ZORIAH - A PHOTOJOURNALIST AND WAR PHOTOGRAPHER'S BLOG

Ethiopian Eritrean Border Patrol

2009-11-10T18:11:56+01:00

An Ethiopian Army soldier's shadow on the sulfuric lava pits of the Danakil Depression near the the Eritrean border. Ethiopia is in the process of sending out hundreds of fresh soldiers to the desolate region which has recently been home to a series of kidnappings and murders.

Ethiopia - Poverty and Famine

2009-11-04T19:28:55+01:00

Impoverished Ethiopians search a city trash dump site for food and items that they can sell or barter in the capital city of Addis Ababa.

I am in Ethiopia working on several projects, including one on the lives of the impoverished people of this country. The government goes to great lengths to keep stories like these from being told, including arresting journalists, spying on photographers, etc. What is life without a few challenges right? I do feel it is important to capture such issues and bring them to light, especially when there has been little captured here in these regards. Assuming I dont "disappear" over here, I hope to bring you more images on these subjects soon.

Arriving in Ethiopia

2009-10-28T09:10:34+01:00

I have been in Ethiopia for two days now, and so far the trip is not off to a spectacular start. I arrived at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris three hours ahead of my flight to a "line" of more than 100 people waiting to check in. My bag was, of course, over the allowed weight, so I had to transfer half of it into a new bag, which is fun to do in front of many of angry people.

At that point we had to go to a weigh station to have our carry on bag weighed. The airline has enforced a limit of 7kilos/15lbs per passenger. My bag weighed in at 30kilos/67lbs, so we had to get supervisor to approve it. After that, security told me my carabiners (rock climbing clips I use to attach my cameras to my bags in the field) could be used as weapons and sent me back to check them in. I had already checked two bags, and a third would cost 50€, so the supervisor asked another passenger to put them in his bag and give them to be at baggage claim in Ethiopia.

It was an all-night flight and I sat with my big legs tucked in the fetal position, unable to sleep for the duration. Upon arrival in Addis Ababa, I waited two hours for the guy with my stuff in his bag, and still have no idea where he and my stuff ended up. I found a crappy little hotel in the city center and slept for 16 hours, woke up and began my quest to find internet access. The $100 modem I used in Kenya is now obsolete and replaced by one that costs $140. Another $30 is needed to set up service and then it's 10 cents per minute to use it. All of this was frustrating, but when I found out that the $250 cash I had just up and vanished from my pocket, I was beyond upset.

I have a lot of experience traveling, and like to think I am fairly wise to the way things work in most places. But I haven't the slightest idea how someone could have gotten $250 (which is more than 20 Ethiopian bills, a large wad) out of my front velcro pocket without me knowing! My only guess is the share taxi I was in (picture about 15 packed into a minivan, almost sitting on top of each other) must have had the pickpocket placed right next me.

I must say that it is really frustrating to get robbed in a country you have come to photograph in. To go somewhere to show what the local population is living through, and then be robbed by one of them, is a bit of a bummer. I am smart enough to know that this happens everywhere in the world, and I am sure that the overwhelming majority of Ethiopians would never do such a thing, but it happened and it is frustrating.

Anyway, it is back to work. I will begin my photography here in Addis Adabad in the coming days, focusing on the lives of the poorest of the poor as well as childrens' issues. I also hope to do some work on AIDS here, although the government is not so happy with the presence of journalists here, so what I am able to do may come down to how well I am able to avoid the police and slip under the radar. Next week I will be traveling to some remote regions to do pro bono work for the International Rescue Committee, documenting the lives of refugees living in their camps.

All of that being said I would like to use this as a que to remind all of you that this blog is my primary source of income and without your support I can't afford to do the projects I do. The internet service I paid for today (yes, I changed more money and got everything set up) was done so that I can provide you with regular reports and new images over the next month. If you are the type of person who supports National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting or other arts, why not chip in and help ensure that I can report independently without the influence of the mainstream media and corporate advertising dollars. I can't continue what I do without the continued and generous support of people just like you!

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The Curious Case of The Condoms in Cuba - Public Sex, Homeless Sex, Lots of Sex???

2009-10-21T17:15:30+02:00

After my first day of shooting in Havana, Cuba I remember thinking to myself "Geez, there sure are a lot of nasty condoms in the streets here." I thought the same thing after my second day of shooting, and third, fourth and so on. Toward the end of my trip I began thinking "If I took a shot of every condom I saw on the sidewalk, street, alley, etc., that would have made an interesting story...too bad." But instead of giving up on the idea, I decided I would just photograph every condom I saw for the rest of the day and make that into a story. After two hours, I decided I had made my point and gave up. Below are contact sheets of condoms I saw on the ground in Havana during a two hour walk and exploration.

Now you are probably asking yourself the same questions I was. Are people having crazy sex all over the place here?? Is sex the national sport of Cuba?? Why are people not having sex in their own homes, there can't be this many horny homeless people can there??

I was going nuts trying to figure out what was going on here. I have traveled, lived in, worked in 60-something countries around the world but I have never seen anything like this. What is the answer to this mystery?

And then...

Finally...

On my second to last day in the country...

A clue came running through the street...

Obviously this one kid is not responsible for the massive amounts of condoms in the streets of Havana. Even if kids playing with condoms as balloons account for some of the condoms I saw on the ground, there still must be a lot of public sex going on here. Or is there some other answer to this mystery?

New Photography Projects

2009-10-19T22:11:22+02:00

I am happy to announce the birth of a new project, one which will be a first in photojournalism and I believe it will make some pretty big waves. In addition to this new project I will be continuing to travel frequently documenting conflict, crisis and disaster around the globe. I leave for Ethiopia in several days where I will be working on a number of different projects and have Haiti, Mexico, Bangladesh and South America on the schedule for the coming months. I will do my best to update this blog regularly, as long as I have access to internet. As far as my new project goes, I am expecting it will be at least two years in the making and I will not be releasing any more information on it, except to say that it will be BIG!!