Tyler Sharp
Ruaha River Reflection
Ruaha River, Tanzania.
Upon graduating college, I had completed an American rite of passage. As fate would have it, my first job led me to Africa, filming and photographing for a safari company in a remote and wild part of Central Tanzania. Mustering courage, along with what survival and photo gear I thought necessary, I left my friends, family and connection with the modern world to pursue the mysterious lure of the African wilderness.
Disconnected from most forms of communication or modern amenities for the better part of a year, my mind quieted, my senses were sharpened and heightened, and my natural rhythms synched with the harsh and beautiful surrounding environment. I was battered by the sun, ravaged by tsetse flies, bloodied by acacia thorns, hissed at by cobras, choked by dust, and stalked by lions, yet I woke up every morning before dawn and wanted more. It was the most alive that I had ever felt in my life. It seems that I went to Africa a boy, and returned a man.
Upon homecoming, I found myself to be radically changed, feeling misplaced and overwhelmed by the noise, pace and stress of the Western life that I had since forgotten all about. At times I felt sick, isolated and distraught. I would pour over old journal entries, watch and re-watch video footage, and stare longingly at photographs I had taken. I spent many days and nights wishing for a way back, plotting, planning, and imagining my triumphant return.
It was then that I realized I had fallen in love. And like so many before me, I felt homesick for a land far away, missing the harsh lessons of love given freely and frequently by Mother Africa. And it was this love that bore me through the long days and years until I returned, and it was this love in whose memory I selected, crafted, and printed this image.
To me, this image became a flagship, a beloved memoir of a time that stirred my soul more than any other, a memory passed but not faded, a love displaced but not lost. And in a world seemingly full of failed relationships and love lost, this image reminds me that my love for Mother Africa will bloom eternally, bringing me back time and again to her harsh and humbling embrace.
**This story was selected and published online for Pictory Magazine’s theme, Life Before Your Eyes. (Story #21)