In 1987, Franklin Val was shot five times during the overthrow of the Dessalines regime in Haiti. As he slowly recovered, he was deeply troubled by the problems and social ills that plagued his country. He made a promise to God that if he lived, he would give his life to ministry and helping the children of Haiti.
That year, with the help of his sister Yrma, Val opened an orphanage in the countryside of Leogane Province, about two hours east of the capital of Port-au-Prince. Val and Yrma were both in their 50s, with families and children of their own. Yet they gave their lives to what they believed God had called them to do to serve their country and His Kingdom.
Val supported the orphanage with his taxi service for international visitors and the press, and also raised support in Canada and the United States. But as Haiti’s government became more and more troubled in the 1980s and 1990s, support dwindled, Val found himself stretched to the limits. Despite the financial struggle to provide food and send the children to school, Val and Yrma continue caring for upwards of 30 children.
Getting to work with passionate, documentary photographers is one of one of the perks of NEED. One such photographer, Anna Kari, donated images for our arguably most difficult article to date, Issue 2’s child soldiers story. We are proud to share Anna’s latest project which has been featured in TIME magazine with you.
This post was submitted by photographer Nathan Golden
Street children living at the Howrah Railway Station near Kolkata, India, take care of themselves and each other in an otherwise uncaring environment. I was moved by their ability to generate a community and to survive. They represent tremendous potential that is wasted and in danger of being lost altogether.
Photographer Jonathan AlpeyrieThe upcoming issue of NEED magazine will feature a story about life-saving aid being given to those displaced by conflict in Georgia. Jonathan Alpeyrie, a war photographer whose photos will be featured in the story, describes one of his experiences photographing in the midst of this conflict.
“Life is often a series of events best described by luck, or a lack thereof. As a war photographer who has seen much pain and human suffering, I am very attached to luck, because no one outlives a thousand fateful events. During the Russian offensive in Georgia last August, I realized how much my understanding of life and luck are bound together.
While riding in my Georgian friend’s car during the Russian bombing, I was looking for a story to tell through my photographs. South Ossetian raiders roamed the streets of Gori in search of revenge and loot. After hearing bomb blasts, Jimmy and I turned a corner to take a more hidden route.
The narrow street led us to a chain of small houses, most of them abandoned by owners who had fled the city. We drove past a larger home with a garage and I asked my friend to stop the car because I could hear people crying. I looked into the garage and saw a family, mostly men, in tears.
We talked with them and found out that the grandfather had just died from wounds suffered during the Russian bombings that day. The family noticed my camera and wanted to make sure others would see what the Russians have done to them. They brought me upstairs to a room where the body of an elderly man rested inside a wooden coffin surrounded by traditional drapery. On both sides of the coffin, women of the family cried in desperation, regretting the violent death of a man whose life should have ended peacefully. Read the rest of this entry »
Photo | Yan SeilerWhen an image from his latest photographic work was chosen for the cover of NEED’s Issue 4 in late 2007, Yan Seiler thought Christmas had come early.
Obviously he was pleased, but also surprised because he had not easily decided to include that particular picture in the final selection sent to our picture editors. After some hesitation, Seiler included it anyway, and earned himself his first ever cover.
The 33-year-old Swiss national’s interest in photography is indeed a recent one, spurred by the gift of an old film camera in 2004. The potential he discovered in this medium was so strong that it quickly became a love affair. “I’ve started shooting black and white films, and later on I joined a community sharing photographs on the web,” he says. “I bought a digital SLR [camera] and from that point it almost became an obsession, capturing moments, freezing emotions, atmospheres.”
Until then Seiler, who holds a degree in Computer science, had lived a quite urban life in Geneva. In search of a way of expressing his artistic drive, he decided to take a break from his office job and left for Asia where he had the opportunity to develop his photographic talent.
Photo | John AbernathyJohn Abernathy, one of NEED magazine’s contributing photographers, consistently offers readers compelling visual narratives. He has voluntarily completed three assignments for NEED, featuring two Minnesota-based stories in Issue 2, along with a shoot in Guatemala for Issue 4. Abernathy’s success as a photographer has allowed him to make a living off something he enjoys, but he is certainly not the only one benefiting from his work. Recently, the man behind the lens allowed me to turn it back on him, offering some professional insights and personal experiences.
Q: Do you see the world differently as a photographer and how do you feel about approaching your subjects?
A: It interests me to think that all photographers are basically faced with two questions: where should they stand and when to take the photograph. Yet there is so much variety between photographers. This makes me think excellent photography is about getting outside yourself and shooting from an uncommon perspective, both physically and mentally. Photography is a selective process. By taking a photo you are choosing what is important and what isn’t. I try to think about whether the subject will think they are portrayed honestly in the final article. Read the rest of this entry »
Photo | Maciej DakowiczWith four photo stories published to date and another one in our forthcoming issue 5, Maciej Dakowicz is one of NEED magazine’s dedicated contributing photographers.
We worked together on his latest assignment, covering micro-finance and job development projects in the Balkans, and it was an encounter that taught me a lot about this remarkable character, both professionally and personally.
The Polish-born 31-year-old is relatively new to photography. He picked up his first digital camera in 2003 in Hong Kong, where he lived and worked for four years after graduating from a Polish university with a master degree in computer science. He now works at the University of Glamorgan in Wales as a research assistant while doing a PhD in Computing. This eclecticism also transpires in his photography. Dakowicz has indeed demonstrated to be at ease with very different subjects, from Cambodian children working in garbage dumps to an Indian community for transsexuals, from airborne medical assistance in Tanzania to street photography in Cardiff, his current residence.
Children view the city from the riverbank.Our last issue introduced the world of street children. With activist and photographer Paul Corbit Brown’s haunting imagery and journal entries, readers gained insight into the lives of children who live on the streets in Rwanda. In preparation for an upcoming collaborative feature about Indonesian street children, I met Paul. His southern drawl pulled me in as I listened to him talk about his work. I was struck by his selfless dedication to the people he met in his travels. He acts to change the world with little hesitation and no thought of personal consequences. As I listened, I wondered if making change might not take a huge effort.
Paul explains that all street children face the problem of how others see them. Vilified for conditions they did not create, these “invisible children†are outcast and dismissed for having problems that seem too great to solve. Paul insists that changing the way we view these children will eventually transform their plight. Facing our misconceptions is not easy. We all retreat from the unknown – fearing that other people’s problems may leak into our own. Read the rest of this entry »
Matthew Williams is a talented young photographer with a conscience. When I came across his website, I was impressed with the quality and variety of his imagery, as well as the selection of stories he chose to tell with his camera. I asked Matthew how he chose his subject material, and this is what he had to say:
“Well, I just graduated, so most of the work on my website was shot while I was still in school. I’ve always been interested in environmental issues and humanitarian issues specifically, and over the last three years, we had a lot of opportunity to craft our own coursework. The first project I tackled was the work in Thailand, and the AIDS situation there. It was my first time trying to cover such a large topic, and I really had no idea what I was doing when I got on that plane, but after that experience, which was three months, I knew that that was the avenue I’d like to go long term. Since then, I’ve been trying to follow issues that are either politically interesting to me or socially relevant.â€
Mouse-over thumbnails to view enlarged images.
This is just a small sample of Matthew’s work. Be sure to visit his website: www.matthewwilliamsphotography.com, to learn more about these images, and see the full stories. I highly recommend checking out the “Hope for the Hopeless†movie in the multimedia section while you’re there.
It’s great to see a young photographer taking an interest in the humanitarian world. Think what this world might be like if we could all find a way to use our own unique skills and talents to help others.
