On December 26th, 2005 I was flying from Saigon, Vietnam to Bangkok, Thailand. I had been covering the AIDS epidemic as well as poverty and urban slums for the past two months from both Cambodia and Vietnam and was looking forward to a week of down time with friends. The Asian Tsunami struck only moments before my plane landed in Bangkok and I was on one of the first flights to Phuket the next day. I covered the devastation from both Thailand and Sri Lanka during the following weeks.
As an ex disaster specialist I still had many friends working in the filed all over the world at that time and in the year following the Tsunami I kept in close contact with them. Only months after the Tsunami struck, I began to hear stories, as I expected, of how western money coupled with the tourism industry was rebuilding Thailand with record speed while Sri Lanka and Banda Aceh, Indonesia were left with few resources.
Slightly ahead of the one year anniversary of the Asian Tsunami, I decided to return to Thailand where I re-shot each image taken the year before from the exact same angle at nearly the same time of day. Unfortunately I was not able to get the funding necessary to do the same comparison project in Sri Lanka. It was another example demand and marketing concerns dictating what news reaches the public, and at the time my resources were limited by what editors and publications would pay me to shoot, as I had not yet discovered independent journalism.
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Post Script: The important events and issues I cover aren't always the subjects that sell to corporate media. These human stories need your support and funding to be told. The cost to produce this work is substantial and I can not continue to do this without your support. Please consider a subscription of $25 per month to help insure I can continue my work:
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Wow. No words. Just, wow.
I think that what you do is nothing but amazing.
Posted by: Rach W. | December 27, 2008 at 20:30
good idea, and well executed. congrats.
"I had not yet discovered independent journalism"
how exactly does that work?
Posted by: allan lissner | December 28, 2008 at 21:05
Will you be stateside to take pictures of the inauguration?
Posted by: Mikasi | December 29, 2008 at 01:24
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Deborah
http://termlifeinsurance2.com
Posted by: Deborah | January 12, 2009 at 04:04
Put your heart and soul into the things what you do that you will feel more easy than before. This is my idea that carry out many years ago.
Posted by: Jordan 11 Space Jam | July 15, 2010 at 10:18