Presence, Photography and Global Health
Why I’m going to Tanzania: Where Photography and Global Health Meet
Tomorrow, I’ll board a plane to Tanzania with a camera, a background in global health, and more questions than answers. For the next two months, I’ll be living and working at the intersection of my two deepest passions: photography and global health.
This trip isn’t a vacation, and it isn’t a single, clearly defined project. It’s an intentional period of immersion focused on learning, observing, volunteering, and documenting life as it unfolds. It’s about being present long enough for understanding to deepen, rather than rushing toward conclusions or outcomes.
A Longstanding Belief in the Power of Images
Years ago, when I completed my bachelor’s degree, my senior essay was titled Photojournalism and Social Reform. Even then, I believed deeply that images matter. That they can influence perception, shape policy, and spark change when words alone fall short.
That belief has only grown stronger.
More recently, I completed my master’s degree in global health, which gave me the language and framework to think critically about equity, systems, and the ethics of intervention. This trip is about bringing these two worlds together allowing each to inform the other.
Where I’ll Be and What I’ll Be Doing
I’ll be spending time in Mwanza, Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar.
In each of these locations, I’ll be working alongside a local NGO (Non-governmental organization) to provide photography that supports their mission. This may include documenting programs, daily operations, community engagement, or the people behind the work. The goal is to create imagery that organizations can use for outreach, education, advocacy, and long-term sustainability.
Rather than arriving with a fixed agenda, I’m approaching each collaboration with curiosity and flexibility, responding to what each organization actually needs rather than what I assume they should want.
Photography as Observation
A large part of this work requires doing something deceptively simple.
Listening more than I talk.
Observing before documenting.
Understanding context before pressing the shutter.
I’m deeply drawn to the idea of photographic ethnography, a practice that values staying, watching patterns emerge, and allowing daily life to reveal itself beyond first impressions. Some days I may photograph extensively. Other days, I may not lift my camera at all. Both are part of the process. Both matter.
Global Health, Grounded in Human Experience
My training in global health has shaped how I think about equity, access, and responsibility. Being physically present will allow me to engage with those ideas in a more human and grounded way, through observation, conversation, and lived experience rather than theory alone.
This time is about understanding health not just as an outcome, but as something shaped by environment, culture, history, and daily life. It’s about noticing how people move through the world, how communities support one another, and how resilience shows up in ordinary moments.
Photography is a way to hold those observations and to honor their complexity rather than simplify them.
What I Hope This Time Becomes
I don’t expect to come home with answers. I hope to return with sharper awareness, deeper humility, and a renewed sense of responsibility around how stories are told and shared.
This trip is about alignment.
Between education and instinct.
Between seeing and understanding.
Between being present and bearing witness.
I invite you to follow along as this journey unfolds. I’ll be sharing images and reflections along the way. Thank you for being here and for walking into this chapter with me.
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