I keep telling myself that one day I am going to take a photography class. I have always enjoyed taking photos, and my enjoyment spiked with the digital camera revolution that took place a few years back.  I still remember the days of dropping my canisters of film off and coming back a few days later to pick up the physical photos.  This includes when I lived in Korea, before digital the digital camera became mainstream, and before the Internet became mainstream for that matter, and I would develop the photos to send them home to my family.

This has obviously all changed and now we possess the ability to send pictures to relatives and friends around the world mere seconds after we take them.  I cannot actually remember the last time I had a photograph developed.

Each year students from close to 100 different countries enroll at SIPA.  I thought that a good way to spice the blog up over the summer would be to welcome photo submissions from our incoming students.  The photos can be related to anything you wish.  Travel photos, artistic photos, event photos . . . anything you wish to share.  I will then post them to this blog for all to enjoy.

So if you are an incoming student and you want to participate, simply send along a photo or two to the address [email protected].  Please include the following:

• Your Name
• Where the photo was taken
• A brief description of the photo

I’ll get the process started with a few of my own.

This photo was taken in the summer of 1994 in Pusan, South Korea.  I liked the juxtaposition of the modern, plastic, corporate icon Ronald McDonald and the older gentleman in traditional Korea garb.

This photo was taken on the way to the Masai National Reserve in Kenya in November of 2007.  I love bikes and the mixture of modern advertisements and Kenyan cultural items caught my eye.

And this final picture was taken in the 50th Street Subway station of the A-C-E line in Manhattan in October of 2004.  For a period of months I did a series on discarded coffee cups around the city.  I entitled this one, “Separation Anxiety.”

Hopefully this gives you incoming students out there some inspiration and I look forward to receiving your photos so I can post them to the blog for all to see.  Once again, send them to [email protected] with the details listed above.