About a month ago, ASDA Contributing Editor Jason Scott posed the question “if you weren’t going into dentistry, what would you be doing?” Look for an array of dental students’ answers in the August issue of ASDA News!
I got to thinking about what I could do after being a dentist. While images of island-hopping around with my future other half come to mind, one past dentist has taken a whole different approach to life after dentistry.
I came across Dr. Phil Borges when I heard his TEDTalk describing some of his portraits of indigenous peoples and the Bridges to Understanding organization he founded (he is also the co-founder of the Blue Earth Alliance). Bridges to Understanding is an organization committed to teaching teenagers the art of digital storytelling. Blue Earth Alliance sponsors photographic projects that focus on endangered cultures and the use of documentary photography to help change attitudes, behavior and politics.
Since he left his dental practice and began pursuing his first love of photography, Dr. Borges has done incredible things. For the past 25 years, he has traveled all around the world capturing portraits of indigenous peoples, conveying their life stories, and documents them with dignity. He is described as a “social documentary photographer” and strives to increase understanding of issues facing people living in the developing world.
Dr. Borges has taken an unconventional journey through life after dentistry and it has literally taken him to all ends of the world. That is probably not a path that all would have the strength to endure, however, Dr. Borges serves as an inspiring example that our lives can become anything we aspire to. And heck, who says we have to wait until after we become dentists? It is never too early or too late to impact our world, to follow our passions and the time is always right to make a difference.
Read more about Phil here and find links to all his websites and books.
~ Jen Romaszewski, ASDA Administrative Extern, Poznan-Poland ’11
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