Alyce Mokrzycki's India study tour

Breaking out of my comfort zone

This trip wasn’t just any opportunity for me to see if I could ‘do’ journalism. For me, it was the first real chance to try myself out in the big bad world. I was in a country I’d never been to before, not able to speak the language, with people that weren’t my friends or family (yet).

Sitting on kitchen floors with women I’d met just hours earlier talking pads and menstrual cups and contraception, watching young girls in a village take photos of one another with my camera, having dinner at Saswati’s home and listening to her and her mother sing, visiting the neonatal unit in a women’s hospital, dancing the night away in an African club...I felt the fear and anxiety and I did things anyway.

I asked strangers questions. I spoke to people on the streets, in pubs, in shopping centres and restaurants. In clubs, at food festivals, in villages and in hospitals.

I wanted to focus on stories told by women and how they experience the world around them, and also dip my toe into the waters of photojournalism whilst in Bangalore

The power of photojournalism

The power of photojournalism and the static image is one I’ve always been curious of, and the FCST provided me with an opportunity to explore those possibilities in a way that felt legitimate and credible.

The images I took may now become part of an exhibition showing humans in India to humans in Australia. Connection.

The opportunity to have primary contact with a local journalist was a huge asset to this tour and Saswati Chakravarty was an invaluable mentor. Her experience, frank honesty, constructive criticism and insights helped shape my work, and much of her wisdom will stay with me for the rest of my career.

I was absolutely chuffed to have been afforded this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the Foreign Correspondent Study Tour

Access all areas

My jaw is still on the floor about all the people we had access to, the places we went and the memories that were made. Visiting the Deccan Herald in Bangalore, taking a guided tour of Doordarshan, meeting editors and television presenters and reporters.

Never in a million years would I have been able to organise this independently of UTS and the Australia-India Council.

The FCST to India was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I will carry the learnings with me throughout my career. I hope to remain in contact with students and others I met during my journey so that our paths will cross again in the future. Money can’t buy these connections and relationships.