Bar. 2nd Street. Trench Town, Kingston, Jamaica. January 7, 2011, 2:11 PM.
Bar. 2nd Street. Trench Town, Kingston, Jamaica. January 5, 2012, 2:42 PM.
Trench Town 2nd Street re-photograph
Yard in Trench Town
Princess Brown, in her yard
Trench Town, Kingston, Jamaica. January 6, 2012
Mackenro Jean in His Tent
Mackenro Jean in His Tent, Port Au Prince, Haiti. December 2011
Goudou Goudou – ‘earthquake’ in Haitian Creole, but colloquially being used as the name for the big earthquake that hit Haiti two years ago today. Mackenro is a college student, living near the Champs Mars district of Port Au Prince. He has been in this tent for almost two years. A 10 by 8 foot area, with enough possessions in it to fit into a small backpack. Mackenro is a communications student at the Episcopal University of Haiti (UNEPH), and studying documentary photography. To all my Haitian friends and those who choose to actively help with the recovery effort, to all those Haitian politicians and civil servants who are truly committed to bringing about change and building up democratic and civil infrastructure – I am thinking of you, and thank you for all you do. Here’s to Hope. (I hear echoes of ‘Yes We Can’ from the Obama campaign – but, Mr. President, as you face criticism for failing to realize that aspiration, please remind people of what happens when government is reduced to a level of being dysfunctional.)
Akee
Akee (Blighia sapida), Patrick Lee’s yard, Trench Town, Kingston, Jamaica.
January, 2012
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Gathering On Boxing Day
Kiran. Beach.
Sewanee, TN. December, 2011
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Jwaye Nowel
Dustfiti on a car, Port Au Prince, December 2011
Ville de Dieu – Landscape
Landscape at Ville de Dieu
Port Au Prince, Haiti. December 18, 2011
Ville De Dieu
Jean Saint Louis, Fisherman at Ville de Dieu, with his son.
Port Au Prince, Haiti. December 18, 2010
I am about to leave for PAP, and hope to see Jean Saint Louis once again, almost a year later to the day. His relaxed attitude belies the tension we were all feeling after hearing gunshots a couple of blocks away. As we headed out of the neighborhood, guided by Jean, we drove past a deserted street – its sole occupant a dead body, in a white shirt, dark pants and feet pointing our way. A gang killing. Like the sewage laden tidal back-flows on which much of the ‘ville’ teeters, darkness flows in, and then, after a momentary silence, back out.
I Photograph To Remember
Pedro Meyer’s touching and elegiac remembrance of his parents has been reissued in various digital versions, twenty years after its initial publication as a CD-ROM. “I Photograph To Remember” reminds me of John Berger’s precious collection of essays in ‘Hold Everything Dear’, where, in talking about his friend Juan Muñoz and poet Nazim Hikmet, he writes:
…finishing with: “A reel of scotch tape stirred by a draught from a window is sometimes enough to move mountains.”
Mr. Pedro Meyer, thank you for your reel of scotch tape and draught, all lovingly laid out in one swirl. And as always, thank you Mr. Berge for always reminding us of the magical brevity of photos.
