ZORIAH - A PHOTOJOURNALIST AND WAR PHOTOGRAPHER'S BLOG

Blog Cutbacks - Due To Financial Situation I Must Take Time Away From This Blog

I started this blog nearly a year ago with the idea was that it would allow me to make truly independent reports on important subject matter without influence from corporate media, who often choose photographer's assignments based on what stories they think will sell magazines and not what is actually important. I thought I could use it to not only give my stories a voice beyond print media but help me raise funds to report on subject matter that is avoided by large publications.

I have worked nearly full time, and often quite a lot more, to make what I present here as interesting and informative as possible. In December I started the Behind the Image posts to give readers a look behind my lens and allow them to know more about what goes into capturing this work. In December I added the My Life section to give a look at my daily routine, travels and work in the field.

Researching stories, planning field work, traveling, shooting, writing blog posts, preparing images, uploading from the field (including from remote locations in Iraq, Gaza, Kenya, Egypt, etc.) is incredibly time consuming — not to mention sending drafts back and forth to my editor, who is an incredibly kind supporter of this blog and donates his time to make sure my posts are tightly edited… THANK YOU Jeff Cagle!! If anyone needs to hire a good freelance writer/editor/social media consultant, please contact me and I will put you in touch with him!

Although I truly enjoy working on this blog, I am afraid that I must take some time away from it and focus on making a living. The economy has had a major, night and day effect on the number of donations I am getting. In the month of February I lost all but five of my paid subscribers, but luckily continued to get a reasonable amount of one-time donations. One-time donations nearly ground to a halt in March, with only one being made all month.

I completely understand how hard it is right now for everyone to get by, which is why I hope you will understand why I am having to make this decision. The combination of a lack of donations on the blog coupled with a nearly $1,000 equipment repair bill after my last project has left me little choice.

Originally I thought I would not make any blog posts for a month and instead focus on catching up on my editorial work and applying for grants for future projects. Hopefully, if I am able to get some recent work published and some stock to agencies, I will be able to get a bit of income and begin to plan another project for the fall.

After thinking it through a bit more, I feel terrible about the idea of completely stopping my posts. I have so many images that I feel tell important stories and bring important issues to light, I just cant justify completely stopping my posts — especially considering I have five years images stacked up to catch up on. I also feel an obligation to you, the reader, as your financial and moral support throughout the last year has been overwhelming. I will do my best to keep posting as much and as often as I can, while still taking time to try to earn some money and apply for grants.

I would like to once again thank all of you for your support. I will do my best to post as often as I can and hopefully things will turn around soon and I can continue to focus on making this my full time project. If you happen to know of any to know any philanthropists, investors, advertisers or anyone else you may think would be interested in supporting this work, please point them in my direction.

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The Votes Are In

Thank you all so much for your input, suggestions and votes.  I have taken them all to heart and may even contact some of you that have offered advice and other ideas.  

The overwhelming majority of you picked the new white background, which is the one I am staying with...for now. I have kept the black as a template and may throw it up for a month or so every now and then, just so all the black fans can have it their way from time to time.  I will also play around with other design ideas whenever I have time, in hopes of always improving the experience for you.

For those of you who are interested in the outcome, here is how it broke down:

28 of you preferred the new white design

11 of you wanted to stick with the black

2 of you voted for a middle ground, switching to grey

5 of you gave other assorted suggestions

1 of you sent a death threat (aren't you getting tired yet???)

And one of you (you know who you are you demented fruitcake) wanted a switch to a YELLOW background (you really should be ashamed of yourself!!)

There were several suggestion to switch to a two column layout, but unfortunately with the TypePad account and setup I have, even with the two columns, I could not go bigger with the photos...we would just end up losing one column of content.  I understand that there are ways around this, but to be honest, the time it would take for me to get that technical (CSS HTML etc) would just take time away from what I should be doing, which is focusing on content and not so much on style.

I do suggest that all of you sign up for the free email feed (you can click on any of the subscribe links in the side columns or just click here.)  The email feed delivers 1,000 pxl width images, which is double the size of the ones on the blog.

Thank you all so much for your input on this...enjoy!

Blogs With Black Backgrounds vs Blogs With White Backgrounds? - It's Your Vote

I will leave it up to you, the reader: Do you prefer this new design or the old design? The black of the old design allows the photos to stand out a bit more but the white of this new design makes the text easier to read. 

Place your vote in the comments section of this post and on Friday I will either polish this new design or go back to the black!

And for those of you who have already forgotten what the old design looked like, here it is:

Darwin's Nightmare - Fishing Nile Perch in Lake Victoria

Since its introduction into Lake Victoria in the 1950’s, the Nile perch has made dramatic changes to both the local population and the environment of the region. The predator has caused the endangerment or extinction of several hundred native species of other fish and altered the ecosystem, effecting the lives of the locals.

As the fishing in the region became a commercial, large scale industry, local subsistence fisheries went out of business creating economic refugees. This was one of many factors contributing to the growth of urban slums in Africa in the late 20th century (my story on poverty in Kenya will be posted on this blog in the coming weeks). In addition, the locally manufactured fishing nets used before the introduction of the Nile perch could not hold the weight of the larger fish and needed to be replaced by costly imports, which takes even more jobs away from the region.

Because the Nile perch have a higher body fat content than the cichlids that originally inhabited the region, they need to be smoked instead of dried otherwise they will spoil. In an area already suffering from severe deforestation, the demand for firewood to smoke the fish creates even more stress on the environment and local population by reducing resources and adding to soil erosion and the increased chance for natural disasters. Emissions from the burning wood also have an effect on air pollution, which is already severe in many cities in Kenya.

Although the exportation of Nile perch has brought some degree of economic success to the region, it has also brought a great deal of strife. Planes that export the fish to Europe often enter the region carrying weapons as their cargo, which adds to instability and human suffering throughout Africa.

During my stay in Kenya I spent some time in the Dunga Beach fishing area outside of Kisumu, taking a look at their fishing industry. It is worth mentioning that this is a highly controversial subject matter, as it is hard to quantify the actual negative effects of Nile perch versus the benefits and there is data to support both arguments.  

A fisherman is reflected in a pool of water on the banks of Lake Victoria in Kenya as he cleans his fishing net.

Fishing boats beginning a days work on the lake.

Women wait on the lake shore for the fishermen to return with the days catch.

A fishing boat docked in the harbor.

Inside the Dunga Beach Fishermans Co-op.

Nile perch lie dead on a butcher table awaiting transport to local markets.

Fishermen fold and inspect their nets for holes in preparation for the night shift as a storm moves over the lake.

A fishing net with stitched holes lies on the ground for inspection.

Fishermen set out for a long night shift.

Children gather reeds which are later woven into baskets which carry the Nile perch to markets and air transport.

Fishermen loading a net onto a boat.

Water Hyacinth in bloom on Lake Victoria.

Damaged and abandoned fishing boats on the banks of the lake.

Post Script: If you believe in independent journalism, please support it! This blog can not and will not be able to continue without your support. Don’t assume someone else will do it.

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The important events and issues covered here 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 a large increase in paid subscriptions. Your support will ensure that you, and others around the world can continue to view this content.

My Life - February, 2009 - Paris France

It is late afternoon and I am sitting in a laundamat pecking out this post on the tiny keyboard on my phone. It is a strange little place with old washing machines and dryers that make it look more like a set in Dr. Who than anything we are used to seeing in everyday life. There is a group of teens playing cards on the floor in the corner and it is easy enough for me to tell that every other word they say is a profanity, keeping with the tradition of foul-mouthed French youth, which I actually quite enjoy.

I came back to Paris to do a few things, most of which I postponed when the Cataphiles invited me to weekend near the border of Germany exploring old war forts and underground bunkers, illegally of course. I couldn’t pass up the offer, knowing that it would be a good opportunity to get a few unusual shots. 

We left Friday afternoon, heading outside of Paris and CouchSurfing with a friend who lives in the suburbs. We began the five-hour drive into the countryside and to the forts at 7 a.m. I was exhausted from a night of terrible sleep, not to mention traveling from the Gaza border to Cairo to Rome and then to Paris two days before, so I spent most of the drive asleep with my head bouncing against the window, which only occasionally woke me up.

We met up with about 30 other people from all over France; the group had been organized on the internet and consisted mostly of Cataphiles. It took us a while to actually find the forts, as they are buried in the middle of the woods and you must park and trek into a restricted military area to get to the complexes. The French military is in control of all abandoned forts and have made them illegal to enter or explore, which doesn't seem to deter anyone.

We navigated the bunkers and underground rooms all day on Saturday and a party that evening stretched into Sunday morning, interrupted only by more exploring. We finally began our trip back to Paris late Sunday night 

I will post the images once I have had a chance to edit them, most likely next week. I wont post a lot of them, as most were quite similar to the Catacombs story that I just put up last week, but a few of them are worth seeing.

So, here I am , once again doing my laundry, trying to wash out the mud, grass and other filth I accumulated on myself over the past three days.  Sometimes life seems to be a constant process of getting dirty and then getting clean again.