ZORIAH - A PHOTOJOURNALIST AND WAR PHOTOGRAPHER'S BLOG

Clean Water - Uganda

A woman carries a jug of clean drinking water through a landfill on the outskirts of Kampala's largest slum.  Residents of the slum must collect and carry water for long distances in order to avoid sickness and/or death from contaminated water.

Empathy

Empathy is an extremely important subject for photojournalists to understand.  I might go so far as to say that photojournalism is empathy, enabled by art.  We use images to try to get our audience to understand what people living under very different circumstances are experiencing.  When photographers say that they want people to look at their images and feel something (whether it be sadness, joy, fear, anger etc,) that emotion will come from their empathy for the subject of the image.  

Sam Richards is a wonderful teacher and speaker and in this truly great TED talk he not only defines empathy but also presents us with real world ways of understanding it. I think this is a must watch video for anyone, especially if you are thinking of becoming a photojournalist.

Pictures of Goats

I think most photojournalists would consider taking pictures of goats to be a complete waste of time.  And hey, maybe it is.  But I love these little freaks and just cant help myself.  As a matter of fact, I think almost any situation in life can be improved by adding a goat into the mix (minus anything sexual of course!  And possibly formal dinner parties as well.)  For instance though, I love New York and Paris, but I am fully aware of the fact that both cities could be improved by free-roaming goats.  Go, go, go, goat!!!

I met a professional goat herder from France once (is professional the right word?)  It was in Laos at a tiny soup stand on the streets.  I could hear his French accent and we started talking.  I was fascinated by the fact that I asked someone what they did for a living and they responded "goat herder."  He loved his job though, explaining how he got several months a year off for vacation and spent that time traveling around Asia and other places.  He was a smart guy.  Apparently there is not a lot do during certain parts of the herding process (mainly while they are standing around eating I think,) so the guy read book after book after book.  It sounded like a pretty nice job to me, walking around the hills of France with a bunch of goats and bag full of books...just waiting for your next three months of vacation to kick in!

A goat having a snack on top of an abandoned truck outside of Kampala, Uganda

Dhaka, Bangladesh - Rainstorm Seen From a Derelict Building

A downpour photographed through the rubble and twisted rebar of a derelict commercial structure in central Dhaka, Bangladesh.

GMB Akash - TEDx Lecture

Congratulations to my friend and zoriah.net blog contributor GMB Akash on his TEDx Lecture.  Most of you will remember Akash's stunning and moving works of photojournalism on Child Labor which have been featured on this site (if you missed part 2 you can see that here.)  This TED talk gives some background to his work on child labor, his thoughts and life in Bangladesh.  I have no doubt that Akash will go down as one of the great photographers of our time and I encourage all of you to support his work and visit his site.