Pakistan: Multi-media
This is a multi-media piece about persecuted Christians in Pakistan, created in Final Cut Studio Motion.
Persecuted in Pakistan from gary s chapman on Vimeo.
Pakistan: Anger and Justice; I Choose Grace
A Muslim woman refuses to open the door to a negotiator that was trying to gain possession of the house for the original Christian owner.
A Muslim family had moved into the house when the original occupants had fled, fearing retribution when their two sons were imprisoned on a false 295(c) blasphemy charge. The Christian family has not yet been able to reclaim their home.
My initial response to witnessing this was anger. Anger at the woman and her husband for stealing this home. Anger at local government for failing to help. Anger at myself for being impotent to intervene. My anger then turned into, dare I say, hatred for this woman and the system that allowed it.
But, I no longer want to walk in hatred. It serves no purpose. I still desire justice and want to “plead the cause of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:9). I have to remember that this lady is a victim too, a victim of a system that blinds her from walking a life of truth and grace.
(Canon 5D, 24-105mm @47mm, 1/320 sec, f5.6, ISO 400)
Part of an ongoing project about the persecution of Christians in Pakistan.
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman 2009
Home: Lugging Water
Countless times I have been overseas photographing families that have to live without clean running water. I shoot photos of women and children straining under a load 5-10 gallons of water in jerry cans on their head. They wash their dishes with sand and a few cupfuls of precious water. There are no toilets to flush. The water they drink is tinged brown. All interesting, photogenic, storytelling moments.
Our water line developed a leak this week. We were forced to do without running water for 24 hours. We ran and had no shower afterward. We had to drive three miles to buy drinking and cooking water. The dirty dishes piled up. I slogged ten gallons of brown water from our creek to flush the toilets.
This was a great reminder of those millions around the world that do not have access to clean running water.
See my friend Esther’s excellent work on the world water problem at http://www.estherhavens.com/ or follow Esther on Twitter @estherhavens.
Photograph of Eduardo, a worker who fixed our water problem.
(Canon 5D MarkII, 24-105mm @50mm, 1/100 sec, f16, ISO 100)
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman 2009
Pakistan: Passion
He walks a path that is not easy. Carrying a burning desire to share the Christian message with his fellow countrymen, he moved to the north. Despite the threats of danger from Islamic extremists, he took the risk. The passion that both captivates and enlivens him will not let him live any other way.
Amidst the perils and burdens he shoulders, he still manages to share his Christian faith, overjoyed when he speaks of a Muslim that is now his brother.
Before his clandestine meeting with other Christians, “R”, (Above right) a new believer from a Muslim background, made his driver leave him a long distance away. He then followed a circuitous route to the meeting place via a hotel, a market and a mosque, always checking to see if he was being followed. When he was sure no one was looking, he knocked on the door and quickly entered.
This short meeting might be his only time with other believers for many months. He lives in the far north of Pakistan, and knows of no other Christians in his area. It is not unlawful for Christians to meet, but it is often a death sentence for a Muslim to convert.
(Canon 5D MarkII, 24-105mm @82mm, 1/3200 sec, f4, ISO 200)
(Canon 5D MarkII, 24-105mm @67mm, 1/160 sec, f16, ISO 100)
Part of an ongoing project about the persecution of Christians in Pakistan.
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman 2009
Pakistan: You really have to want to meet!
Worshipers gather on a Sunday, knowing that only a few days before, two pastors had been killed, two churches were burned and 35 homes razed in Karachi. They worship with the power of God’s grace that overcomes the fear that tries to paralyze them.
(Second photo) A church member uses a rented gun to protect church members and their guests during a service.
(Canon 5D MarkII, 24-105mm @47mm, 1/30 sec, f6.3, ISO 1000)
(Canon 5D MarkII, 24-105mm @45mm, 1/1250 sec, f8, ISO 1000)
Part of an ongoing project about the persecution of Christians in Pakistan.
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman 2009
Pakistan: Sharing the Water Cup
The Christian school run by Pakistani believers is like a cool fresh breeze in a very dusty, dry place. It is one of the few places in Pakistan where Muslim and Christian children are allowed and even encouraged to drink from the same cup.
Just a short distance from the school, a Christian man was brutally tortured and died after Muslim fundamentalists saw him drink water from a spigot reserved for Muslims only.
Over half of the students at this school are Muslim, but all the children are loved and treated with equal concern and care.
(Canon 5D MarkII, 24-105mm @105mm, 1/160 sec, f5.6, ISO 400)
Pakistan: Pride comes before the fall
I went to sleep with a warm fuzzy feeling that came from a well known photo editor saying he liked the latest round of photos I had shot in Pakistan, “Many are beautiful in their aesthetic construction and use of light.” I awoke in the middle of the night with a knowing that I had put his validation of my work before my desire to honor God. I didn’t feel the heavy hammer in the hand of a jealous God, just a knowing that He wanted me to be wary of sliding off the road into a ditch of pride.
It was more of a gentle reminder to me that any creativity I have is a gift from Him. I often quote these words from the Bible, “To Him, through Him and for Him. Sometimes I tend to waffle and change it to, “To me, through me and for me.”
Photo shot of school wall under construction in Pakistan.
(Canon 5D MarkII, 24-105mm @55mm, 1/60 sec, f5, ISO 400)
Home: The Story Behind the Photo
In my last entry, I posted a photo I had taken in 1978 on assignment for my first newspaper job with the Brooksville Sun-Journal, a tri-weekly in Florida with a circulation of only 3,750.
While I was in Pakistan, Gerry Mulligan, who was managing editor of the paper then, found my blog and recognized the picture. Here’s what he had to say about the photograph: “At the time, the black residents of Brooksville were living in the projects that were down hill from the main section of town. No indoor plumbing. But the storm runoff and the sewer overflow went into the black section of town. We ran stories and photos and eventually the federal government stepped in with community development block grants to help rebuild the area.
Some of the shacks people were living in dated back to the civil war and were used when the residents were still slaves.
It helped some at the time, but it’s still a very poor part of Brooksville.”
Home: Climbing the ladder!
Just this week a college photography student asked me how I made it up the proverbial ladder in this business. Here is my response.
After graduating from college I really thought I was God’s gift to the photojournalism world. I sent my application letters off to all of the largest newspapers in the country. Of course, none responded. I then migrated down the food chain to medium sized papers and once again did not receive any responses to my application queries. Finally, I heard about a job for the Brooksville, FL, Sun-Journal, a tri-weekly paper of only a few thousand in circulation. I took the job for $125 a week.
This was the best thing that could have happened to me. Besides correcting my over-inflated ego, starting at the bottom was a wonderful teaching experience. I had to do everything. I came up with story ideas. I shot. I did all of the darkroom work. I wrote the captions. I even helped do the paste-up for the paper. (Some newcomers to photography might have to google words like darkroom and paste-up.) And of course the day was never done till my work areas were swept and cleaned.
After my stay at this paper, I began both lateral and upward moves to other papers: The Tampa Tribune, The Fort Myers News-Press, and finally the Louisville, KY, Courier-Journal. That last stop was the pinnacle of a perfect newspaper job. I mainly worked for the Sunday Magazine as a staff photographer.
At the Magazine we had the freedom and support to develop our own long-term projects. Whatever our interests were, we could pursue. At the time, adventure photography was coming of age and I attempted stories on mountain climbing, rock climbing, and caving. I also relished my time in the studio shooting food and fashion. It was a time of trying anything and everything. These were the years of my true education.
Then, one dark and ominous day (dramatic huh?), the Magazine staff was called into the conference room and given the devastating news that we were being shut down. The Magazine, the most read section of the newspaper, was being cancelled because it did not bring in enough ad revenue to justify its existence.
I called my wife with the awful news, but I did not get the response I was expecting. She said, “How exciting!” Ok, I was prepared for, “I’m so sorry”, or “What are we going to do now?” But “How exciting”…I was stunned. She went on to encourage that she was convinced that God would open new doors of opportunities.
And that is exactly what happened. We moved to Atlanta to continue and grow our then sideline business of shooting stock photos for Getty Images. This move was indeed a God orchestrated and inspired shift in our lives. Since 1994 we have earned about 90% of our income from shooting conceptual stock images for Getty, Workbook Stock, and Alamy. I say “we” because my wife, Vivian, and I work together on every image produced. I normally push the actual shutter, but every other aspect from concept to business organization is handled together.
But the passion for photojournalism has never diminished. We continue to do both assigned and self-assigned projects for both NGO’s (Non-governmental organizations) and faith-based aid groups all over the world. This is our passion.
Panama: Workshop
Are you the type of photographer that likes to be noticed or one that prefers to be a fly on the wall? I have battled (and mostly conquered) the fear of the spotlight…the fear of stares…the fear of conflict (No you can’t take photos here)…the fear of rejection.
Personally, I would not mind being invisible. Can you imagine the freedom if no one even knew you had a camera and were taking photographs? Blink your eyes and you have another image. Another decisive moment.
This is friend and photographer Tito Herrera at a photo workshop he had Vivian and I teach in Panama.
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman
(Canon 5D MarkII, 35mm 1.4, 1/320 sec, f4.5, ISO 800)
Egypt: Loving people
Do I love people or do I just love taking cool photos of fascinating people. I can’t get this question out of my mind. I think I have to deal with this before I can go further. If I don’t really love and care for the people I photograph…what’s the point.
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman
(Canon 1Ds MarkII, 135mm f2.0, 1/80 sec, f2.8, ISO 200)
Mexico: Twins last day of school
Laura and Lucero, 10 year old twins from a small town in Mexico, pause along a mountain trail on their way home from a school graduation party. At times, being a photographer gets in the way of really knowing people. So much of the time I am only an observer and not a participant. I was the proverbial “fly on the wall” as I photographed the girls interacting with the visitors that had come to strip off the rotten cardboard roofing and replace it with new long-lasting panels. While I get touches with a lot of people all over the world, the touches are usually brief and surface. My heart longs for deeper ties.
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman
(Canon 1Ds MarkII, 24-105mm@ 28mm, 1/250 sec, f4.5, ISO 640)
Mexico: Simple Beauty
My pulse actually races whenever I know I have somehow captured a little frame, a tiny fraction of beauty. This is no great moment of human triumph or despair. No one will shed a tear or raise high-fives. Yet, I love, enjoy, and relish in the beauty that is created by simple shapes and just plain cool light on a beach. I love my job!
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman
(Canon 5D MarkII, 35mm 1.4, 1/6 sec, f1.4, ISO 1250)
Mexico: Time alone, together
We all need time alone…a time to pull apart from the daily. How much better is time alone, together.
My natural tendency is to be a loner, but I am learning to embrace and even desire a more relational lifestyle.
We gathered in Mexico to pray, plan and listen, brothers and sisters with common goals and passions, birthed by the urging of the still small voice of God. Passion to bring aid to hurting people. Passion to reach out and help. Passion to hug an orphan. Passion to tell their stories. Passion to share a true representation of Jesus.
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman
(Canon 5D MarkII, 24-105mm@ 24mm, 1/1250 sec, f6.3, ISO 400)
Mexico: Different
When I photographed this man’s feet in a small, isolated village in Mexico, I was attracted to the simple story of his worn feet in homemade sandals. That is the only reason I took the photo, visual interest.
Yet, as I look at this photo now, I think of the incalculable differences in the paths our lives have taken. His is a path of simplicity: homemade sandals, simple labor and a travel radius of only a few miles from his home.
My life, surrounded and encumbered with technology, has become a constant battle to manage and utilize digital information and technology. Neither lifestyle is more right or more wrong, more noble or more damaging. We both need to relax in the care of a loving and just God. “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman
(Canon 1Ds MarkII, 24-105mm@ 70mm, 1/100 sec, f5.6, ISO 250)
Kenya: Eternity Begins
How little we think about death. But when we are touched by it, the reality hits so hard. It is so final…so unchangeable. We are so powerless to stop it. Is that why we don’t think about death, because we feel we can’t stop it? Are we living our lives hoping we are never going to be touched by death?
Amos Afune, 13, died last night. The details are sketchy, but it seems he died from complications he had after a fall. A recent battle with malaria may also have weakened his body. Vivian and I met Amos in April when we visited his home, an orphanage in Kenya. He was one of those hard-working, always-helping, always-praying, shining-light kind of kids. You liked him immediately. Our pastor, who also knew Amos, said, “Heaven is brighter today, but Africa just got darker.”
Don’t live your life never thinking about death. Consider what Jesus said as you ponder death and eternity: John 5:24 …”he who hears My Word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgement, but has passed from death into life.”
Hawaii: Teaching and Learning
Vivian and I have been in Hawaii shooting stock images, teaching a short class on multi-media production and sitting in on the teaching of David duChemin at the School of Photography, University of the Nations in Kona, Hawaii.
The students here are full of passion for the hurting and marginalized people throughout the world and are endeavoring to improve their craft to better tell their stories. David (pictured above), a frequent shooter for World Vision, has been an open book and is not holding back any info that will help the young photographers achieve the visions God has given them.
To get a slightly better feel for the class, take a look at a piece Vivian and I did in an effort to teach multi-media production to the students. Click HERE. Make sure and check out the other links above too.
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman
(Canon 1Ds MarkII, 70-300 DO IS, 1/2500 sec, f5.6, ISO 500)
Mexico: Going Heavy
For the past four or five trips overseas I have touted the benefits of traveling extremely light on gear. I would take a couple of small Canon 5D bodies and three lenses: 24-105mm, 50mm 1.4 and a 135mm f2. My reasoning was that I wanted and needed to be lightweight to move quickly. But as I was packing for my trip last week to Mexico I kept sensing I needed to take my beasty (heavy and expensive) 85mm 1.2 and 35mm 1.4 lenses as well as the Canon 1Ds Mark II that weighs more than all of my packed clothes put together. I added to that a 16-35mm, a 70-300mm DO IS lens and a HD video camera for good measure. My bag weighed 25 pounds. I’m so glad I listened to that inner prodding that I’m sure came from God. I needed every lens I took. I needed the 1Ds when the the rain started pouring down. I needed the fast primes for shooting in dark huts and churches.
I could not have made images like the one above without the super fast 85mm 1.2 lens. It let in enough light, 3.5 stops more than my 24-105mm, so that I could capture the boy’s yawn at a 250th of a second. Other photos I shot at 1/25 sec, f1.2, 1600 ISO. I could barely see to focus. So, what I learned from this trip is that I really need to ask for wisdom for each trip as to what to take. I don’t want to arrive with too much or too little.
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman 2008
(Canon 5D, 85mm 1.2, 1/250 sec, f1.2, ISO 1000)
Kenya: Great Photo
A fellow photographer recently asked me to write what I thought made a great photo:
We all say, “Oh, that’s a great photo, or man, that is one cool shot.” But what makes it great? I know that when I say a photo is great, this photo, on some level, has “engaged” me. A shaft of light has captivated me. Converging or opposing angles have intrigued me. A twinkle in an eye or the glance of one subject to another has drawn me in. A good photo might only have one of these elements. A great photo has all three: Light that moves us emotionally, angles or composition that excite and moments that allow us to enter another’s life, if only for a moment.
This photo really has none of these qualities: it has poor light, so-so composition and no engaging moments. Yet, I consider this photo to be one of the more moving photos I took on my last trip to Kenya because of the story behind it. I only took one frame.
The woman is holding a baby she adopted after finding her alongside a road, abandoned and stuffed into a plastic bag. People passing by had been afraid to touch the wiggling bag, thinking a snake might be inside. This lady reached inside to find a baby who had been left to die. That infant is now a chubby, healthy child because of the bravery and sacrifice of one woman.
Sometimes photos are only “great” when words are added.
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman 2008
(Canon 5D, 24-105mm @ 24mm, 1/1250 sec, f5.6, ISO 400)
Kenya: 3600 meals
A woman at one of the orphanages in Kenya cooks at least 3600 meals over an open fire per month. In a mud hut with no electricity or running water, she feeds more than 40 children. Our traveling partner to Kenya offers these thoughts:
“Americans shouldn’t feel guilty for receiving all of God’s blessings on this country, but at the VERY least, we do need to stop complaining and groaning about our few silly problems. We also need to be much more THANKFUL for our MANY blessings…I still can not get over how much they (the children’s home) are able to do with so few resources.”
©Copyright Gary S. Chapman 2008
(Canon 5D, 28mm, 1/125 sec, f1.8, ISO 1250)
(Canon 5D, 24-105mm, 1/3200 sec, f4, ISO 400)