Czech/Canadian I first developed my photographic eye in Montreal, where I studied photography at Dawson College. But Dawson Collage teaches commercial photography, and in any case I found that I was more comfortable wandering the streets with my camera than being locked up in a studio. Montreal's streets were not enough for me, however, so I started to travel to different places. I set out to document the lives of people who are persecuted or neglected. In 1998, during the war in Kosovo, I encountered the Czech NGO People in Need and since then have been contributing to their efforts with my work. For me, it's very important to be involved in the environment that I am photographing; to be accepted by the people I photograph and to become one of them.