look and learn. So this is why I take photos! Now the question is do the photos I take deliver what it is I am wanting to deliver. I guess I may one day know the answer.

Reflection of Lake Tekapo in window of Church of the Good Shepard.

The faces of Kampot fish market

If you google Kampot fish market you will find a delightful restaurant.  Having eaten there I can vouch for good food and the usual somewhat weak cocktails... which allows me to have two and still get back to the boarding house unassisted.

The real Kampot fish market is a kilometre or so down the street - by the time the restaurant with the same name opens it is well over and done with. You have to be early for this fish market.

So one morning with nothing better to do, I got up at 5 and decided to go and have a look. I'd done a reconnoiter a couple of days earlier - but without the camera. When will I learn you can't record the story if you don't have the camera.  The sights and sounds were fascinating so back I came... armed this time. 

In Kampot the fishermen are largely from several muslim villages - somewhat unique in a country with a very high Buddhist belief and culture. They take their little boats out early in the morning to fish for all sorts of creatures - from the guy with his squid of all sizes to the crabs, each alive but neatly tied up with string to stop either biting the customer or making a bid for freedom. Then of course there's fish. Oh and don't forget the single woman sitting cross legged on the meat stall.

The men do the fishing and bring the catches back to the wharf where it is largely the woman's job clean the fish and sell it. 

Fish is displayed in bowls on the wharf for prospective purchasers to review and make their purchase before haggling over the price in the usual good natured way.

Children are passed from mum to dad so that they can sit and wait on the boat while the business end of things is transacted.

I always love the sound and colour of markets and find that when visiting anywhere a trip to a local market can quickly tell you a lot about the place you are in. For all their vibrance and colour they are not easy to get "good" photos of. Often there is too much going on. What on earth do you concentrate on? How can you tell the story?

In this collection I've concentrated on the characters - from the little tot parked firmly at the front of his fathers boat fresh mango in hand to the little fellow all but engaging in grandma's conversation while she purchases crab.

Then there's the woman with her purse at the ready sorting the money and the woman with the green scarf contemplating. Notice her black finger - these photos were taken a week after the local body elections and the black ink indicates she'd voted.

The guy in the hat who thought I was from the local newspaper......

Just a glimpse of an activity that goes on all over the world - fishermen coming in from the sea with their catch. This story was in Kampot in Cambodia, but it could have easily been in many other places.

Septic Tanks and Soccer Balls

There are some things in life that you need to have there are others which are not essential but do make life's journey a bit more fun.

Here in Cambodia as in so many developed countries the education of children is linked to their ability to go to school... their ability to go to school being linked to their health. If you are not well then you are not able to go to school, simple as that.

The provision of toilets and clean drinking water is something that CCT ensure is in all the schools they support. The additional challenge in this environment is that many of the children come from home environments where they do not have a toilet.... they don't know what to do with one! In these rural communities the teachers are not reinforcing the message of going to the toilet and hand-washing that parents give children at home. They are the primary source of information about sanitation and personal hygiene ... a difficult task with over 30 students in a classroom.

While the CCT NZ team visit the schools they check the states to the toilets and septic tanks... when people don't know what they are there for they don't know what to do or not to do with them. We found one septic tank which vandals had thrown rocks into and the base was broken out, but generally they were in good working order, so while not glamorous they are essential to ensuring that the children continue their education. 

Many of you will have spent time in dorm's of various sorts be that in high school or at university. In recent years dorms have developed into single bedroom accomodation with some shared bathroom, laundry and cooking facility's.

On this trip we have visited the dorms for some of the young people attending teachers training collages. Some rooms have been equipped with bunk beds, this allows for 16 to a room, each students only personal space being the area of their bed. In others there is one large room where students have erected curtains to allow them some personal space.

For the boys... their motor bikes are in the dorm.... expensive and their pride and joy they are not left out in the weather.

The bathing facilities consist of a large water receptacle and a dipper.... no showers, no hot water and for the girls especially little privacy. We have been asked to provide laundry facilities as the students have no where to wash clothes.

The pressure on the teachers training facilities is going to increase greatly. The government has doubled the number of teacher trainees and we are told are about to announce that the training will go from 2 to 4 years. They have build new classroom blocks to accomodate the additional students and training required...... but they have not build any facilities to support going from 200 to 400 students... perhaps an oversight.

Now to the soccer balls...... one of our group bought sports equipment from NZ for a school. As the staff looked at the bats, rackets, balls and nets their faces lit up. They suggested that they wait and see how the children reacted to the new things...... but the temptation was too great. Someone suggested that the teachers "have a go"

Now in Cambodia to be a teacher is a very serious job, you are respected in the community and "goofing" about is not something teachers do........ but faced with a soccer ball and some of the CCT team who were in a "game on" mood even the school director's high heels came off.

The ball was kicked about the playground with lots of fun as people tried to get if from one another.

Then the bell rang..............

That's where the real fun started. The children came out of class for a break and could not quite believe what they saw. Their director, the teachers and the CCT team all scuffling about on the dusty playground determined to kick the ball and get it from one another.

3 days in Cambodia

I find it fascinating when you return to somewhere you have been before, how easily you accept the "normal" that is that place. The traffic which gets to where its going despite the (apparent) lack of rules other than a vague indication that you are better off toward the right hand side of the road. The rubbish, which appears to gravitate to certain spots where the piles grow...... I've never been here long enough to understand if someone eventually removes it to somewhere designated... of the piles are in designated places anyway.

In the last two days I've visited four girls who are all sponsored by the Cambodia Charitable Trust, this sponsorship allows each of them  to continue with their education. Once again we sit and ask questions which would be very personal in New Zealand and once again the wider family and neighbours all come and sit about to listen. I recall in November feeling for the people when you ask such things if there are any health issues in the family and a parent will tell you too much detail of their spouses bodily functions and malfunctions for our comfort. All while the assembled neighbourhood watches and listens.

Such are our anglo-saxon sensibilities, which do not appear to bother the Cambodian's at all.

While visiting and families we take photos to show their sponsor the living conditions of the family. Again our way of thinking is challenged, large open rooms where the family may all sleep, perhaps with smaller areas within a large room curtained off for the parents or the daughters. For many specialist rooms such as bathrooms are non existent. While we worry that our bathrooms may not be up to date - these people do not even entertain the concept of having somewhere other than the nearby pond for bathing.

Likewise we worry about up to date kitchens with switch on switch off appliances..... no chopping the kindling in 30 plus degree heat and then cooking the rice... and whats more getting this wonderful bowls of fluffy beautifully cooked rice.

We have been welcomed with the usual Cambodian hospitality.... presented with fresh coconuts, the straw inserted for easy drinking, rather different to the cartons of coconut water which have become the health food trend and found "in all good supermarkets and cafe's" packing here is totally natural and completely biodegradable. The taste is wonderful fresh in many cases literally it was on the tree minutes before we are thirstily drinking it.

Sponsorship removes the burden of the cost of education from the families for one of their children, through having that they are able to keep the child in school with all the associated benefits... they are not wanting to upgrade the bathroom or the kitchen appliances.  We move in two parallel worlds and with travel you have the time for a while to walk in a different world.

New blog site

After not having posted on my blog for a while I've decided to build a website and attach a blog to it.

My rationale is, as I've said on the home page of this site, I have a developing interest in using my photography for the benefit of others if that is possible.

A such I will continue to talk about where I am and what I'm doing, maybe someone will look and see that they could use someone to do likewise for them.

In a few days time I go to Cambodia with an NGO the Cambodia Charitable Trust, I will spend two weeks with the volunteers following what they are doing and take photos. These will be used to show the existing sponsors what their donations have been used for and I hope they will also inspire others to donate, to allow the trust to carry on improving the lives or rural Cambodian children.