Hawaii: Teaching Amid the Palms
Vivian and I love being guest teachers in Hawaii, at the University of the Nations in Kona. That’s easy to believe, right? For more than a decade now, we’ve had the opportunity to teach here for one week each January. Ok, it’s an awesome gig spending a week in a tropical paradise, but even if [...]
Pakistan: Persecution covered by CNN
Few people know about the plight of Pakistani Christians. My photos on the persecuted community living there are on CNN’s photo blog. Vivian’s reflections on our experiences are linked on the Belief Blog. Please go to the links below and feel free to comment and share to get the word out. CNN Photo Blog CNN Belief [...]
India: A success story for children
“We’ve found babies in the trash dumps.” “We’ve found babies in the train toilets, on the train tracks.” “We’ve found babies at our doorsteps.” “People leave babies at the hospital sometimes.” “In Hindi, the word orphan means ‘a godless child.’ So we call this place a children’s home. Bal Bhavan (the name of the home) [...]
University of North Carolina: Energized by Students
Vivian and I appreciate photography lovers of of all kinds. We especially love talking with college and university students who are launching their photo careers. This year we’ve spoken at several schools where we’ve had the privilege of reviewing portfolios, and listening to the unique stories that have shaped these students’ path. It’s energizing and [...]
India-Nepal: Four Faiths and a Lot of Questions
Four faiths all leading to the same place? The same end? Can everyone be right? Are there multiple roads to eternity that all join together as they near a place called heaven? Can I do enough good works to merit a place in heaven? What do I really deserve? Is it us vs them…a fight [...]
India-Nepal: Choosing the “right” lenses…at least for me…right now…until next trip!
The combination of lenses I use when I travel is constantly changing. On one trip I will go super light, so light that I, on purpose, don’t look like a pro. Other times I will carry everything from 14mm up to 300 and throw in a tilt shift and an extender just to test airline [...]
India: How can we understand the desperation?
This child is more fortunate than many babies abandoned in India. She and her twin sibling were found in a railway station and immediately rushed to the Mission Hospital run by CICM, Central India Christian Mission. Just two days old in this photo, the twins will become part of the growing family of children given [...]
Rwanda: Portraits Under Pressure
Have you ever felt the almost paralyzing fear of realizing you have 5 minutes to pull off a story-telling, engaging portrait and nothing seems to be working in your favor? There is no time to set up the lights you brought, even though you ditched your mantra of “carry-on luggage only” to bring the extra [...]
Rwanda: Farmers of Mbilima
While in Rwanda, working for Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee in Atlanta, I had the privilege of spending time with a group of coffee farmers that were thrilled with their harvest and excited to be working with the Atlanta based company. Before this trip, I knew little about coffee and only occasionally drank it. [...]
Rwanda: Survivors Become Forgivers
Salafina, 29, a survivor of the genocide with the man that killed her family. “I am the only one that remains. They beat me and I am no longer strong. The church started teaching us to forgive each other. He asked forgiveness and I have forgiven him. I can forgive because I am a Christian. [...]
Home: Simplify
Simplify. Throw away. Give away. Sell. And above all…think before buying anything else. This has been our mandate for the last several months. Vivian and I tossed twenty-five full, black garbage bags of prints, transparencies, tear-sheets and photo album pages in the trash. Things once precious had become an anchor. We decided to get [...]
Atlanta: Under the Bridges
Matt Brandon of The Digital Trekker once asked me during an interview if I ever did any humanitarian photographic work in my own backyard, Atlanta. I was stumped. I have traveled days to get to a remote village in many of the 60+ countries I have photographed in. But I have never had an assignment [...]
Home: Drink Coffee. Do Good.
Drink coffee. Do good. This is not just a catchy phrase, but the premise by which Jonathan Golden started Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Company just north of Atlanta in Roswell. An Anglican priest by vocation, he started a coffee growing business that also fosters healing among warring tribes in Rwanda. Former enemies [...]
Israel: The Art of War
I have only been to Israel once and harbor no pretense of truly understanding the horrors of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in and near Gaza. On a recent trip, I was shown the remains of the more than 6,000 rockets that were launched from Gaza into the Israeli border town of Sderot over [...]
Kenya: Outpouring for Orphan Care
A few days ago I received an email from a friend in Kenya telling of an emergency need for food and hospital care for several orphans. Vivian and I gave some, but knew more would be needed. I decided to share the need via Twitter and Facebook and within hours the immediate emergency need was [...]
Pakistan: Brick-maker Image Overlooked
During the process of looking through our archived images of Pakistan for another grant proposal we are making, I came across this image that I had totally overlooked. I normally mark images with one, two or three stars in the editing phase. This image had none. Yet, it tells so much about the poor laborers [...]
Home: Alone and not liking it!
Normally, I am the one to go out of the country while my wife Vivian, who only sometimes travels with me, minds all of the day to day “stuff” of the home. This week I have not been adding loads of frequent flyer miles to my account. I have been at home by myself and [...]
Puerto Rico: Travel Glamour
It all seems glamorous…shooting a sunset of El Morro in Puerto Rico while enjoying warm tropical breezes. But behind that image are also the unglamorous underpinnings of travel: airline cancelations, rebooking and cancelations again…scrambling to find a last minute and expensive hotel…3:30 a.m. wakeup calls for a 6 a.m. flight that may or not happen [...]
Humanitarian Photographers Day 3
And now, for the final three, I want to introduce you to you Matt Powell, Matt Brandon and Esther Havens. If you read Day 1 or Day 2 just skip to the photos! Here is what I said yesterday. It still stands! “How in the world do you make a living as a humanitarian photographer?” [...]
Humanitarian Photographers Day 2
Today I want to introduce you to you Austin Mann, Lindsay Branham and David Johnson. Come back tomorrow for the last three photographers. No use laboring over saying something new. Here is what I said yesterday. It still stands! “How in the world do you make a living as a humanitarian photographer?” That is the [...]
Humanitarian Photographers Day 1
“How in the world do you make a living as a humanitarian photographer?” That is the question, implied or direct, that I get asked almost every week. My answers don’t always satisfy, so I asked nine photographers that specialize in humanitarian photography if and/or how they augment their earnings from this type of photography to [...]
Football: Entrance to the World
Soccer is the world’s game. It is a universal language. But don’t call it soccer. Call it football. Carry a ball with you to almost any part of the world, and once you bring it out you will be surrounded by kids. If you play the game well, you will be given immediate entrance to [...]
Jerusalem: Christian
Tourist traps are anathema to me. I had never wanted to visit Jerusalem because of the envisioned legions of tourist buses crowding the historic sites. I was predisposed to look on cynically as thousands of Christians from all over the world come to the Old City of Jerusalem to “walk where Jesus walked.” And thousands [...]