Was at an IDP camp yesterday shooting for the NGO I work for (only 2 more weeks? really?). Was moved at how well the camps are running–no one certainly WANTS to be there, but overall they’re calm and well organized. Click on the “read more” to see the pics.
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I did a bit of traveling the past week, seeing more of the country, taking pictures for an NGO that needed pictures on the ground in Haiti. There’s more coming, but here are some early favorites.
I shouldn’t still be amazed, but I am. I live in a foreign country for several months, a year maybe, and still discover words and “systems” that are completely new to me. Why? Because I didn’t think to ask about it.
Photograph from “Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press” found HERE.
On Wednesday I start a five day contract with an NGO to follow them around and take photographs of what they’re doing. I’ve been working in Haiti for 6 months, and take a lot of pictures, and I think I know some of the basic rules of photography in this context. Mainly, ask permission. If the person is unsure of why you want to take their photograph, explain why as clearly and honestly as possible. Don’t get in the way. Try and focus on new stories, not old ones. There are plenty of photographs of amputees. My goal is not to add to that reservoir; my goal is tell new stories with my camera. However, I’m also getting paid to take photographs, and need to take in to account my employers interests.
So, I ask you, what advice, tips, dos and don’ts, can you share? I’ve never been paid to take photographs before, it’s always just been a hobby, or an extra “bonus” I bring with me to the other “real” job I’m doing. For five days, taking photographs is my real job. My instinct is to be invisible. To have the people I’m following not really “think” about me: to document both the obvious stuff as well as the moments that escape them because they’re focused on the things right in front of them, rightfully so. Don’t objectify. Don’t sensationalize.
What else? What are the nuances, you photographers out there? Please comment here on other things to think about.
Gabion was transformed, early on after the earthquake, from a soccer stadium to an IDP (internally-displaced peoples) camp. When I think of “camps”, images of miles and miles of refugees, dirt, makeshift housing, and generally unsanitary conditions come to mind. I’ve been conditioned to associate camps with terrible living conditions. Gabion is definitely not terrible. It’s not ideal—none of the people there want to live there—but it’s clean and relatively well managed. There is an organized food program, that we’ve been contributing to, and there’s a water supply on the premises. Really, it’s the heat more than anything else that makes life in Gabion hard. That, and the pain brought to the camp from Port au Prince. The IDPs living in Gabion are the minority of people who have traveled to the south who don’t have any family or friends to help support them. They’ve got nowhere else to go. And while there’s “only” around 150 people living there, they’re perhaps the 150 loneliest people in Les Cayes. No family. No friends. No familiar surroundings to find comfort in. During the day, the heat makes staying in the tents unbearable, and people shrink next to the tiny slivers of shade. I’ve been trying to record as many stories from Gabion as I can, trying to preserve them, so that we don’t forget what they went through, what they’re still going through.
“Anne Hastings has informed us that as of a couple of hours ago the 34 Fonkoze branches not shut down by the earthquake and located in every corner of the country now have enough cash to satisfy transfer and remittance needs without problems. We are indebted to many individuals and government agencies that helped make this happen. We look forward to telling the thrilling and improbable tale of how this “cash crunch” was solved in the days ahead – keep checking this website for updates www.fonkoze.org”
We also pay for Moneygram, Cam et Unitransfer. Please pass it on.
Bonjour tout le monde, “Anne Hastings nous a informe que 34 branches Fonkoze ne sont par fermees malgres le tremblement de terre et elles couvrent le pays. Nous pouvons satisfaire la demande de transfert sans probleme. Nous sommes reconnaissant envers plusieurs organismes and individus qui nous ont aide a liberer cette argent pour la population en besoin. Nous vous raconterons tres bientot comment nous avons pu repondre a cette crise de liquidites – On vous invite a suivre les details sur le site web: www.fonkoze.org ” Nous sommes egalement payeur pour Moneygram, Cam et Unitransfer. Passez le message.
Katleen Félix, M.Sc. Project Director Haitian Diaspora Liaison Fonkoze Office: 347-838-4156
Cell USA: 917-375-6902
New cell Haiti: 011-509-3732-2215
kfelix@fonkoze.org
SKYPE: katleen.felix
www.fonkoze.org
Diaspora Services page: http://fonkoze.org/ourprograms/diasporaservices.html
There is a film of discomfort here that one doesn’t find in the south, partially explainable by the myriad of myopic Minustah, frantically looking at their watches while music pulsates in the background, reminding everyone that they have a 1am curfew, a badge of honor somehow. But they are an easy target—in truth, most of the people I meet working in development here are dissatisfied with their jobs, to varying degrees, ranging from apathy to antipathy to downright derision. Are their jobs really that uninspiring, truly that worthy of contempt? I don’t think so. The city itself is partly to blame, whether they recognize this or not. And not the city. Their perception of it. Port au Prince is like so many other big cities walled in from the outside country, protected from its’ countrymen, built on their bones, modern day St. Petersburg’s scattered throughout the “south”.
Boys Dancing at Port Salud, Haiti from Lee on Vimeo.
