Matt Powell Humanitarian Photography :: Blog

Some travel shots from Timbuktu that didn’t make the portfolio cut.  It was such an amazing location, I just have to post more pictures.

A big thanks to my colleague Paul Sherar for doing the HDR work on this image.

As someone who shoots weddings on the side, I’ve started to believe that really good wedding photographers are some of the best shooters on the planet.  Now here’s a project that just might prove me correct.   14 wedding photographers on assignment in Tanzania to document the relief projects of Thirst Relief.  I’m excited to see the images that come from this.  You can follow their blog here. Looks like they will also be doing a bridal fashion shoot on location, with images to be published in the Spring 2010 edition of Grace Ormonde|Wedding Style Magazine.  What an innovative way to obtain high quality images and further a good cause!

Evidently Thirst Relief’s founder & president Jim Hicks is a wedding photographer himself, visit his website here.

Today I had the opportunity to write a guest article for the blog of my favorite author & photographer David DuChemin.  It’s called Dream Globally, Act Locally, & it’s about pursuing your passion in photography.

Please take a read here.

The first time that I came face-to-face with AIDS was in Uganda.  The year was 2002.

With camera in hand, I was winding my way through a dark, muddy village of thatched-roof huts, as a local pastor led us to meet a family.  Or what was left of one, after the ravaging effect of AIDS had taken its’ toll.

But the family was not completely destroyed.  A glimmering seed of hope still existed- in the form of 4 small children.  But the parents had been killed by the virus, leaving the children to be raised by their elderly grandmother.  A difficult job for her, and a long road ahead for the kids.

I soon learned that this scenario was known as the “Missing Generation” in Uganda.  Because nearly an entire generation of children were left to fend for themselves in a country where education and health services were still uncommon.  I tried to imagine the effect this would have on Uganda for years to come.  Not to mention in the short term, once I left the country and returned quietly back to my own.

So what did that mean to me, a Christian, as I sat comfortably at home in my suburban, college town?  Let’s just say that I am still figuring it out.

But that was only my first experience.  There have been many more.  The most recent of which was in an urban slum in Cambodia.  When again I found myself following a local pastor down narrow, dark alleyways flooded by sewage and trash.(see below)  The water grew deeper as we approached the home of the family we’d come to visit, when suddenly we were pointed towards an alleyway, completely submerged in water.  This alley lead to the home of a mother named Navy and her two children.  All of whom were infected with aids.  They must walk daily through this infected water to reach their home, (see below) with infected sores on their legs as proof.   So we stopped at this point in our journey- we didn’t come prepared to wade in and get wet.  We met with the family on dry ground instead.

I wondered, “why would they live in such an awful location, in a seasonal floodplain on the outskirts of town”?   They were too poor to live anywhere else. Did I really think they had a choice?  So after talking for a while we prayed for them, which seemed like the only logical option.   It was difficult, but I also took pictures,  with the hopes of adding a face to this harrowing disease.

Through all of my encounters I’ve found an undeniable pattern: that this disease takes it’s prey on the poor.  The same poor that Jesus instructs us to serve.  I hope these pictures will grant you inspiration to seek out some way you can help.  Images from Cambodia below…

A mother and her children. Infected with aids. They must walk daily through polluted water to reach their home.

Victim of HIV

A pathway through the urban slums of Cambodia.

Victim of HIV

Here is a GREAT article in the New York Times about how the enormously fashionable relief organization charity: water was started.  Scott Harrison was quite simply a missionary photojournalist for Mercy Ships who had a spiritual awakening.  I LOVE this story because it clearly establishes the direct connection between visual storytelling and the ability to tangibly help others overseas.   This was just one guy with a camera and a serious vision from God.   I know of other organizations that were started in exactly this same way, but Scott’s story clearly points out the power we have as concerned photographers to truly make a difference with our passion and our skills.  Of course, in the case of charity: water it also points to an appropriate utilization of Web 2.0 marketing techniques- another topic that should interest all of us considerably.

As humanitarian photographers; socially concerned, Christian, or otherwise, we have an enormously powerful set of skills and tools at our disposal. Of course, as David DuChemin frequently reminds us, “gear is good, vision is better”. Therefore we must constantly dig in to discover what we want to say visually, what we want to do with these skills that we’ve been blessed with-  then design our plan for making it happen.

A big thanks goes to Esther Havens for pointing out the NYT article- whom by the way has her own story that I really admire.

Just found this inspiring short-film teaser about clean water for a village in Ethiopia.  Amazing visuals.  Filled with hope.  Shot with a Nikon D90, from the guys at Upstream Visual:

Burbax Village in Ethiopia from Upstream Visual on Vimeo.