Horses + Field, Countryside, Cuba, 2015

The past three days have been spent scanning the 600 or so rolls of film from last summer. During our last two weeks we ventured more so into the countryside, slept where we could and woke up early each day to catch the morning light.

Beautiful scenes such as this were everywhere, as the island is a truly magnificent place. This year my hope is to explore much more of the countryside, and document this life before the tourists leave their collective mark. Of course few tourists visit such spaces, remaining more so in the capital and on the beaches of Varadero. Nonetheless change is inevitable, and the lure of the countryside has grown over the past year or so.

The excitement is already building for this summer. My trusted friend and driver, Alejandro, will be invaluable for this experience. We will hopefully have access to his knowledge and 1954 Chevrolet, going from one village to another for a few weeks. Hoping for the best, and knowing that at least the families will be waiting for us!

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Note: This image was made with a Hasselblad 555 ELD/180 mm combination.

Young Student + Madrasa, Shamli District, India, 2016

As a follow-up to the previous post her portrait is presented. This young girl attends classes in the madrasa we visited on our first afternoon in this region of India.Thanks to wonderful happenstance we were able to make something of our afternoon and do something fun with the students present during our visit.

Rather than remain shy and thank our hosts for the visit, it seemed natural to meet the curiosity of the children with our own, and to do something completely different.

When this young girl came to school that day, was she thinking that a foreigner was going to visit her school and make her portrait? What did she think when we arrived and walked into her classroom? Did she ever think the stranger would have the courage to abandon social protocol and ask outright to photograph her and her friends?

These thoughts drove me to ask, and her expression says it all for me. They were both excited and nervous, shy yet confident. We found a light wall within the compound and photographed each girl on her own.

My interpretation was that they were both in disbelief and overjoyed at the opportunity to express themselves, both to the camera and to the outside world. It was the highest honor for me to do so, and to have been entrusted with their portraits. The work after all is for them, and their sisters in other parts of the world. They are the highest forms of beauty and love for me, and my only hope is that my portraits will somehow convey this to the viewers.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Young Student + Madrasa, Shamli District, Uttar Pradesh, India, 2016

Continuing the series from this region of India, this student's portrait is presented. Thanks to our generous hosts Imdadullah Nadvi Nadvi andMunshad Ali Chauhan, we were able to spend a week in this troubled region of India and make portraits of the most exquisite children. 

This school happens to be the school of their bestfriend in another village, a school built by their friend for the children of his village. He has started off with the traditional madrasa, and has expressed to us his desire to do much more. As a result of this expression and the desire on our behalf to also do something, we have started the conversation regarding an interfaith collaboration.

Soon we hope this young girl will have access to a full education, in addition to her traditional training. Her portrait was made in a beautiful room on the second floor of the school. The only light coming in was from the doorway, and the floor was covered with wheat. She was different than the others in that she held her hands up against her chest, rather than to her side. Her expression is etched in my mind, and moves me to fulfill my end of the conversation from this past month.

The view from the roof of this building is hard to match, overlooking endless wheat fields in every direction. The place is beyond my ability to describe adequately, and upon seeing it for the very first time I knew this was a place I needed to be. Next year when we do return we will return with a plan, and the funds to help that plan come to fruition. I can feel it in my bones, as real to me as her image is to all of you.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Young Student + Nirvanavan Foundation, Alwar, Rajasthan, India, 2016

This entry was from my last full day in India, on April 7 of 2016.

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Tomorrow is my last full day in India, and will be spent with the wonderful people at Nirvanavan Foundation. Nirvana thought it appropriate to display a few of the photographs from this past two months at Advaita Garden, the main campus, and I obliged by having a dozen or so images printed and laminated locally.

We met earlier today to discuss the schools in Virat Nagar, and made great progress regarding our plan for the next 12 months. We had lunch at the school and then headed into town to have the photographs finished.

This young girl happens to be one of the students from Advaita Garden. She and her family live about a minute's walk from the school. She attends classes along with her younger brother and sister. Her family has over the past eight weeks embraced me without reservation, allowing me to photograph her on several occasions, even before she prepared for classes.

She is quite shy person to person, but get her in front of the school body and she runs to center stage and performs without barriers, with the strongest of voices and amazing enthusiasm.

I have been blessed to have been able to also document her performances, as well as document her preparations for school one morning. To see her getting ready, as she had her breakfast and chatted with her grandparents over a cup of tea, was a most heartwarming experience. This is the fortune of having such an opportunity, and the least I can do is to return such with my support for her school.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3, and will be on display tomorrow as the children arrive for classes. I cannot wait to see the expression on her face as she sees her own portrait on the wall!

Young Student, Village near Kairana, Uttar Pradesh, India, 2016

Last week I had the honor of visiting a few villages and documenting the students in various schools, thanks to our hosts Imdadullah and Munshad Ali Chauhan. The week ended with a visit by Nirvanaand his wonderful team at Nirvanavan Foundation.

We visited an area from three years ago, an area affected deeply by the riots of Muzaffarnagar, in which hundreds of thousands of Hindus and Muslims were displaced and harmed beyond description. When Nirvana learned about my plan to visit the area this year, he asked if his team could also visit... perhaps exploring the idea of an inter-faith collaboration.

The visit was so much better than expected. Our hosts of course went well out of their way for us, as expected from my previous visits. However the community embraced the thought of an inter-faith collaboration beautifully, especially the children who watched and listened as Nirvana and his team spoke. It was an enlightening experience and one which has energized me to reach out to the American Muslim community upon my return to the States this weekend.

This young girl attends the government school in our hosts' village. Her school day begins at the mosque, where her classes include Arabic and Islamic courses. Shortly after she and her classmates walk to the government school building where her other classes begin.

We made her portrait in an unused classroom, using a reflector held by my dear friend Javed. Thanks to Imdadullah and Mushad, the leaders of this community, we were able to make this image, otherwise an impossible one to make.

I hope to honor their cooperation, and the spirit of this young girl soon with my efforts to find funding for their schools. The venture is a promising one to write the least, especially in this deeply fractured spot of India.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3 using a reflector.

Young Student + Madrasa, Shamli District, Uttar Pradesh, India, 2016

Early one morning a week or so ago we walked to the madrasa of our host's village. We arrived early enough to see a few students just getting ready for their lessons, and spoke with a few men gathered for prayer in the same location.

The mosque itself was quite beautiful, but was less than ideal for our photography. We looked outside and found the most beautiful yellow wall, as well as a gorgeous landscape to use. So we arranged to photograph the boys first, and then the girls.

This young boy was one of the first to be photographed due to his lightly colored eyes. He was fabulous and had a sweet smile. The crowd gathered quickly, and we did our best to help make the children feel at home while being photographed by the first time by me.

He however had little problem feeling at home, and smiled beautifully. The color of his eyes intensified with direct sunlight, and when he smiled even more so. We photographed the boys for perhaps a half an hour before beginning with the girls.

Later in the week Nirvana and his team from Alwar visited this exact village, and three of the schools in the area. The community embraced us with the enthusiasm of this young boy, and my hope is that this time next year an interfaith collaboration will have begun in this area.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Horses + Field, Countryside, Cuba, 2015

The past three days have been spent scanning the 600 or so rolls of film from last summer. During our last two weeks we ventured more so into the countryside, slept where we could and woke up early each day to catch the morning light.

Beautiful scenes such as this were everywhere, as the island is a truly magnificent place. This year my hope is to explore much more of the countryside, and document this life before the tourists leave their collective mark. Of course few tourists visit such spaces, remaining more so in the capital and on the beaches of Varadero. Nonetheless change is inevitable, and the lure of the countryside has grown over the past year or so.

The excitement is already building for this summer. My trusted friend and driver, Alejandro, will be invaluable for this experience. We will hopefully have access to his knowledge and 1954 Chevrolet, going from one village to another for a few weeks. Hoping for the best, and knowing that at least the families will be waiting for us!

Website

Tumblr

Twitter

Facebook

Note: This image was made with a Hasselblad 555 ELD/180 mm combination.

Student + Madrasa, Near Kairana, Uttar Pradesh, India, 2016

The past two months have been a truly enlightening experience for me in India. As in the past ten years, each visit resulted in countless opportunities to make portraits and in as many chances to learn something new.

There were a few highlights this year, including my visit to Uttar Pradesh. In 2013 I had the honor of visiting this area and documenting the numerous refugee camps resulting from the Muzaffarnagar riots earlier in that same year. Our hosts for that visit were so memorable that visits were made every year since.

Their hospitality is without equal, allowing us to stay at their home and treating us like dignitaries the entire time. We are never allowed to lift a finger, from preparing our meals to getting ready for the day. With these incredible men by our side, we are allowed access to the madrases of the region, to the mosques of the villages and to the government schools as well.

This was the case with this beautiful student, and her school. The founder of this school is a friend of our hosts, and quickly became one of my best friends in India. The value that he placed on education was truly exceptional, and he spoke with actions rather than with words. Seeing that his village lacked a good school for the children, he built a beautiful one on his own land and began classes on his own dime.

When we met, he shared his desire to transform his 'simple' madrasa into a formal school for the village's children. He wanted to include Hindi, English, the sciences as well as the arts. This impressed me deeply then, and stayed on my mind until this year's visit.

Speaking with Nirvana earlier this visit turned into a group visit to the area. The possibility of an inter-faith collaboration was discussed, and the enthusiasm grew on all sides. Our visit was embraced by all parties, from the students to the Islamic scholars to the teachers and to the community.

Her portrait was the result of our visit to the same school three years after my first visit. The trust that the leader of the school had in us allowed this portrait to be made. Rather than treating the girls as invisible, he treats the girls as equals and understands our need to photograph them as we photograph the boys.

Such an image can only be produced with gentle persuasion, and kind understanding. This is the case with our host from this school, and has convinced me that we do indeed need to do something here. Soon we will begin our drive to raise funding for this school and our project in the area and hope that those on all sides will be interested.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3 with available light.

Sisters + Puppy, Nirvanavan Foundation, Rajasthan, India, 2016

As we finished our photography on this day last week, the sister to the left kept trying to inject this puppy into the photography. She would scatter with the doll to a girl in front of the camera and try to place it into her hands. Then she would run back, giggling all the way.

So when we finished for the morning, I walked over with the doll and placed it into her hands... then walked back with her and her sister for this portrait. She was so shy last year, a little less so this year. Her sister to the right is much less shy this year, an amazing difference in person.

So here they are, two of our students from Virat Nagar, our school having been adopted by Nirvanaand his team at Nirvanavan Foundation. It's a simple image, yet speaks volumes about why this work is so important to me and so many of you here on FB!

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Young Migrant, Humana India, Panipat, Haryana, India, 2016

Sometimes it's easier for me to stay in one place photographically, to make portraits of familiar faces, for one never knows what the next day/village holds. Then we travel to another state and find the people to be just as beautiful and incredible.

This happened yesterday when it was cloudy in Delhi. Instead of spending the night in the city, we decided to travel to Panipat and explore a new project by Humana India. My dear friend Kamal was heading this project and we were guided to our first destination by Sunil.

Because this morning was a holiday we visited one slum without a school set up at this time. A survey had been done and a school is planned in the very near future. We arrived to see many children playing in the street, but were also a bit cautious since we had little in terms of a social connection.

After about 15 minutes of talking, as the sun was getting stronger and stronger, it seemed more necessary for me to help my friends and walk into the narrow alleys immediately. Prudent action along with a smile has worked over and over again for my photography. The community was very pleasant, and to the surprise of my friends almost all of the children were awake.

This came as no surprise to me since the children of these migrant families wake up much earlier than most of my comrades in the foundation. The girls were eager to see what was happening, and the adults were very kind in their reactions.

Even though we'd be in the open, we decided to work in the open street since we had access to sunshine. My trust in the community was more than rewarded when the people helped with their support, both in keeping the children organized and in helping them feel comfortable.

This young girl was one of the first to be photographed, as my eyes were attracted to her eyes and pink coat immediately. She was a remarkable, young girl... had composure throughout the few minutes she was in front of the camera and also allowed us to reposition her hood several times. Her expression was remarkable, especially when we think of the number of people standing in front of her (perhaps 40 or so).

After our work my friend Amanpreet made the right decision and accepted the communities invitation to have tea. Engaging the community rather than getting into the car always helps the people understand our work more so, and gives them the true perception that we are there to help tell their stories.

We talked for perhaps an hour more, got into the car and left with all of the children waving... as well as smiles on most of the adults. It was a sweet morning, and a good start for our work in Panipat, Haryana.

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Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.