Blog

São Paulo Favelas, Brazil

São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, and the world’s 7th with almost 20 million people, is also home to some of the largest slums in Latin America. Brazil’s favelas are everything you imagine an urban slum to be: overcrowded, unsanitary, and run by crime. Of course, wherever crime and poverty rule, it is always the vulnerable who suffer the most, and the favelas of Brazil are no exception. The children who are raised in the favelas generally miss out on the basics in every sense of the word. Malnutrition means health problems, lack of income means no education, which of course means these children are extremely vulnerable to being preyed on by the drug traffickers and pimps that rule the favelas. The implications are obvious.

I was lucky enough to be able to visit a couple of the larger favelas in Sao Paulo with my continuing work with Iris Ministries. Access has been granted to the favelas because of the fantastic work Iris are doing to help the children and families that live there. From feeding programs to children’s parties, drop-in centres for youth to helping families find places to live, Iris Ministries are changing one life at a time by loving them in very practical ways.

My time in the favelas was like nothing I have seen before, and meeting the people that call these concrete jungles home was humbling. I was limited as to when and where I could photograph for security reasons, but I still managed to capture the heart of the work being done there, as well as some of the beautiful people that I met.

Jan 24, 2012 | Categories: Humanitarian, Photography | Tags: Brazil, children, favela, Iris Ministries, Sao Paulo, slum, travel | Leave A Comment »

Rabari – Encounters With The Nomadic Tribe

Mitchell Kanashkevich‘s travel and documentary images have long been a source of inspiration to me. The Sydney-based photographer has an incredible ability to create images of people and cultures that make you feel like you know them personally. Rabari is Mitchell’s latest ebook (and the first of what will hopefully be many ebooks published by Light Stalking), which documents the nomadic Rabari people of rural India. This personal project of his was what he refers to as “the first thing that really put me on the map as a photographer.” Although he produced this work before he was ever really “on the map”, the strength of the photographs, and his approach to his craft, show why he has become a well-known name in the heavily congested world of travel photography.

This ebook is a fantastic combination of beautiful images and very insightful and detailed background information. He starts with some general background information about the project, where the idea came from, and where it has taken him since. He also begins with some invaluable practical considerations with regard to shooting in a foreign country/culture, eg. transportation, guides, translators, etc. Mitchell includes a list of all the gear he used for this project (which, like my own travel setup, was very minimal), his perspectives on gear, and a brief overview of his workflow and backup system.

The main body is comprised of ten full-page images, each with detailed background information about his vision for the image and the process of creating it. The full-page image includes technical data (aperture, shutter-speed, ISO, and focal length) and in the following pages Mitchell details everything from the background and vision for the image to the lighting (including lighting diagrams), posing, and composition. He also discusses the biggest challenge he found in creating the image, and how he overcame that challenge. Finally, you can see before and after versions of his post-processing workflow and a step-by-step breakdown of adjustments made in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.

This ebook is an invaluable wealth of knowledge and insight for any photographer, especially those wanting to engage in travel or cultural photography. Mitchell has generously shared so much of not only his skill and knowledge, but also his passion, heart, and vision. This is undoubtedly one of the most valuable educational photography tutorials I have come across so far. I look forward to seeing what Mitchell and Light Stalking come up with in the future.

You can go straight to LightStalking.com and buy Rabari – Encounters With The Nomadic Tribe here. Get $5 off until Christmas Day.

Dec 19, 2011 | Categories: Book, Product Review | Tags: ebook, education, Light Stalking, Mitchell Kanashkevich, photography, travel | 2 Comments »

December 2011 Desktop Wallpaper

I had about a week of downtime in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil following my time with Iris Ministries Brazil in Sao Paulo and Nova Friburgo, so I was dragged from one tourist location to another by our local friends there whether I wanted to or not. I was quickly reminded how frustrating it can be to be forced to try and be creative in less than ideal circumstances. Bad light, limited time, and hundreds of tourists aren’t a recipe for great travel photographs. I was taken up to Pao de Queijo (Sugar Loaf Mountain), which I must admit was spectacular, and had to stall as long a humanly possible for the sun to drop down in the sky a little to get this cityscape. Any decent travel photo of Rio wouldn’t be complete without the Cristo Redentor (Christ The Redeemeer). Links for desktop and iPad are below.

Free Desktop Wallpaper
Free iPad Wallpaper

Dec 01, 2011 | Categories: Brazil, Latin America, Travel, Wallpaper | Tags: background, Brazil, cityscape, photo, Rio de Janeiro, travel | Leave A Comment »

Iris Ministries, Pemba, Mozambique

For 16 years, Heidi and Rolland Baker have been rescuing children off the streets of Mozambique and giving them a life they would never have had otherwise. Under Iris Ministries, they house, feed, and love these children in a way I have rarely seen elsewhere. I had the privilege of spending ten weeks with the children in the base in Pemba, and was constantly thrown by the striking contrast between the brutal poverty and stunning beauty of the small city.

Nov 14, 2011 | Categories: Humanitarian | Tags: Africa, children, Mozambique, orphanage, photography, poverty, travel, tribal, village | 2 Comments »

Children’s Day, Mozambique

In Mozambique, one of the world’s five poorest countries, Children’s Day is one of the biggest events of the year. It’s bigger than Christmas. It seems ironic that children would be celebrated this way given the heartbreaking poverty and abuse that they are so often subjected to in this African nation. Decades of poverty, civil war and some of the worst natural disasters the world has ever seen guarantee that many of Mozambique’s children are raised by the streets due to being orphaned or abandoned. Most of them find ways of surviving as only the desperate know how, but a few of the lucky ones are rescued from this cruel existence by an organisation called Iris Ministries. Founded by Heidi and Rolland Baker about 16 years ago, Iris Ministries rescue and care for thousands of children, giving them love and hope and a future.

On Children’s Day, the children of Iris Ministries’ base in Pemba celebrate the only way Mozambicans know how: with chicken! They not only feed all the children that live in the children’s centre, they also feed all the local children from the village surrounding the base. All 4500 of them! This is an undertaking that you can’t even begin to imagine. The chaos is something I have never seen anywhere in my travels. Apart from a few hairy moments while handing out bottles of water to the crowds of children waiting in the sun to be fed, the event was remarkably painless. Fortunately for me, they love the camera, which makes my job a lot easier.