TITLE: My Wise Sister from Borneo.

This photograph was taken in one of the many Dayak Iban tribes of West Kalimantan, Borneo. One of the elders invited me for a glass of tea, where we sat and reminisced about her childhood, how growing up in the Long House made her who she is and how she sees the dramatic change in the youth around her. She explained to me that the younger generations treat the elders with respect, they call each-other brother and sister, even if they are not of the same blood. But even at her age (ninety eight) she would still pitch in with the work load and everybody is treated as equals.

AUTHOR: Charlie Brown (Spain)

Hello there, I am Charlie Brown. I am originally from England, but have lived in Spain since being a small child. I am currently twenty years old, trying to figure out my life like most people my age, or older. One thing I have been certain of since I was a child, is my passion for photography. I got my first point and shoot camera from my parents when I was nine and saved up for my first DSLR when I was thirteen years old.
Over the past couple of months I have been traveling around Southeast Asia and Australia, taking photos any opportunity I got. I had the opportunity to work closely with the Heads of some of Indonesia's National Parks. Their work on conservation was inspiring. I was able to help in educating the local scouts on the use of none reusable plastic and coming up with new, practical ways everyone from their community could pitch in and help. For me the most important thing about conservation is education. Once people understand the ways they can help and the alternate options there are, I found they were very intrigued and excited to begin their more environmentally friendly lives. I am a firm believer that everything little thing that we can do is very significant in the fight to saving our planet.
While traveling through Indonesia I was also given the opportunity to visit some of the tribes living around the national parks and saw first hand how they have advanced with the technologic advances but also, how they have had to adapt due to how vastly their world is changing around them.
I hope that with my photographs I can start conversations and captivate any person willing to take a moment to pause, and look at my images. Photography to me is the most powerful form of art, I feel it gives me a platform to change the minds of people and open up healthy conversations and I feel with this competition, it will allow me to do so, but on a greater scale.