For curiosity's sake, I searched for myself on Google the other day. What I found made me realize even more what a rewarding experience it has been to study photojournalism at the Danish School of Journalism. Scanning through the few pages within the search results, I came across a Danish Web site featuring some of my photography.

One of my first photography assignments was to document a particular aspect of Herredsvang, a multiethnic neighborhood in Aarhus, for the Aarhus Festival. My 10 photos were shown on a projector in a parking lot along with photos from the youth living in Herredsvang, the other international and Danish photojournalism students, and several Danish professional photographers, such as Joachim Ladefoged, Nicky Bonne, Casper Dalhoff, Anders Bach and Jacob Holdt. The reason for the project, "Herredsvang in Your Eyes," was to unite the 50-plus nationalities living in Herredsvang with the rest of Aarhus.

The reason for the project, "Herredsvang in Your Eyes," was to unite the 50-plus nationalities living in Herredsvang with the rest of Aarhus.

While aimlessly wandering the neighborhood desperately seeking interesting subjects, my ear caught the serenely nostalgic music of Frank Sinatra's, "My Way" playing nearby at the community's activity center. Curiosity overwhelming me, I opened the door and found a whimsically determined 70-something-year-old Danish man conducting an orchestra of about 50 people.

During one of their breaks, I got permission to take photos of the "Blæsergrupen 71" rehearsing for their upcoming performance at the Aarhus Festival. After taking nearly 200 photos with my borrowed 70-200 mm Canon lens, complete with a wonderfully handy 2.8 f-stop, I finally found my angle. A few days later, I encountered an organ player taking a much-needed smoking break while he was practicing for Sunday's service at the church in Herredsvang, Helligåndskirken, and he kindly obliged when I asked if I could photograph him. The title of my segment became "Classical Herredsvang," which expressed how classical music is still present in a neighborhood where Hip-Hop music is predominantly heard.

It hasn't always been easy finding subjects. The thing about photojournalism is one has to document reality through the lens, to capture that "fleeting moment" that Henri Cartier-Bresson iconicized. In order to do so, one has to make a lasting connection with others, often in a short amount of time, to allow an accurate depiction of the subject's world, which I find to be the most challenging, yet rewarding, aspect of photography. Once you've gained access into their complex inner world, you're open to explore the many different possibilities of capturing them.

After previously taking two photojournalism classes at UT, I became more comfortable with opening up to others with my camera in order for them to open up to me in return. However, coming to Denmark was like starting all over again. I had stepped outside the familiarity of my comfort bubble and was, at first, slightly perplexed at how to engage with people whose "languaculture" was not my own.

Most of the people I've encountered have been nothing but friendly toward my efforts to document life around them. As previously mentioned, the initial stage is the hardest: making the connection. Though I love and enjoy photographing the world around me, at the same time, I feel as if I am inconveniencing the people I want to photograph. To be quite honest, if someone approached me and asked if they could follow me around for the day and document what I do, I would decline. The amount of self consciousness would rattle my introverted nerves.

Life behind the lens is, therefore, much easier. There is more comfort to be found in steering the attention from myself and onto others.

So far, the adventurous ride has been exceptionally rewarding to say the least. Having your work shown with someone infinitely more famous and skilled than yourself, in a foreign country, while at the same time gaining cross-cultural interpersonal and photojournalistic skills isn't something everyone can say they had the open mind to experience.