New Grant Request Idea

After talking it over with Larry last night I have come up with a new grant proposal idea. I did not get the Issan photo project grant of $15000 from the Foundation For The Arts people but maybe I will be more lucky with this next more modest grant request.

I want to continue to work on the 4x5 common lives portraiture. I think the best way to do this is to shoot in adjoining provinces on both sides of the border between Cambodia and Thailand. I will propose a 7 or 9 week trip for $5000 (with 9 weeks I would have to request extra time off work). The grant would allow me to photograph people from Thailand and Cambodia in these 2 provinces.

The idea would be to do a series of portraits on both sides of this man made border and show how artificial that border actually is. I want to show how nationalism is a separator, how countries are a separator. I want to how how the border does not reflect the truth, we are not Cambodians or Thais we all share a common humanity, we all share common lives.

I think this request has a better chance of succeeding thou I would still have to probably put in $3000 to $5000 of my own money. If I could get the 1/2 of the total project paid for in a grant it would be freaking great!