Articles
Though much of this site is dedicated to photographs I have taken during my work around the world, my degrees and early professional background are in writing. While I love photography for the power of the medium, and for the challenge of trying to capture a perfect moment in time and space, writing, to me, is still the way to tell the bigger story.
What follows in this section is a small sample of some of the radio spots, newspaper articles, book chapters and web pieces I have written over the last several years.
A Voice From the Camps
Though I have many dozens of stories similar in content and tone to this one from areas of conflict and natural disaster around the world, I include this one here because it offers an insight into an ongoing conflict, that unfolding in Darfur – a conflict the international community has been too quick to ignore despite tales of rape, murder, and genocide such as those conveyed here by Abakar Ismail Jacub.
John Kankwisi
Written as one installment in a series of regular radio spots for World Vision Radio (www.worldvisionradio.com), I included this piece because it offers an insight into the sacrifices that many in the humanitarian community make, working in difficult and often very dangerous places around the world.
Unshakeable Strength
We have all heard of HIV/AIDS. But after spending more than six years living in Africa, I came to understand very clearly that many people around the world still do not really grasp the scale of the impact this pandemic is having on many developing countries. I wrote this story after spending a week photographing a young girl orphaned by AIDS in South Africa – a country where more than 5.5 million people are infected with HIV, and where more than 600 die every day from AIDS-related illnesses.
New Year’s Eve
The Asian tsunami was the largest and most devastating natural disaster I have ever seen. I arrived in India on December 30, 2004 – four days after the tsunami struck – and wrote this piece from there on New Year’s Eve.
Far From Home
The earthquake that struck northern Pakistan in October 2005 killed more than 75,000 people, but after a year full of disasters, international donations have not been quick in coming. This piece was a spot I wrote for a radio program that aired in early January 2006.
Deeper Than Floodwaters
Haiti is a country long-troubled by violence. Arriving there on my first visit, days after a large flood hit the northwestern region of the island nation, I was amazed at just how rampant that violence was. Haiti is a country that left me with very little hope, and that tone is evident in the opinion piece I wrote for a newspaper during my last days in Haiti.
The Photo Board
The days after the Asian tsunami were days of raw emotion. Bodies were still being recovered from the debris along the beaches when I arrived in India four days after the wave hit. The scene I wrote about here took place in a church in southeastern India, the day after I arrived in the country.
Sanda
I met Sanda Nimal in Sri Lanka several weeks after the tsunami struck South Asia. I wanted to include this piece here, which I wrote for a Catholic press publication, only because for me Sanda’s spirit was typical of many of those I met in Sri Lanka. It is a wonderful country full of people who are working hard to rebuild in the wake of the devastating tsunami that struck there in 2004.
Shouldering the Burden
I include this article, which I wrote from Pakistan about two months after the earthquake struck there in October 2005, because Shannon is the type of person you don’t often hear about. Aid agencies are sometimes reluctant to sound their own horn, but Shannon, and many thousands of others like him around the world, are working on the front lines of disaster zones to bring help to people in need. So, I thought I’d tell a bit of his story here.
The Counseling Room
AIDS is devastating Africa, and one face of that tragedy is the impact so many thousands of deaths are having on Africa’s children. Millions in Africa have already been orphaned. When I met this young child on the day his grandmother was told that he was HIV positive, it really touched me. I still remember his face and how impossible it seemed that a four-year-old boy would be HIV positive on top of losing both of his parents to AIDS. It is a tragedy played out daily in much of Africa.
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A Second Chance
Within minutes of meeting Ashish Singh, it’s likely you’ll have a photo album in your hands. The first photo is one of Ashish, bare-chested, sitting on a motorcycle. The next is one of him posing beside a famous Bollywood actor – his idol, Salman Khan. The photos are not really him – but rather his head superimposed on the bodies of actors.
