Storytelling has always fascinated Marios Forsos, who sees it as a thread linking people and moments. When words failed, photography became his tool to capture stories through light, color, and collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q1. Congratulations on winning in the MUSE Photography Awards! Can you share a little about yourself, what inspired you to pursue photography, and how has your journey evolved since your first shot?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I have always loved telling stories\u2014I love how stories connect both the people who share them and the audience, and how our collective global psyche is shaped, moment by moment, by stories and the storytellers who share them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet I often ran out of the right words, so when I discovered photography, I felt I had finally found a way to share the many stories I encounter around the world in a way that remains personal to me\u2014by crafting images with my subjects, sculpting every single aspect using light and the myriad of colors it creates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, these are their stories, and I\u2019m just an incredibly lucky storyteller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Q2. Can you share the story or inspiration behind your award-winning piece? How does winning this award make you feel about your journey in photography?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I think it was the story of the young girl in the cover photo of this story. Born 15 years ago, as she grew up, moving with the flock was all she knew, and she was proud to uphold the traditions of her tribe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in the last eight years, she moved closer to a small town, started meeting people outside her village, got a cheap mobile phone, and saw movies on TV. When I visited, the elders in her village had decided to return to a fully nomadic lifestyle, and the small village was facing a deep divide, with emotions ranging from happiness to anger, uncertainty, and fear\u2014but on no face other than hers did all these emotions mix and merge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before my lens, she transformed into a near-perfect visage of uncertainty and underlying hope, and I feel that capturing this was an enormous honor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If anything, this experience reminded me of something I always felt but could never put into words until I read the following by A.J. Compton: \u201cAdequate photographers use their sight, good photographers use their senses, but great photographers use their souls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, I guess moving forward, I\u2019ll need to make sure that before I look for the light, before I even pick up the camera and think about a frame, I look through my soul\u2014and hope that when I press that shutter, it is the soul of my subjects that guides everything I do. I hope I can do them justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Q3. How do you decide which photo to submit for a competition?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The easy answer? I guess I look for images that, through two of the most powerful tools in our physical universe\u2014light and shadow\u2014convey some of the stories I see unfolding before me every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more complex answer? Before I even visit a location, I research the stories I want to tell extensively\u2014sometimes for months\u2014and I pre-visualize hundreds of different approaches, ideas, frames, lighting scenarios, and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t do this to make my life easier; I do it to ensure that when I set foot on the ground, I can focus on the people and not worry about technique or lighting options\u2014because all those things have already been worked out in my head beforehand. It is during this phase of research and previsualization that the story\u2019s layout is shaped in my mind, so when the time comes to submit the story, the images pretty much present themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Q4. What first made you pick up a camera?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Until I was 14, I loved drawing and sketching\u2014trying different techniques, experimenting with watercolors and charcoal, filling one notebook after another with countless failed attempts to capture what my eyes could see. Let me tell you, the frustration is very real; it\u2019s almost scary at that age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, for Christmas, my uncle bought me a Time Life book on photography\u2014a huge, heavy tome introducing people to the world and art of photography\u2014and let me tell you, my life was transformed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I went through the 300-page book in a single weekend, and when my parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I naturally asked for a camera. This was when I held, for the first time, a used Minolta XG-9 with a 50mm f\/1.8 lens, fitted with a 36-frame ISO 200 Kodak film. Looking through that viewfinder, I realized I could capture what I had always wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, out of those initial 36 frames, 34 were blurry garbage, but two were a hundred times better than anything I could have ever hoped to sketch\u2014it was those two shots that changed my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Q5. What\u2019s your favorite type of photography, and why do you love it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I would say environmental portraits, which tell a story. I know this is not a usual type (or category, if you like), but it\u2019s one I feel has a place everywhere\u2014from the marshes of Iraq to the jungles of Ecuador, and from the French countryside to the chaotic metropolis that is New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s about letting your subject and their environment naturally settle and present you with their story. All you need to do is add a little light here, drop a little shadow there, move a bit to the left or right, and capture an image that tells that story. I guess this is why I love it\u2014it\u2019s not a portrait isolated in unnatural darkness or set against a sea of bokeh blurriness where you just see the person; it\u2019s so much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Winning Entry <\/p>\n\n\n\nTribes of Northern Kenya after 8 years of drought<\/a><\/h6>\n\n\n\n