My Work
The photographs featured on this website represent many foreign assignments but also a portion of archival work from newspaper days. Other international contracts in the global community include micro credit/peer lending programs, innovations in agriculture, vocational training in slums, renewable resource energy, landmine clearing, water/sanitation stories, Malarial pandemics, food security, war orphans, disaster relief, immigration, business, education and environmental stories, addictions, women's issues, environment, health stories, refugee camps. I write this because more than a few photographers have come to erroneous conclusions about what I do overseas and where my pictures go. Looking at my website it might seem I arbitrarily walk around looking for opportunity but the reality is the oversea contracts are highly structured involving many people along the way. (Some web pictures though represent days I've made for myself after contracts) Like many photographers working in the international community, my images end up in different places. Some with the BBC, South China Morning Post, photo essays with U.K. national dailies. magazines in the Balkans to exhibitions at United Nations in New York City to name a few. But most pictures are made for photo libraries within the organizations that fly me around the world.
Social documentaries
This website includes only a few of the fifty countries I've been fortunate to make pictures in and doesn't show the endless of hours spent with colleagues negotiating pot filled roads, breathing dust and diesel in oppressive heat. Occasionally there's personal security issues as in the case of chronicling civilians living in war zones in Nicaragua (1986/1988), landmine clearing in Cambodia, post war NATO patrols in Kosovo, and 2008 assignments in the refugee camps of Iraq, the notorious Ein el-Hiliweh Palestinian camp South of Beirut and stories in Kabul, Afghanistan. Social documentaries requires an inquisitive mindset and respect for those that graciously allow me into their lives. Part of that respect is research and preparation to understand circumstances I"ve been asked to document. The visual component is working on demand, conceptualizing space (and light) amidst fleeting moments of opportunity and changing human dynamics. Many of my photographs are surreptitiously made while others are taken after ingratiating myself eventually making my cameras near invisible. Trust is usually earned by genuine respect and interest in people's lives beyond the mission of making pictures. Over the years a few people have commented human development work must be depressing which is not case. My assignments take me to insalubrious environments plagued with poverty and systemic corruption, but it's within those walls I've met the most remarkable people. I frequently witness joy as in the case of women empowered by micro credit programs enabling them to start their own small business or families benefiting from health and education programs. I"m frequently moved by witnessing people's resilience and commitment to each other in times of enormous adversity.
Cause and effect
I've seen words and pictures influence positive social change but also cause demonstrable grief which makes me critically look at what I do - particularly when documenting disenfranchised lives. Photojournalism can stimulate public opinion, provoke discussion and occasionally create social change but the ubiquitous machine of multi media is broadcasting human suffering at unprecedented levels. Are viewers/readers becoming more enlightened or desensitized by this exposure? By what standards should we measure photojournalism? Are ethical boundaries stretched to a point people are more callused by images of human suffering or feel more empathy? The role and responsibility of narrative photographers has been scrutinized for just cause. There are those in the international community that believe reportage of the human condition has become for some, a fast grab for dramatic images under the guise of social conscience. My pictures are a result of where organizations send me, but also my pursuit of what I believe are relevant stories far from the world of artifice and pretense.
Initiation
My initiation to the global community was living in Lima, Peru working with a company making pictures for such clients as Coca Cola and Pampers. (I took a leave of absence from my staff news position for the winter of 1983). This experience opened many doors and was the genesis of many international contracts that would follow. Some experiences include living with Inuit Narwhale hunters of Polar Greenland (eating raw whale for a month), nomadic Islamic faith healers in the deserts of North Africa, the floating hospital of Bangladesh and meeting families in the post Tsunami world of Banda Aceh, Indonesia and Sri lanka. Taking a break from photojournalism, I also worked on the South China Sea for 14 months. Other experiences can be read on my website bio.
Speaking Engagements
For those interested I'll be speaking April 6th at the Croatian Cultural Center in Vancouver, 2009. Next year's presentations in Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and a host of smaller cities will be posted here in the new year. To date, my images have raised over $30,000 for numerous charities that include United Church of Canada outreach programs, food banks, women's shelters and human development programs (these are personal presentations outside the professional organizations listed on my bio page)
Photographic equipment
I've never thought this was notable, but recently while speaking at the national conference of Photographic Society of America (in Portland, Oregon) many seemed more than surprised I don't autofocus. (with the exception of one NHL game in the early 90's and a couple of pictures made in the Serengeti a couple of years ago). Of the hundreds of pictures I made in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (featured in this website), the longest glass used was 85 mm and even then, sparingly. For many years I employed rangefinders and almost all of the black and white pictures on my website including the Buddhist monks AIDS feature and Cuba images were made with Leica M6 and M4-P cameras. At present, I use two Leica M8's and one Nikon D3.