Voices Of Giving

Click here to view 5 stories of givers produced by Dana Romanoff.

Out Of The Box

When Guy Watson first started growing organic vege on Riverford farm he had three acres of land, a wheelbarrow, and a dream to put fresh produce on the family table at a price everyone could afford.

Mishoka's Story

Mishoka's Story is Part 4 in a 4-part series produced by duckrabbit for Condition Critical, a groundbreaking digital campaign by Medecins Sans Frontieres to raise awareness about the conflict in Eastern Congo.  Violent conflict has plagued this region for more than a decade. Hundreds of thousands of people are on the run, fleeing the violence in North Kivu, South Kivu and Orientale provinces. People are frightened. Many are sick or wounded. Others have been harassed or raped, or have had everything they own stolen. 

Migrating South: Snowbirds In Quartzsite

Every winter Quartzsite, Arizona, livens with activity thanks to over a million visitors. The otherwise barren and quiet town swells with people as it becomes a haven for snowbirds escaping the harsh winters of the north. Many call it Burning Man for the elderly.  Enjoy a visit to this unique destination produced by Ackerman Gruber Images.

Gimme Shelter

Along the Los Angeles River are invisible cities whose population centers do not figure on official maps. The river's littered banks have become a no-man's land for the homeless the hardcore junkies, the mentally ill and those just trying  to disappear. A dozen or so people live in tents and lean-tos under the  7th Street bridge in Long Beach, just one of the many invisible villages along the river.

Click here to view the audio slideshow "Gimme Shelter" produced for the Los Angeles Times by Marc Martin. Photography and audio by Francine Orr.

A Life Alone

Photographer and Producer Maisie Crow is a graduate student in the School of Visual Communication at Ohio University. She is currently living in New York City. You can view her multimedia essay on life alone after the death of a spouse here.

Friend Or Foe? In Afghanistan, The Picture Is Unclear

The region around Kandahar city in Afghanistan is the Taliban's birthplace and breeding ground. That makes it a key location in the U.S. military's security efforts. But "securing" a region in which you can hardly distinguish friend from foe is far easier said than done. NPR staff photographer David Gilkey just returned from the region, where he spent time with the 101st Airborne Division. Their mission is two-fold: chase out the Taliban and win the trust of locals...if they can.

Bellevue

The 30th Street Men´s Shelter, otherwise known as Bellevue, is New York City's largest homeless shelter. A combination of mentally ill, parolees, substance abusers and people simply down on their luck are all housed together in this shelter.

Produced by Eric Johnson and narrated by tenant Carl Foye, "Bellevue" gives the viewer an insiders perspective on what it feels like to live there and how he keeps a positive outlook on life.

Mongolian Racer

Here's a beautiful travel multimedia piece titled Mongolian Racer by The Guardian photographer Dan Chung, and narrated by Tania Branigan that I found on The Travel Photographer site.

The multimedia piece is on a horse trainer and his 10-year-old jockey who face the biggest day of their year at Mongolia's Naadam festival, which dates back to before Genghis Khan's time and celebrates the 'manly sports' of wrestling, archery and racing.

The Mongolian traditional festival of Naadam is also called in the local dialect as "the three games of men". These Mongolian wrestling, horse racing and archery. The festival is held throughout the country during the midsummer holidays, however the largest is in Ulaanbaatar.

For the techies, the piece was shot using Canon 1DmkIV, 5DMkII, 550D and GoPro HD camera, and a load of ancillary gear which is described in length in Dan Chung's blog DSLR News Shooter.

Johnnie Footman, New York City Cabbie

Johnnie Footman, 90, may be the oldest cab driver in New York City. With a cigar hanging from his mouth, a plastic spider around his neck, and a cap that reads "Old Dude made of Achey Breaky Parts," Johnnie still manages to make it to the shop five days a week.

Johnnie, also known as "Spider," started driving a taxi in 1945 after working in a garage with his uncle. He used to ride to work on his Harley (where his nickname hails from), and was notorious for picking up women. In his career he has managed to shuttle around a slew of characters including some of the most annoying customers, as well as celebrities, like Rock Hudson.

He rides to work in his Chevy Blazer with a Winnie the Pooh stuffed toy attached to the rear bumper. Although his age has limited him, he avoids highway driving and only works a day or two in the cab per week, he still remains young at heart.

The Dad Project

The photo essay below was produced by Briony Campbell who documented her father's battle with terminal illness. She introduces the slideshow with the following comments.

This is the story of an ending without an ending.  This is a work in progress and I hope it always will be.  This is my attempt to say goodbye to my Dad with the help of my camera.  Being a good daughter to my dying dad was tricky.  I struggled to find the balance between dedication to his needs and distraction from my grief.  At first the idea of introducing a camera into this already un-resolvable equation seemed unwise, but eventually I think it became the solution. 

You can view the entire series of images here.

A Diary Of Healing

Mary Ann Wasil Nilan is sitting in the rectory of Saint Ann Church when Father Tom walks in and her cell phone rings. She is waiting to hear results from the doctor regarding the biopsy of her left breast. The voice on the other end of the phone asks if she is driving, if she is alone, and if her family is with her. And then, very apologetically, the doctor gives her the news. Her left breast does indeed have cancer.  

Leathal Leather

Amy Johansson recently coproduced, with Gabrielle Jönsson, an audio slideshow titled Lethal Leather about the Bangladesh hide industry including its medieval conditions and the lethal toxic consequences on its workers.

The Sandwich Generation

Filmmaker-photographer couple Julie Winokur and Ed Kashi were busy pursuing their careers and raising two children when Winokur's 83-year-old father, Herbie, became too infirm to care for himself.

At that moment they joined some twenty million other Americans who make up the sandwich generation, those who find themselves responsible for the care of both their children and their aging parents.

Authors of the book "Aging in America: The Years Ahead," which chronicles the country's fastest-growing segment of the population, Winokur and Kashi decided to tell their own story as they took on the care of Winokur's father. In The Sandwich Generation, they have created an honest, intimate account of their own shifting and challenging responsibilities, as well as some of their unexpected joys.

Haiti Now And Everyday

Bruce Gilden's no newcomer to Haiti.  He'd made no fewer than 19 trips to the distressed Caribbean nation between 1984 and 1995, and he felt compelled to return following the catastrophic earthquake of January 12, 2010.  Although the Haitian capital of Port au Prince brought up familiar memories, Gilden found its architecture destroyed and its population wounded, distressed and displaced.  Yet, everywhere in the midst of destruction, among those who lost a limb, those who set up beds in the streets or in their cars at night, or those who built neat and colorful makeshift shacks from any kind of salvaged material, the Haitian people's ineffable spirit proves indestructible.

You can access Bruce's compelling slideshow here.

Behind The Veil

An intimate journey into the lives of Kandahar's women by the Toronto Globe and Mail.

Drawing The War

Drawing the War is Part 3 in a 4-part series produced by duckrabbit for Condition Critical, a groundbreaking digital campaign by Medecins Sans Frontieres to raise awareness about the conflict in Eastern Congo.  Violent conflict has plagued this region for more than a decade. Hundreds of thousands of people are on the run, fleeing the violence in North Kivu, South Kivu and Orientale provinces. People are frightened. Many are sick or wounded. Others have been harassed or raped, or have had everything they own stolen.

His Body A Prison

In the prime of his life, rendered a quadriplegic.  Photography and audio by Liz O. Baylen  for the Los Angeles Times.

The Rape Of A Nation

John le Carre is a photojournalist with VII and provides the following introduction for his video slideshow, "The Rape of a Nation."  

Congo is a continuing human tragedy. It is fourteen hundred and fifty tragedies every day. It is more than that if you include the orphaned, the bereaved, the widowed, and all the ripples of truncated lives that spread from a single death. It is you and me and our children and our parents, if we had had the bad luck to be born into the world these photos portray.

Left Behind

The following introduction to the photo essay Left Behind was written by Kerry Payne on the Burn Magazine website. 

In a small Australian town on June 12th 2001, my father, Myles Hilton Bean took his own life, aged 60. It was a decision I had no say in, but one which would alter me and the way I viewed the world forever. In the years that followed I encountered many social stigmas and outdated taboos associated with suicide. Whilst outwardly I functioned brilliantly, inwardly I was broken. I felt completely alone; haunted by emotions common in suicide bereavement — guilt, regret, anger, a sense of failure, shame, abandonment and utter confusion all hung in heavy layers over the expected feelings of grief and mourning.

Friends For Life

Warren DeWitt was a 76-year-old unmarried gentleman who lived alone. 90-year-old Arden Peters was struggling to care for his Alzheimer-stricken wife. When the two men met over breakfast at a local Wal-Mart one morning, they struck up a friendship that would ultimately ease the burden of old age for both of them.

Friends for Life is an excerpt of Aging in America: The Years Ahead, a groundbreaking, many-faceted film by multimedia innovators Ed Kashi and Julie Winokur. In it, they explore the various challenges faced by the fastest-growing segment of the American population. As Arden says, "When you get this old you don't look forward — you just live day to day."

Forgotten On The Roof Of The World

View a 5 minute trailer of the 28 minute multimedia documentary Forgotten on the Roof of the World. It tells the story of a little known tribe of Kirghiz nomads in one of earth's most remote regions, Afghanistan's High Pamirs mountains. Leading the viewer through this people's stories of struggle and survival, of opium addiction and infant mortality, French photographer Matthieu Paley and American anthropologist Ted Callahan narrate the film in word and image. Their documentation covers the tribe's unique barter trade with a small community in Pakistan as well as their routines and traditions, "at home" in Afghanistan. Beneath the surface, the documentary addresses one of humanities most elementary themes - Homeland - giving a global context to the story of a seemingly insignificant forgotten tribe. 

Metamorphosis

Click here to view a slideshow of photographs of Peggy Battin and her husband Brooke Hopkins set to narration by Battin describing how their lives have been changed by Hopkins' bicycling accident in November 2008. Battin has devoted her decades-long career to medical ethics, particularly end of life issues and the role people play in the ends of their own lives.

Bahati's Story

Bahati's Story is Part 2 in a 4-part series produced by duckrabbit for Condition Critical, a groundbreaking digital campaign by Medecins Sans Frontieres to raise awareness about the conflict in Eastern Congo.  Violent conflict has plagued this region for more than a decade. Hundreds of thousands of people are on the run, fleeing the violence in North Kivu, South Kivu and Orientale provinces. People are frightened. Many are sick or wounded. Others have been harassed or raped, or have had everything they own stolen.

Praying For The Rain

Praying For The Rain is duckrabbit’s award winning portrait of one of the many camps housing Kenyans displaced by 2008′s post election violence.

Seeing Alzeimers Differently

A photo essay on Alzheimer's produced by Cathy Greenblat and duckrabbit.

World Cup 2010

On the occasion of the World Cup coming to Africa for the first time, Magnum photographers take a look at soccer as a global game.

Days With My Father

I've had the privilege of spending the past week with my parents in my hometown of Victoria, BC.  I was especially grateful to be here today on the 4th of July to celebrate my father's 90th birthday.  Although his mind remains sharp, it's tough watching him deteriorate physically as he no longer can hear well enough to engage in family banter and finds it very difficult to ambulate without aid.

Phillip Toledano explored  the concept of watching someone you love slowly fade in his thought provoking photographic essay Days With My  Father.  

Happy Birthday Dad.

Living With Cerebral Palsy

Christopher Capozziello is a freelance photographer from Hamden, Connecticut. His work focuses on documenting both life around him, and stories that are outside of his own experiences. He believes that there is a redemptive quality to photography; that it can take the unpleasant or repulsive and make it beautiful, not by misleading anyone, but by allowing the viewer to stop and take a deeper look at the subject. As a photojournalist, his method of making pictures is not something new or incredibly deep – it is, simply, to tell the truth.  Christopher introduces Living With Cerebral Palsy with the following narrative.

In most cases, photojournalists are encouraged to use their cameras to explore experiences outside of their own life, in order to understand the world around them. This body of work is really different for me, in that I used my camera as a tool to investigate issues in my own life, as I started to make pictures of my brother Nick. Over the course of years, one image lead to another, and they became a way for me to really process and deal with the realities of having a twin live with cerebral palsy, while I lead a rather normal life. As my brother’s story has changed, and grown, and developed, so have my pictures of him. Looking through my camera has brought me a step back, enabling me to really watch and listen, to learn and perhaps have a better grasp on what is happening in his life. The suffering he has experienced has raised all sorts of questions for me. The question we are most prone to ask when hardship strikes – why me? – makes no sense. That question presupposes that pain, disease, and death are distributed according to moral merit. They are not.  

Through Positive Eyes

Through Positive Eyes gives photographic voice to people living with HIV in major cities around the world. It is based on the belief that HIV-positive people should pick up their own cameras and make their own artistic statements. In doing so, they create powerful tools for combating stigma, which is one of the most formidable barriers in reducing the spread of AIDS today.

Francoise's Story

Francoise's Story is Part 1 in a 4-part series produced by duckrabbit for Condition Critical, a groundbreaking digital campaign by Medecins Sans Frontieres to raise awareness about the conflict in Eastern Congo.  Violent conflict has plagued this region for more than a decade. Hundreds of thousands of people are on the run, fleeing the violence in North Kivu, South Kivu and Orientale provinces. People are frightened. Many are sick or wounded. Others have been harassed or raped, or have had everything they own stolen.