When I first met Samantha Walker, we were both working out of the Mindset Social Innovation Foundation office. Sam had recently moved to Vancouver from Montreal where she had been running a successful Advertising Agency. She followed her heart, and her intuition, and gave it all up to pursue her passion for photography. Sam has since travelled around the world as a photo-journalist, documenting the stories of the people she meets and the places she visits. Samantha J Walker Photography
I see the importance of capturing both the written story as well as the visual story. Sam and I share a passion for travel that goes beyond watching. We both want to be involved in the process; we know that for a story to have an impact, it needs an audience. Sam is a visual storyteller. She is able to look beyond the surface and reveal a side of things that many people would not see. It goes beyond training and comes back to this idea of intuition. Sam’s journey has led her to Nepal, India, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and many other places in Africa. It has also led her to Vancouver where she brings a keen eye to each project, eager to peel away the layers and reveal a new truth.
My favorite story Sam has told is The Tailors of Tibet, documenting two Tibetian refugee girls living in Northern India at the Tibetan Children’s Village. She shines a light on the stories that often go unnoticed, treating them with respect and gratitude.
Recently, I asked Sam if she would help me tell my story in the form of a photograph. She led me down to Granville Island, a favorite spot of mine, and spent a few hours wandering with me through this industrial, artistic haven. When I saw her photographs I was stunned; in each one she captured a different side, a different story, of me. No longer do I look at the camera as a separate object; Samantha proved to me that it is, in fact, an extension of the storyteller.