Archive for the ‘ News ’ Category
Reporting on Mexico’s Drug War
Our good friend and fellow journalist, John Gibler, was interviewed last week on KPFA’s Flashpoints radio program about his ongoing reporting from the state of Sinaloa, the heart of Mexico’s drug production and home of one of the country’s most powerful cartels.
We believe the interview is one of the most informative and thoughtful portrayals of the Mexican “Drug War” that we’ve heard in a long time.
To find John’s interview look for the program on Friday, August 13th about 15 minutes in.
Rape and Intimidation in the Camps
Within a month of the January earthquake, activist Beverly Bell and Bear Guerra traveled to Haiti to document the work of the country’s social and peasant movements just a month after the catastrophe, as locals came to call it.
What they found was equal parts heartbreaking and uplifting: Port-au-Prince and its surrounding areas had been completely destroyed and people were living precariously under tents, but they had also come together and helped each other before the big foreign aid convoys arrived to provide food, security and support to those who needed it most.
Among those groups was KOFAVIV (the Commission of Women Victim to Victim), which was founded in 2004 by women from poor neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince who had been raped during the 1991-94 military dictatorship. As was reported to Bell during her visit, this newest disaster to hit Haiti almost two decades after the dictatorship, was followed by rape and impunity once again. A recent New York Times article chronicles how women and children living on the streets and in the camps were especially vulnerable to sexual violence and nothing was being done about it.
Documentary Photography Show at the Getty
The diversity of outlets and job opportunities for documentary photographers may have been shrinking for the past 5 years, but a new show at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles is giving social-issue photography projects a second life and a new audience.
“Engaged Observers: Documentary Photography since the Sixties” features the work of heavyweights James Nachtwey (featured in the 2001 documentary “War Photographer”), Susan Meiselas, Sebastião Salgado, and Mary Ellen Mark, most of whom came of age with in-depth agency or magazine assignments, like those of the now-defunct Life.
An L.A. Times review of the show delves as much into the work of the 10 artists who were selected for this exhibit, as it does focus on the challenges of doing documentary journalism and photography these days.
“What binds the artists in “Engaged Observers,” beyond the similarities in their professional practices, is that strong personal perspective in their work. Objectivity is rejected as a concept, much less an aspiration,” writes arts critic Leah Ollman. She then goes on to quote the maverick war photographer, Eugene Smith, who is credited for perfecting the art of the photo-essay. “The journalistic photographer can have no other than a personal approach; and it is impossible for him to be completely objective. Honest — yes. Objective — no.”
A Short Walk Around The Gambia
Photographer Jason Florio and his partner and producer Helen Jones, have been working on a collaborative project that is equal parts documentary, travelogue, awareness-raising and narrative.
Last year, they headed to The Gambia in West Africa in an effort to raise money and draw attention to Gardens for Life, a charity that teaches children to grow gardens so they can sustain food production in their villages and ultimately have a way of trading with other communities.
Florio and Jones walked for about 6 weeks and a total of 700 miles, with the help of three Gambian men, Janneh, Momadou and Samba, as well as their donkeys-for-hire, Neil and Hadley. Jones recalls the two main things she’d hear before they started their trek: “White people don’t walk. That and ‘your donkeys will die’ were the most common things Gambians said to us when we explained what we were doing.”
Read more about “A Short Walk in the Gambian Bush” and check out the beautiful images and personal stories they captured on that trip.
On Supporting Independent Journalism
About a month ago, one of our greatest inspirations from the world of journalism retired, leaving a huge void behind. We’re talking about Bill Moyers, an old-school muckraking journalist who has had a lifelong commitment to the truth, human rights and public service. Here’s what Moyers said in 2008 at the National Media Reform Conference in Minneapolis, MN:
Since Moyers voiced his concerns two years ago, “the news we need to know” has further slipped from sight. Massive layoffs, diminishing funding sources and media closures have further eroded journalism, making independent, international and non-profit journalism more essential than ever.
If you value our dedication to telling human stories, you may still make a tax-deductible donation or buy an exhibition quality print by going to our website. We’re still raising funds for our next reporting trip to Haiti, July 13th, and our fundraiser ends on June 30th:
http://fonografiacollective.com/support/
Thank you as always for your support –Ruxandra Guidi & Bear Guerra.
Moccene’s Story
Last week, we got the green light to work on a couple of stories in the village of Papaye, in Haiti’s Central Plateau.
Our radio and magazine stories will focus on Moccene (pictured here in 2008), a farmer in his 20s who has a vision to bring back and eat native crops, and practice community teamwork (known as “konbit” in Creole), in order to revitalize Haitian agriculture.
Moccene and many other young Haitian farmers are making a choice to stay in Papaye and rebuild the countryside in the only way they know how. And we believe their story is not only important but urgent, given the conditions that their country is in now, after the January earthquake.
We are telling you this because traveling to Haiti and spending a week reporting in Papaye with Moxcene, his family and neighbors is not cheap — so we increasingly rely on grants and the help of our own friends and neighbors to be able to produce these stories for the national and mainstream media.
Please consider supporting independent international journalism by making a donation or buying a print. Thanks so much for your support and for spreading the word!
http://fonografiacollective.com/support/
Coming up June 10, 2010: A Dialogue about Water and Human Rights
Dear friends:
On Thursday, June 10th, Bear and fellow photographer Robert Dawson will discuss their experience and work highlighting the connection between rivers, dams and human rights.
Bear’s photos from the communal lands of Cacahuatepec, in the Mexican state of Guerrero, will be featured in the exhibition (these images were first featured in Orion Magazine’s “Death Over Dams”, one of our first collaborations from 2007).
“Water, Rivers and People / Agua, Ríos y Pueblos: Images of the Global Effort to Defend Rivers and Human Rights” will be shown at the Hazel Wolf Gallery of the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California, until August 31st.
Please join us for the opening reception and panel discussion starting at 6:3o pm on June 10th. For more more information, directions, and to RSVP for this free event, please go here.
The Spread of SB 1070 Legislation
As it turns out, the movement that brought about the immigration enforcement legislation in Arizona, Senate Bill 1070, doesn’t want its efforts to stop there. Arizona is after all, a border state known for its long-running anti-immigrant sentiments.
As our friend, Seth Freed Wessler of Colorlines reports in this great essay, copy-cat bills in states like Utah, Colorado, Missouri, Ohio and Rhode Island, among others, are hoping to replicate laws which require police to demand identification and arrest anyone suspected of being undocumented.
“According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, FAIR has accepted more than $1 million in grants from the Pioneer Fund, which espouses a connection between race and intelligence and has supported eugenics projects for more than 70 years. In 2007, the Southern Poverty Law Center added FAIR to its list of organized hate groups because of FAIR and Tanton’s connections with white supremacist organizations and funders,” Seth writes.
Read the rest of his piece here.
Support Fonografia In One of Two Ways (Or Both!)
We continue to raise
tax-deductible funds for Fonografia Collective through our fiscal
sponsor, Homelands Productions — money we’re putting towards a follow-up reporting/documentary trip to Haiti this summer.
We want to reconnect with many Haitians we met and did stories about in 2008 — and we hope to tell their story as they recover from the earthquake.
Did you know you can contribute to our long-term commitment to Haiti specifically, and to international, independent, collaborative and compassionate journalism in more than one way?
You can also buy yourself an exhibition-quality print of Bear’s Haiti work for only $125 or $225 — including shipping and handling. And you can also connect to us on Facebook and continue spreading the word to friends and colleagues.
Thank you for your support!
“Agua, Rios y Pueblos” Exhibit in Barcelona and Mexico City
For anyone who happens to be in Barcelona or Mexico City during the month of May, we invite you to attend a great and informative photo exhibit dealing with water issues around the world.
Several of Bear’s photos from our story about the grassroots opposition to La Parota Dam (Mexico, 2006) are included. This exhibit was first presented at the 2008 World Expo in Zaragoza, Spain, and since then, it has been making its way around Europe, and will also soon be coming to the U.S.
In Barcelona, the exhibit will be at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona, and on May 4th there will be an opening ceremony and discussion. For more info, please visit http://www.aguariosypueblos.org/. And in Mexico City, the exhibit will be up at the Circuito La Milla, Primera Sección del Bosque de Chapultepec from April 13 – June 5, 2010.
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