When thinking about something that inspires me in relation to life and media I think back to June, last month I spent a month in Nepal and this was a time that inspiration was around every corner. Trekking through the Annapurna and Manaslu region. 28 days of no social media, no “normal toilets” basically my mundane lifestyle had taken a 360 degree turn. Inspiring is an understatement for how I felt, the incredible people, the colours, the landscapes were breathtaking and I really wanted to capture the beauty of my surroundings. However when walking for a month I dint want to hold a huge camera with me everyday so instead I settled for my iPhone 7 a camera which I would later discover was an incredible little device. I think our technology has improved so significantly in recent years, not only is it simple and lightweight but the photo quality is actually quite impressive.

When in Nepal something that really loved capturing more than anything else was the people, children in particular. They were so raw and real and I was able to get to know them and capture some really beautiful shots, and I loved seeing their expression when they see themselves on some strange device. Ive learnt that something I love capturing in either photography or film is a real rawness to people. I find something so interesting about the way people behave in their natural environment and I think children have so much energy and excitement for life. Especially the beautiful children in Nepal I found something so inquisitive about them. They were curious and bold but mostly the people didn’t smile as that wasn’t something they were used to and I think something really beautiful come out of that. I worked a lot on composition with these shots by making them the focus and making them main subject, I often ignored the background.

I really want to use the inspiration I gathered from the people I met, the stories they told, the views of this beautiful country and take this into studio where I can produce work I am excited about (whether its fiction or non fiction). When potentially filming people or creating a film/story I want to make sure that I continue to focus on the elements of rawness. I think I just really want to focus on creating work that does inspire me and makes me feel excited about the shots I produce. When I looked through some of the photos from Nepal I was excited and I felt something, that is what I want to redirect to this studio this semester.

I feel like in recent times media has the ability to change a perspective, it has the potential to really make you feel. I think before I just took photos of things and took videos of things that i didn’t really think mattered. Whereas now when I look at things whether its a story of a small class exercise I want to make it mean something even in a small way. Why take a photo of something for no reason if it doesn’t inspire you.

Here I also just wanted to quickly show a few shots of the mountain region in Nepal.