TWO HOURS FROM LONDON

DeForestation - Kenya's Northern Desert

2010-01-06T00:16:00.006-07:00

CAPTION: "You know I need fire to boil my water so l can prepare maize for my meal but first I had to walk to the desert to try and find a few branches of firewood to make this small fire so...i walked alone with my panga and I walked..and I walked so far..and I walked some more but I had to stop for a short while because I was very tired and because the

Torbi - "Gabra Wood Hauler 2"

2009-12-21T22:38:00.005-07:00

Felix - "The Lesson" Part One

2009-12-15T23:47:00.007-07:00

“So what are you going to do then huh Felix?”… Speaking in hurried tones to a young 24 year old man who pushed his way to the front of the throng of children at our feet… softly he was telling us that “you're exploiting the children”…taking photos of them as they're hungry rushing and running over one another to get a piece of candy” and maybe on one level he may well have been right. Not about

Felix - "The Lesson" Part Two

2009-12-05T20:35:00.006-07:00

As he complained to me our dialogue grew louder with each point, the children now confused, just wanted me to throw however many pieces I had of the brightly coloured "starburst memories" into the air…and in this moment, amongst the background of children looking up at me and staff equally looking bewildered at my actions and wondering what to do next - as if suffering from shell shock with the

Felix - "The Lesson" Part Three

2009-12-05T20:30:00.006-07:00

I pushed my clenched hands out to his chest and pushed up against him yelling at the top of my voice, straining for him to hear me and without my translator, to understand me yet as I shouted and pleaded with him in the moment…at the distance my colleagues grew concerned for the growing throng that surrounded me but so far it felt okay.“I mean you’ve got all of the treasure now Felix”...all of

Felix - "The Lesson" Part Four

2009-12-05T20:29:00.003-07:00

Felix bobbed back and forth, almost held aloft by the throng of children that wanted whatever it was he had…arms outstretched to the sky, pawing at his every move…the look on his face said everything and it didn’t take long…for the test to be over. Felix struggled back towards me and said...”here!...you take it back”...”I don’t want to have to decide which is the right answer”…and with that I

Felix - "The Lesson" Part Five

2009-12-05T20:28:00.002-07:00

As the children finally scattered back to their homes…the sun almost down with dusk covering all of us like a thin piece of black velvet, complete in its ability to make things go dark yet I was still able to make out Felix in the shadows a little ways away from the pack, still surrounded with cries and laughter…and I asked him if he learned anything. He said in a quiet voice that he did, that

Felix - "The Lesson" Part Six

2009-12-05T20:27:00.002-07:00

There wasn’t a good choice at all but its like aid work the world over Felix…there are just so many mouths to feed and only so much food to go around, so much money and only so many people who feel it deep in their hearts to play a role with their own world so filled with it's own trials and tribulations. We've all heard this before. Yet what do you do? Do you do nothing and be complacent,

Felix - "The Lesson" Part Seven

2009-12-05T08:25:00.001-07:00

While in the midst of the confusion with all of the children my team looked at me for signals that everything was ok – hoping I knew what I was doing…and yet for me there was never a lapse in my thought about what was playing out there on that solitary beach so many miles away from what may well be truck loads of starburst memories, clean water and sustaining food, delivered to other communities

Meru - "Beasts of Burden"

2009-11-20T14:33:00.020-07:00

CAPTION: This image portrays the immense burden that women, regardless of tribe, manage each and every day for their families survival and for some it provides a very humble means of income. In Meru, women have to deal with full sized trees instead of the lighter, high desert scrub which is found in the more Northern regions of the country. We guessed this load to have weighed over 90lbs

Turkana 2 - "...young tribal leader"

2009-10-19T22:31:00.009-07:00

CAPTION:This young girl, now a young woman, represents the future of her tribe - a young leader she will help to usher in new ideas for better healthcare, new methods of drought resistant farming and will share in a strategy that will preserve the remaining forests, harvest rainwater and create new waysto reduce fuel consumption to help aid in the survival of the tribe. The elders, the "old men"

A length of rope..."a panga and a huge heart"

2009-10-12T14:02:00.018-07:00

CAPTION: At no more than 95lbs at best in weight, this proud Turkana woman walked for 4 hours to arrive at a small stand of dead trees to gather fire wood. Without regard for herself, in what can only be described as blistering noon day sun, she began to tear the wood apart withher bare hands, refusing to yield to sore muscles, hunger or thirst - instead focusing on the work she needed to get

Turkana 1 - "Mother + Child"

2009-09-30T09:32:00.001-07:00

"If they could only see...what I see..."

2009-09-23T20:30:00.008-07:00

I've created images for development and relief throughout East Africa for nearly 11 seasons now, applying my advertising skills and cultural insight for good, in producing images that will help support programs, to help them keep going and to help keep the money coming in which enables extremely important work to continue. It's a simple reality that without funding it all

"Old school ways..."

2009-09-21T05:12:00.004-07:00

In what seemed like ages we were finished. In working through all of the women I noticed that the two youngest were missing and had gone home to eat. Due to their ages, I weighed bothering them for a brief moment yet in the end I sent part of our team to see if they’d return…if we carried their wood loads for them. A few minutes had passed before the Land Cruiser came

Ramat 3 - "White Sand"

2009-09-18T19:05:00.002-07:00

"Fragile spirits held safe..."

2009-09-18T19:03:00.005-07:00

Pressure was on and I felt it…literally…sweating enough to cause salt crystals to form at my eyelids. I worked instinctually with the film driven camera system which is so odd these days with everything being digital yet it felt so familiar in my hands after so many years of depending on it and it wasn’t any different today. It came to life even though it was covered with

Ramat 2 - "White Sand"

2009-09-16T18:29:00.002-07:00

"With all the laughter spent..."

2009-09-16T18:27:00.002-07:00

While the women were still a distance from town, I started to gather our team - breaking away from the gang of women to seek a background for what would be a formal portrait while they still have their loads on their backs. A half mile away, the town offered what seemed to be few choices until a washed out, soft aqua blue green wall caught my eye. As it happens out here,

Ramat 1 - "White Sand"

2009-09-13T11:26:00.003-07:00

"Sing a song of promise..."

2009-09-13T11:25:00.003-07:00

The long dirt track back to Torbi was perfect for a few stoic images of women walking alone in such a vast landscape and so I gathered this ad hoc group together and started to walk with them back to town. Again, working the scenes in front of me, trying very hard not to slow their pace as they were now under a heavy load. However, I found it refreshing that they still had

"A decisive moment..."

2009-09-10T20:23:00.003-07:00

The women soon scattered around the high desert and so I divided our photographic coverage up with me going one way and Scott going the other. Without a doubt the women were working hard although it became apparent that they had much smaller loads to carry, much smaller pieces of wood in size and weight to gather and a much shorter distance to walk back home by virtue of

International Photography Awards 2009 - 3 Honorable Mentions for the image "One Voice"

2009-09-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

CAPTION: Located along the windswept Northern region of Kenya's vast Chalbi Desert...this child and his mother endure the resulting harsh conditions from an ongoing six year drought. Water for Kenya is a critical issue which continues to take its toll on humans and beasts alike, especially severe in the arid regions that share a common border with Ethiopia. Cattle raids and inter-tribal

Three Faces of Ngero - "Rendille 3"

2009-08-19T19:00:00.007-07:00

CAPTION: One moment in a series...

Three Faces of Ngero - "Rendille 2"

2009-08-16T20:41:00.008-07:00

CAPTION:(continued from "Rendille 1" presented below this image)In development work you at times have little choice but to photograph difficult subjects in difficult conditions to show that there truly is a need which cries out to be filled. Without photographs it's not easy to assess what's happening on the other side of the planet from the comfort of your own living room and knowing that many