Travel nominee

Ātman means soul, inner self, essence, breathe. Shiva, one of the most important gods in Hinduism. At the highest level Shiva is the primal Ātman of the universe. Monday is Shiva's day in Hinduism, I had the Honor to be in the Sri Manjunatheshwara Temple of Shiva, the 26th of December 2016, during a Shiva dedicated ritual in New Mangalore, India. The ritual consists in different stages and actions, including a bath at the end of the ritual that people uses to purify themselves even more. It was a beautiful experience, specially when they closed one part of the temple so no one could get in or out for a few moments, it was really challenging to take pictures here because people where moving all the time and it was a sea of people, I had to be quick about it. It was an amazing experience and a real honor for me to meet all this beautiful, spiritual people and to have the chance to photograph them through my own eyes. I hope that through this project people can live that day just as I did.

My Name is Tomas Fernandez Vertiz, I'm 22 years old. I was born and raised in Mexico City, almost 3 years ago I moved to London to Study Film Making and I'm still here. I've had one exhibition in London, in a venue called Vent Hoxton. This exhibition was about a project called Terra e Maos, that exposes the lives of wine and corn farmers from the north of Portugal.
Apart from being a photographer I'm also a cinematographer (I'm in my second year as I had to do foundation year). One of my projects called To Be Frank made it to the finals of the LA Cinefest.
I'm really passionate about photography and film, I try to spend the money I earn in trips in order to take pictures, is really my passion and my comfort zone, I hope you enjoy my photography and have a glance of how I see the world.