shutter to think

Free the Hikers, A Curated Auction

Last month I received a personal call from Sarah Shourd, who was recently released from an Iranian prision, to donate prints to this fundraiser. They were detained over a year and half ago near an unmarked border in the Kurdistan area while on a hiking trip. The other two hikers are still in prison. Its going to be an incredible event of photography and art. Many of my colleagues and friends have donated work, as well as two of my own. I hope that if you are in San Francisco that you can come by SOMArts. They even selected to use one of my photos for the flyers! For more information about their story please visit: freethehikers.org

archive: in the company of strangers

Indonesians relax over coffee and snacks at Hotel Sadaap, in Tanjung Pinang, Bintan, with views of island of Penyengat.

i have spent some of the most incredible moments of my life in the company of strangers in places other then my home. and sometimes i experience these moments by myself. these discoveries have always enabled me to keep traveling. for most of my life. I say this because I didn't start traveling when I picked up the camera. I thank my parents for their encouragement to experience the world around me since i was a teenager.

often times these moments make me feel most alive; breathing and being. i admit, however, at times i feel guilty i don't feel or have those same enlightened moments when i'm back home. Or, it leaves me feeling helpless and defeated because i don't know how to help.

one of these moments happened to me when i was on the plane leaving phnom penh, cambodia to yogyakarta, indonesia, to cover the erupting Mt Merapi. there was a large group of young women, maybe even teenagers, 16-20 or so. i couldn't really tell. They sat together, like a soccer team, with new shoes and backpacks; new clothes and travel documents. They sat quietly until it was time to board. I saw a woman, perhaps Malayasian, as the country was our initial destination, who seemed to be in charge of the group. Upon boarding, i sat next to one of the girls. She seemed eager and chatty with her friends in the seats in front of her. Like getting on a roller coaster ride. She didn't know how to fasten her seatbelt, as it was her first time on the plane. I didnt' even recognize the Khmer language, so I assumed it could have been a dialect.

These young women did not speak English or Malaysian. I knew that they were off to work. Probably as maids. I wanted so bad to give her a card or a phone number, to give her emergency money, and to tell her if any thing happened to call me. But I didn't know how to communicate that to her. I worried about her fate even though I didn't know her true destination. I really wanted to just follow them...because this is a very important issue. Too often you hear stories about poor SE Asian women lured into promising jobs, when in reality, they are destined to work as slaves in modern times. I feared this, the unknown, for her and can only be left with hope that my worries are wrong.

my first roll ...

of my new camera. its here!!! I recently bought an amazing camera, im sooo thrilled about it. I felt like i was back in college eagerly awaiting my rolls of film to come out of the c-41 machine. here's my test shoot of my friend Valer.

archive: a dip in the bucket

Many people don't know this but I would love a 1961 2-door convertible Ford Falcon. Thats right. Specifically. One that runs well, and not a pimped out hot rod. The color would be blue. or white, but definitely not red. My first car was almost a mid-1970s bmw. it was orange. we saw it on Mission Blvd in Fremont, but my mother thought that the diesel gas it took was too impractical and worried that this cute little car would leave me stranded, out of gas, somewhere. So she bought me a 1983 mint green Honda Civic. For $100. It was the closest thing to a vintage automobile that i could get. and that was in 1993. damn. It didn't last long, after I blew the head gasket. ah well. I also have a thing for vintage motorcycles, but thats a story for another time.

Here's a portrait of a short, surreal moment. As I looked down into the viewfinder (hasselblad), I felt like I was taken back in time. It reminded me of my family pictures - my mother's side. The stoic, for the record, kind of portraiture. This is a quinceneara I photographed in Napa. Originally I was suppose to photograph a family that I had met prior but I couldn't find them. So this family let me photograph them.

and from the sidelines, they watched:

Toxic Tour - Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

Toxic Tour is an environmental investigative journalism project supported by the California Endowment. I'm excited to be collaborating with audio producer and reporter Jasmin Lopez, and several other outstanding journalists and community activist -- photo/multimedia Suzy Salazar, photographer Zackary Canepari, videographer/photographer Sandra Garcia, and non-profit director Lucia Torres

"Dissected by five major freeways and neighbor to several industries, the residents of Boyle Heights face significant amounts of noise, air, industrial and traffic pollutants every day.  As part of the award-winning “Toxic Tour” reporting project sponsored by Newsdesk.org and Spot.Us, this project will bring you coverage from this underreported community highlighting the detrimental effects caused by pollution and other harmful environmental health factors."

 

Please click on the link to read more about All Roads Lead to Boyle Heights and help support independent journalists bring these stories to light. Their issues and stories need to be shared so that it can stimulate change in policies. Please share this post or the Boyle Heights link.

My Year in Pictures 2010

Well here it is. I've been procrasting on posting my 2010 year in pictures because I've had such a hard time editing, but thanks to friend and photographer Kevin German who helped pretty much edited my selects from the year. And also because i've been absurdly obssesed with this particular song to go with the slideshow. For me, it sort of articulated the mood of this edit. I ended up having to cut it short, poor song, but in the end it really doesn't matter because its not about the song as it is about these pictures. Right? So if you are over it, go ahead and hit mute. Otherwise, the song is untitled, by an Icelandic band called Sigur Rós.

This is my second year working as a freelance photojournalist. It's been a year of tremendous growth in the way I photograph, what I look for, and opening my eyes up to see beyond the immediate. I especially thank my closest friends and mentors for the support and for pushing my vision. Without an agency, or a collective, or really even any proper marketing, I've managed to successfully obtain new clients, from assignment work to resales. While its great to have the support and annual get togethers, in my opinion, you don't have to be a part of a collective to make it as a photographer. You just need trusted friends, colleagues and mentors. And a home for your archive.

These 25 pictures are a cumulation of assigment and personal work. The resilency of these people i've met and photographed will always make me a stronger person. This year I continued my projects on addiction in Cambodia and Sharia law in Aceh. In Cambodia, I gained rare access to a drug detention center (or re-education center) that had been reported on for human rights abuses. I also had several incredible travel assignments from the NY Times, here in San Francisco, throughout wine country Northern California, Indonesia, and Cambodia. Foto8 featured a collaborative story on dam issues in the Mekong delta, and twice Slideluck Potshow DC selected two stories for their events.

My goal for 2011 is to refine the kind of photographer I want to be; telling stories about people and places affected by politics on a social level. I've always believed in the power of journalism, and the still image. I know that at the very least, it engages people into discussion. I prefer not to cover stories where there are dozens of photographers already there because other just-as-important stories go forgotten. And I don't have to travel (far) but I do, because these journeys have always been a part of my existence, since my first breath of life.

Archive: Community

In trying to find new ways to show whats in my archive, I typed in the word "community" to see what i had under that keyword. I discovered pictures from an Afghan engagement party in Fremont, California, and selected this image:

A recently engaged couple fill their plates with traditional Afghan food, at the Diamond Palace, in Fremont, Ca., on Saturday, March 7, 2009. I would never imagine this place being in California, in particular with the formality of the buffet room, and the isolation of the young couple serving themselves before the guests at their party.