Sheila Johnson

Here and There

2012-02-02T00:35:00.000-08:00

In Praise of Good Neighbors

2012-01-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

A month or so ago when I asked my neighbor in Berkeley, Dave Warren, about bread baking advice, he not only organized a hands-on lesson in his kitchen, but sent me back with a precious jar of sourdough starter to smuggle onto my flight back to Spain. The jar, I must say, got not just a little bit of neglect upon our arrival to Barcelona and then to Fernando's village, before we made it home to Pamplona a week after leaving California. After all, we had a jet-lagged baby to deal with, and visits to friends and family, and lots and lots of unpacking to do.
Once I finally got to that little jar I hoped and prayed and begged the universe with each feeding to revive it, and that I hadn't completely killed Dave's wonderful gift and good intentions. And so last night, after watching it grow little by little, I decided to take the plunge and bake a loaf. I followed Dave's careful instructions as best as I could. I didn't have the right pan or half the things that are helpful for a baker to have on hand, but the loaf came out. Not perfect, but quite tasty. I think it's been a good beginning.

New Times, Spain

2012-01-13T08:25:00.000-08:00

San Francisco Academy of Sciences

2011-09-27T19:20:00.001-07:00

Zola and Julen

2011-09-27T17:31:00.000-07:00

River

2011-09-09T12:42:00.001-07:00

Fernando and I are making a list of the things we love and don't love about living in Spain and another for the U.S., with the hope that someday it will be clear where we want to settle. There are so many amazing things about both places, but I would have to say that NATURE is way at the top for me, and how accessible it is to us where we live in Spain. This river spot near Fernando's village, bordering Catalonia, is one of my favorite places in the whole wide world. Hands down.

Crossing

2011-06-30T05:04:00.000-07:00

Ritual/Offering

2011-06-30T04:31:00.000-07:00

Seeing Red

2011-06-20T03:44:00.000-07:00

From the Family Album: Almost Summer

2011-05-31T03:34:00.000-07:00

Inspiration, Centre D'Art i Natura de Farrera, Catalunya

2011-05-03T02:11:00.000-07:00

Inside/Outside, Centre D'Art i Natura de Farrera, Catalunya

2011-05-03T02:02:00.000-07:00

Cesc, Farrera, Catalunya, Spain

2011-05-02T03:56:00.000-07:00

Yellow and Blue

2011-03-07T04:22:00.000-08:00

Andrea and Julen and a little window light...

Winter light

2011-01-28T09:01:00.000-08:00

Christmas Dinner Skeptic

2011-01-02T03:36:00.000-08:00

My neighbor's sheep

2010-12-07T02:55:00.000-08:00

All that color

2010-11-08T00:44:00.000-08:00

(An ode to Katie Barnes)

These (magic) moments

2010-09-12T02:58:00.000-07:00

What is this life like right now?....
Lately, I am totally wrapped up in the experience of mothering my 4 month old son, Julen. Our culture, I am finding, is abound with cliches about babies... they really are just too cute. But I can't help but think that underneath all of these consumeristic images that are out there lies a deeper, quieter reality, the one that we live everyday, in slow time- because that's what being with a baby is really all about.
This last week my partner has been out of town, far away. It can be a total torture, as you may know, to be out of the loop when you've got such a young child. A lot can happen in just a short period of time, and so I committed to sending him a picture each day that would show something about Julen. In just a few days, 2 teeth have emerged, and our young boy is reaching for the world with total curiosity, wanting to touch, see, taste everything. I spent a lot of time this week just being with and holding, but in between I was able to step back and see these other moments happening in our babe's life, and these are just a few examples of that quiet space that finds its way amongst the chaos of early parenting. Sometimes I want to stop time, so in love with right now that I am.

Let joy be unconfined...

2010-09-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

Bizkaia

2010-07-23T03:23:00.000-07:00

Captured!

2010-07-10T04:04:00.001-07:00

Lakabe Commune: Fiesta de San Juan

2010-07-10T03:43:00.000-07:00

The bond of brothers

2010-06-30T04:00:00.001-07:00

Julen Kai

2010-05-12T08:58:00.001-07:00

Our magical baby boy, Julen Kai Albiac Johnson.... total sweetness.

First Light

2010-05-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

7:30 A.M April 24th., after a beautiful birth at home. Julen arrived just as the sun was coming up.

What I've been doing........

2010-04-12T01:07:00.001-07:00

San Juan de Gaztelugatxe

2009-12-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

This tiny island off the Basque coast has a 10th century hermitage on top, reached by a breathtaking hand made stone bridge that rivals China's Great Wall. Remote and sublime...... what I love most about living in Spain.

Cosmic Connection

2009-09-27T04:04:00.000-07:00

Nostalgia

2009-09-17T03:41:00.000-07:00

I spent last weekend in my partner Fernando's village (Maella,Spain, population 2,000).... where timeless pastimes still flourish.
(*The bottom photo was taken by my 10-year-old niece Andrea of her grandmother talking with the neighbor.... I love the moment it captures, and only damn the lens flare.)

Around Here

2009-07-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

Twilight

2009-07-05T04:19:00.000-07:00

Shout Out

2009-04-15T07:05:00.001-07:00

*****LISA ENXING*****
lisaenxing.com

My dear friend Lisa has been working hard on her website... amazing paintings and photos
(by the way... this is a poloroid of Zola that Lisa took when he was 7 or so... I miss my boy!!!!!)

Luz

2009-03-30T01:42:00.000-07:00

Outtake/ Outtake

2009-02-06T03:03:00.000-08:00

What do we do with all of those random moments that don't mean anything to anyone but us?

The view from here

2009-02-02T00:49:00.000-08:00

I Heart Columbia

2009-01-22T07:53:00.000-08:00

I never thought that I'd say it, but it's true- I'm missing Columbia, Missouri like crazy! Feeling nostalgic for the good old days, I've been going through some work from the last year and came across this one from my First Ward "In Our Neighborhood" project that I did for David Rees's Picture Story class. (PS- Amanda Lucier did a retone of this image and she made it really pop. Thanks, Amanda!)

14-year-old MaKayla reaches for her baby cousin Justice while her godmother Taz works on her hair.

The Joy of Family

2009-01-04T06:49:00.000-08:00

This time of year always feels quiet and simple in its way, and my favorite thing to do at New Year's is to be somewhere in nature.
Fernando's brother and family came to visit us for a few days and we were blessed with a beautiful sunny day at the beach in San Sebastian- a happy relief from what has been a very drizzly winter here.

Blind

2008-11-07T02:05:00.000-08:00

These last few weeks since arriving in Spain I haven't had time to take pictures, or even edit my work from my project. I'm really missing being totally absorbed in photography! For now I'll have to post some of the images that stand out in my mind. Here's one that I took just a day before leaving Nepal that I feel captures something about the extreme circumstances of poverty in many peoples' lives there...

A blind woman on the road near Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu. With social welfare assistance nearly nonexistent in Nepal, disabled persons are often left with little or no choice but to beg in order to survive.

Regard this life...

2008-10-24T07:10:00.000-07:00

A New Dawn

2008-10-22T02:33:00.001-07:00

It seems too good to be true! This is my first "shot" in Spain, taken from our bedroom window at our new house in Aranguren, when I woke up the morning after I arrived last Thursday. Only a 10 minute car ride away from Pamplona, we're living in the middle of a valley where the only thing you see is farm land. After being in polluted Kathmandu for the last 3 months, where even a short walk to the grocery store involved the risk of getting run down by murderous traffic, I feel like I'm in heaven....

Namaste Nepal

2008-10-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

My time in Kathmandu is coming to a close, and I'll be heading to Spain tomorrow to start a new adventure. I've spent the last few weeks photographing like crazy, and the editing will take me forever (plus I've run out of memory on my computer, and need to spend hours "backing up" before I can do anything else.) Here's a sample of the most recent work from the last few days in and around Shanti Sewa Griha.

Asha again....

2008-10-13T22:52:00.001-07:00

Of all of the people that I met and photographed at Shanti Sewa Griha, 10 year old Asha touched me the most. Deaf and blind, she is also likely retarded from the neglect and malnutrition that she suffered before she was left on Shanti's doorstep 4 years ago. Like so many of Nepal's severely disabled children, her diagnosis has not been clearly determined. She remains isolated, even while the community of Shanti includes her to the best of its potential. With little resources to provide the kind of full-time care that she needs, she is often left alone.

Killing Dinner

2008-10-13T22:44:00.000-07:00

Shanti's cook, Gyan Bahadur, prepared 20 chickens for a feast on the last night of Dashain. The prohibitive cost of meat leaves many of Nepal's poor to subsist on a vegetarian diet, and meat is only eaten on special occasions.

Shanti Dancers

2008-10-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

Students at Shanti Sewa Griha's eco village gave a performance of traditional Nepali dances to kick off the Dashain holiday. I took this one while the girls were waiting for their call to go on stage.

Mijar Family

2008-10-06T00:50:00.000-07:00

Makhmali Mijar and four of her five children came to live at Shanti Sewa Griha about 5 years ago. The kids- Santos,16; Sangita, 14; Sanju, 10; and Surez, 5 all have Xeroderma, a genetic skin disorder that causes freckling and puts them at a high risk for developing skin cancer.
The Mijars are one of the families that I plan to focus on more intensely for this project, as they are dealing so much with the compounded issues of poverty that effect so many families in Nepal.
This was my first day photographing them- there was a lot of chaos, people coming in and out of the room... a typical day at Shanti. These are 2 of the portraits that I liked.

Surez

2008-10-06T00:26:00.000-07:00

It's hard to calm this boy down, and his demand to be photographed is pretty high!

I don't think that this quite works... but am posting it anyway just to get a feel for the process of photographing.... I'm definitely meeting my challenges in terms of finding that everyone thinks that they should pose for the camera. This is exacerbated even more by the immediacy of digital (as all of the kids especially want to see the back of the camera as soon as the shutter's clicked.)
Wanting to be a little more invisible and just present for everyday life... I think it's a hard thing to communicate, even when you speak the same language, but in this case I don't have words to express what I'm trying to do...

Sanju

2008-10-06T00:09:00.000-07:00

Sangita and Asmita

2008-10-05T22:59:00.000-07:00

Sangita Mijar, 14, and Asmita Thapa, 17, are like teenagers anywhere- they are concerned with having friends, being fashionable, and keeping connected by cell phone to an expanding world that they hope will accept and include them.

Both girls are dealing with the realities of having disabilities that impact their lives. Sangita, like her siblings, has xeroderma, an autosomal recessive genetic disorder of DNA repair in which the ability to repair damage caused by ultraviolet light is deficient. The skin is severely freckled, and the vulnerability to skin cancer is dangerously heightened.
Asmita has trouble walking (I'm not sure if it's musculur dystrophy or something else.) She lives at Shanti and works in their workshop sewing.

Asha in her own world

2008-10-05T22:04:00.001-07:00

I keep finding myself drawn to Asha.. trying to imagine what it must be like to be both deaf and blind- aware of energies and sensations, but with a very different experience of reality than the one most of us share.

Family Visit

2008-10-05T22:02:00.001-07:00

It is holiday season here in Nepal- complete with the requisite visits from family. Bimala Devi's granddaughters came by to bring her gifts and braid her hair. It was nice to see her getting some well deserved love and attention.

Affordable Health Care

2008-10-05T21:59:00.001-07:00

Serving one of the poorest communities in Kathmandu, the pharmacy at Shanti Sewa Griha makes sure that everyone can get the medicine that they need. For 50 rupis (less than a U.S. dollar) patients get a ticket that they can exchange for their prescription from Shanti's free clinic. While this may sound like the work of a socialist utopia, it is no thanks to the Nepali government- a German NGO donates the medicines.

Ajit

2008-10-04T00:23:00.000-07:00

Waiting....

2008-10-03T23:15:00.000-07:00

Payday

2008-10-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

Employees of Shanti Sewa Griha gathered outside the pharmacy window there to get paid on Friday, October 3. Workers received an additional bonus for Dashain, one of the most important Nepali holidays of the year, which started this week.
While many signed for their wages, others opted to ink their thumb. The literacy rate in Nepal is one of the worst in the world. While things are improving somewhat, there is still a strong discrepancy between men and women. In 2000, the overall literacy was 55% for adult males, but only 22% for adult females.

Asha

2008-10-01T01:19:00.001-07:00

Shanti Sewa Griha accepts everyone... even the 'hopeless' cases.
Asha was literally left on their doorstep 4 years ago. She is deaf and blind, and though she seems to have other disabilities, no one knows for certain what they are. With only one children's hospital in all of Nepal, these kinds of kids get forgotten about- there are simply too many to help.
Asha means "Hope"- the name that Shanti gave her. She relates through touch, and can seem simultaneously in a far-away dream world, a state of sadness, pain, or some other complex emotion, and a state of hungry need for affection. She seems to have the development of an infant, though I'll have to ask Krishna to tell me more to know for sure Asha's situation. I was told that she's 10 years old.
Asha came to visit in Prem Thapa's room as he was getting his catheter changed. As she came near, he held her while the procedure was being done- I'm not sure if to ease his pain, or hers.

Portraits...

2008-10-01T01:14:00.001-07:00

Everybody at Shanti asks to have their picture taken, and so sometimes it leaves me little opportunity to get their story, or even their name. This little boy was on his way out to attend a holiday celebration... saying that yes, he lived there, and I'd see him again... so hopefully I'll have the chance to get to know him.

Emergency

2008-10-01T00:51:00.001-07:00

Shanti's clinic was closed yesterday because of a holiday, but I accompanied Nama, who was on call for the day, while he was changing the catheters for a few residents with spinal injuries- something he does about once monthly. In the middle of his routine duties he got called down for an emergency- 35-year-old Prem Maya Dhungal had come in badly dehydrated from a bad case of diarrhea- a condition that can quickly become life threatening if not treated in time.
Prem's 11-year-old daughter Kasma came with her. The medical clinic facilities at Shanti are less than state-of-the-art, and when I asked Nama why she didn't go to the hospital instead, he answered, "Because she's poor. She would have had to pay 2,000 rupis (about $30 US) at the hospital, which she doesn't have. They would have turned her away." Nama said that she had arrived just in time- in another hour she would have collapsed.

Nama's assistant in all of this was 13-year-old Narez,who he called to... "Nurse"... when he wanted him to come help. Narez came to live at Shanti with his brother after they were orphaned by the Maoist insurgency.

The Lama Family

2008-10-01T00:39:00.001-07:00

3 generations of the Lama family live at Shanti Sewa Griha: Fulmaya, 57, her daughter Sarsuti, 22, and Sarsuti's son Amid, 10.
Fulmaya has been at Shanti for a long time, but Sarsuti and Amid arrived about 6 months ago.
When I met them I thought that Sarsuti was a little girl. She looks like she's about 12, and is very small in stature. Sitting on the ground, she pointed to her legs and said "I have a problem with my legs... I used to be in a wheelchair but now I can walk."
It will take me some time to flesh out this family's story... where they came from, why they are at Shanti, etc. I know that Sarsuti became a mother when she was 12 and that her husband left her and married another woman, but no more detail than that...

Those who can, help themselves

2008-09-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

With no elevators, and 4 stories, the only option is to climb the stairs to get to Shanti's upper floors where most of the rooms and some of the workshops are- on legs if you've got 'em, and if you don't...

WELCOME

2008-09-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

Shanti Sewa Griha welcomes anyone who needs care to their free clinic, gives shelter to women, children and families, and especially seeks to provide an alternative to begging for disabled people.

Ram Chandra

2008-09-30T20:37:00.001-07:00

Ram Chandra and his family live at the old leprosarium in Khokana where Krishna Gurung grew up. Both Ram and his wife have leprosy, but their children are completely healthy (counter to fears about the disease, it is not highly contagious or hereditary.)
Families like Ram's are truly living on the outer fringes of society- isolated and with very little means of livelihood, they are barely scraping by. As soon as we arrived, Ram started telling Krishna about their desperate circumstances, dramatically pointing to his threadbare shirt, saying "It's the only one I have."

Something Old, Something New

2008-09-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

Krishna Gurung, one of the founders of Shanti, took a few of us to visit the old leprosarium in Khokana where he grew up. Although most of the thousand or so people that used to live there are now moved on to better conditions, there are still some of the old folks hanging on, as well as a few new families that have moved in because they literally have no place else to go. The conditions are very, very poor and the buildings falling apart, but for the people who came there long ago in an effort to keep lepers completely isolated and separate from society, it is the place they know as "home." Krishna says that the old people want to stay there and die. At the same time, new life also comes for the younger families there and Shanti Sewa Griha is hoping to be able to create another eco village there in the next few years.

Eco Village

2008-09-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

Shanti Sewa Griha has developed several centers- the main one is located in Kathmandu city near Pashupatinath temple, where so many poor and disabled people come to beg from the pilgrims. Krishna Gurung uses the phrase "from beggars to givers" to describe the philosophy of Shanti. Their goal is to get people off the streets and to give them a place to live, eat, work and get free treatment. Its convenient location makes all of the services easily accessible to those who need it most.

They also have built an eco village about 8 km outside of Kathmandu, in Buddhanilkantha, on a spacious piece of land, where 90% of the people living there have leprosy, of which about 70% had previously been beggars. It is also home to several abandoned children with severe disabilities. In addition, there is a Waldorf school that also serves the nearby villages.
All of the buildings at the eco village have been built by the leper community living there, in the style of traditional Nepali village houses. There is an organic farm which is worked by the lepers and provides fruits, vegetables, milk and eggs to the Shanti community.
I hope to spend a few days there later this week to get to know the people and place better. These photos were taken on a short tour and I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to do it justice.

Bimala Devi

2008-09-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

At 81 years old, Shanti's oldest resident (I think). Bimala Devi is a jewel. When I visit her she grabs my hand, hangs on tight, and says my name so sweetly... since I don't speak Nepali, she then teases me so that everyone else in the room can laugh at me.
She moved to Shanti 2 years ago after losing her eyesight.

Amazing Grace

2008-09-27T01:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of those days when I felt amazingly blessed and honored to be a photographer and to be so generously invited into peoples' lives.

Krishna Gurung, one of Shanti Sewa Griha's founders, took a small group of us to visit his family home. Both of Krishna's parents have leprosy, and Krishna grew up in an isolated leprosarium in the southern Kathmandu Valley. He described the insider's experience of what it was like to have been treated as an outcaste and the miserable housing and prison-like conditions that the lepers and their families had to live in- subjected to a daily roll call, after which they could receive a meager ration of food. It was a hard life in many ways and has made him determined to better conditions for lepers and others left behind by society- a heroic task that he carries out with a lot of humility, grace and finesse.

20 years ago the family was able to move to a small plot of land and build a house. Now there are 2 houses, and an immaculate biodynamic organic garden which Krishna's father, aged 76, lovingly tends. Despite having lost his fingers and a leg from the disease, he works tirelessly and passionately in the garden from morning until night. He donates the extra produce to Shanti's disabled children who, as Krishna says, need the high quality fruits and vegetables, grown with so much love and integrity, to heal and thrive.

Krishna now lives in Patan with a family of his own, but he still visits most weekends. His parents' house is like a refuge for him, and he loves to come and work in an upstairs room that overlooks the garden, resting his laptop on a small desk that he kept from his early childhood school days at the leprosarium.

Everybody loves gossip

2008-09-27T00:16:00.000-07:00

Prakash Lama, 17, became partially paralyzed after a fever that went untreated when he was 7. His family moved to Kathmandu from a far away village in order to get him ongoing medical care, and he has been living at Shanti since he was 14. While visiting in Dal Kumari's room he told me (with just a little bit of good hearted pleasure) about her sad tale of lost love. Dal, 22, has been at Shanti since she was 12. A few years ago she fell in love with another resident and they married. Her husband was younger, and after 2 years of living together, he left her for another woman. After Dal had written him letters begging for him to come back, he told her to leave him alone, and she hasn't heard from him since.

On Site Daycare

2008-09-26T23:59:00.001-07:00

Shanti Sewa Griha seeks to rehabilitate those who have physical illnesses as well as "social disorders." The workshops employ hundreds of women who have no other means of livelihood- many of whom have been abandoned by their husbands- and teaches them valuable working skills. An on site daycare gives working women support to continue breastfeeding their young children.

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Xeroderma

2008-09-26T23:52:00.000-07:00

This boy and his family all have xeroderma, and have come to live at Shanti and attend the free clinic for medical care. Xeroderma pigmentosum, or XP, is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder of DNA repair in which the ability to repair damage caused by ultraviolet light is deficient. This disorder leads to multiple basaliomas and other skin malignancies at a young age. In severe cases, it is necessary to avoid sunlight completely.

Shanti's Workshops

2008-09-26T23:03:00.001-07:00

As many of the people who come to Shanti are from rural Nepal, the workshops focus on traditional crafts like carpet weaving and papermaking. The working atmosphere is industrious, lively and sociable.

MaiLi

2008-09-26T21:44:00.000-07:00

Shanti Sewa Griha provides a refuge to people affected by leprosy and their families, giving them food, shelter, and work. MaiLi Sherpani lives at Shanti with her four-year-old daughter Sunita, who is severely physically and mentally disabled, and her husband Ningma. Leprosy has disfigured MaiLi's left hand but she is still able to do many kinds of work.

Stray

2008-09-26T20:55:00.001-07:00

I forgot to add this one from the squatters camp the other day....

The Big Question: Color or B&W?

2008-09-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

Always the dilemma...
I love some images in one, some in the other. The colors are so vibrant at Shanti, but those orange walls in all the rooms sort of overwhelm, no?

Toothache

2008-09-25T21:31:00.000-07:00

This woman came into the Shanti clininc with a horrible toothache, which will require a pulling. As with many of the destitute who use the free clinic, she has other more serious health issues. An advanced state of skin cancer has diminished her immune system, leaving her vulnerable to infections.

Afternoon light

2008-09-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

A fill flash really would have made this ! This is my friend Shambhu, taken on on our way up to the bridge from the squatters camp. Shambhu has been an incredible help, acting as translator and all around support. Amazing!

Reprise

2008-09-25T20:51:00.000-07:00

I visited the squatters camp again... but this time met with an expected cynicism about "foreign" journalists. I think it's always a challenge to gain peoples' trust, but especially when there's a language barrier. The situation here is really bad for the poor, and any contact they've had with the media has, in their words, done absolutely nothing to help them. I feel humbled.

Shanti Sewa Griha

2008-09-24T05:42:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last few days at Shanti Sewa Griha, a community clinic and home for lepers and people affected by other illnesses or social challenges. Shanti's philosophy is to provide free access to food, shelter and health care for those that have nowhere else to go, as well as skills training. About 200 people live at Shanti, while hundreds of others are employed in crafts that also help to fund the center. Shanti has received not a rupi from the Nepali government, relying mostly on donations from foreign sources, and is working on becoming self reliant.
It's always a challenge to find "the story"... and at Shanti this is especially true because there are so many people and so much going on. Everyone wants to have their photo taken, but it's always the grip and grin kind. It takes so long to get to the point where people forget about the camera and just ignore you! I'm realizing that we photojournalists are always drawn to the edge, and I'm struggling a bit to find the right approach... to show both the joys and the hardships that exists in a place like this.

Squatters Camp

2008-09-20T23:01:00.000-07:00

I'm finally starting the "real" work on the project I came to do, which is to document the effects of poverty on women and children here in Nepal. I visited a squatters camp yesterday, where there are 200 make-shift houses built on an illegally occupied piece of land along the Bagmati river in Lalitpur (Patan), smack in the middle of bustling Kathmandu. Most of the people living there are families that have migrated from villages, and they are just trying to survive like anyone else.

While the governmental powers are shifting and promises are being made to better the situation for the country's poor, the truly destitute are being left behind in the vision of a "New Nepal." Urban poverty goes greatly ignored, and the busy traffic that passes over the bridge overlooking this camp turns a blind eye to the struggle going on down below.

People here are subsisting on the most basic of levels. Their houses are patched together with old sign boards and leftover mesh rice bags. Still, the earth floored shelters are kept tidy, and several of the houses have vegetable and flower gardens.

These are a few snapshots I took... just breaking the ice pictures. I was swarmed by all of the kids asking me to take their photo, and I was just happy for their open, friendly welcome. I'm looking at these first impressions and wondering how to best tell this story and to give a sense of place and people that can show something about the precarious reality that this community faces. Though these pictures are just a few, I hope they give some overview sense of what this camp looks like.

Abstraction

2008-09-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

A Tibetan monk brings candles to a temple in Boudha, the heart of Kathmandu's exiled Tibetan community.

Past, present, future

2008-09-15T22:00:00.001-07:00

In my neighborhood

2008-09-13T23:36:00.000-07:00

It's beautiful to see children still acting like, well... children. At this time of year there are packs of kids flying kites from vacant lots and rooftops... a romantic scene that leaves me nostalgic for simpler times.

Back to the basics

2008-09-10T06:32:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last couple of weeks teaching students about f-stops, framing and composition... I feel like I'm 16 again... which is very refreshing, since this is also the average age of my students. Today's demo was on using the surrounding elements in a space to create an interesting portrait... I really love the circle windows at Padmakanya!

Women's Festival

2008-09-03T07:02:00.001-07:00

What I think is happening....

2008-09-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

is not necessarily what is going on. And so I keep asking questions and try to learn as much as I can from people. I think that one of the most interesting challenges about photographing in another culture is to not jump to conclusions about what I see around me- so many times my own background causes me to make assumptions that just aren't true. And so when I pass the women selling roasted corn on the street (literally- sometimes steps away from heavy traffic) I hold my mind's tongue and try not to make up too many stories about what her life must be like, etc....
Of course this is what journalists are meant to do... dig below the surface and try and get the facts straight. Still, so often I find myself doing "street photography" here- a new experience that I really enjoy. In a way, taking random photos of striking details that I see day to day is like gathering all of my impressions into a sketchbook- these aren't the "real work," but I'm hoping that these photographs will help me later when I get down to working on a story in depth.

Momos

2008-09-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

... are the greatest snack food in the world- tasty little potstickers... yumm!

Pasni

2008-09-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

Family and friends...

I attended baby Aman's Pasni ceremony yesterday, in which a person is welcomed into the world and given their first taste of the all-important rice. A puja (sacred ritual) is performed and the baby is offered all kinds of foods to taste, as well as blessings and gifts of money by family members. It's a beautiful and elaborate ritual.

Aman is Manju Shrestha's grandson, and he traveled all the way from Portland, Oregon with his parents Neeraj and April for this first important milestone in his life.

Padmakanya

2008-08-31T06:59:00.001-07:00

Padmakanya is one of the schools where I'm teaching a photography workshop. It's apparently the oldest girls school in Nepal, and even the belated queen attended long before her fate turned for the worse. It's a government school, which means that the students mostly come from "humble" backgrounds. The girls here are rad! They are bright and funny and wonderfully curious. I feel so lucky!

Girls and cameras

2008-08-31T06:41:00.001-07:00

Teaching is so much FUN! With Manju Shrestha's collaboration, we're leading two workshops- one in a private school, and the other in a government (public) school. All of the students are so enthusiastic to learn photography, and I'm so intrigued to see how it all goes in the next weeks.

Below are a few snaps taken in class- we're covering the basics for starters.
1. Aprazita gets a little help demonstrating how to "handle" a camera (though as far as I can tell, she's got it all under control- she rocks!)
2. Manju demonstrates how the aperture looks in the lens.
3. Trying to grasp the whole aperture/shutter speed equivalency equation... huhhhh?
4. Getting a handle on composition and focusing the old fashioned way (my Hassy finally gets some use!)
5. Aprazita shows her first assignment to the class.

Just like an old couple

2008-08-23T23:03:00.000-07:00

Fernando left last week and I immediately succumbed to a persistent cold/flu, so I haven't had the chance to photograph much these days. It's funny how you take someone for granted when they're there all the time, only to appreciate the smallest things later, from a different perspective.

In the next couple of weeks I'll be teaching 2 photography workshops to local Kathmandu high school students. It should be an amazing experience, as well as a good chance to get to know what the kids here think and feel about life. As soon as I have time, I'll give a good update....

Praying at the Mother Temple at Dakshin Kali

2008-08-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

"To quote out of context is the essence of the photographer's craft. His central problem is a simple one: what shall he include, what shall he reject? The line of decision between in and out is the picture's edge. While the draughtsman starts in the middle of the sheet, the photographer starts with the frame."
-John Szarkowski, The Photographer's Eye

Tableaux Vivants

2008-08-19T08:00:00.001-07:00

Visual Cliches, and....

2008-08-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, poverty can be seen everywhere here in Nepal and so it wouldn't be that hard to show it in this way... the real challenge is to see beyond the expected, and to discover a deeper meaning to the reality reflecting itself around...
In the west, often these kinds of images are the only ones that we have access to. The "news" is filled with heart-wrenching pictures of Third World poverty. But there has to be more to the story. Part of what inspired me to come to Nepal was to learn more about another culture, beyond the stereotypical portrayals I have encountered in the media. I am finding a very complex and alive culture, that can all at once feel as if it is still living in the Middle Ages, while moving at the speed of light toward what we may call modern progress. I hope in the coming weeks to find a way to show through pictures and stories something of this complexity... keeping my fingers crossed, my attitude humble, and my mind and heart awake to telling what is "true"...

Bhaktapur-City of Devotees

2008-08-14T00:28:00.000-07:00

We spent a few days in Bhaktapur, just a short distance from Kathmandu, but a world apart. Each day and night the chanting of devotees kept us awake, but somehow we learned to love it.

Energy Crisis

2008-08-06T00:31:00.001-07:00

Here in Nepal there is a serious shortage of petrol and kerosene and people are spending ridiculous amounts of time queuing to receive a small fraction of the fuel that they need. In Patan, a "suburb" of Kathmandu, kerosene containers were tied together to hold people's place in line. The kerosene was being poured out of large barrels using a metal pitcher, while a woman kept track with pad of paper and pencil of what everyone got, and a man stood near collecting the money.

Daily Devotions

2008-08-06T00:23:00.001-07:00

Spritual life is alive and well here in Nepal, and one of the things that fascinates me is the devotional practices of women. There are so many complex layers to women's daily lives, and it will take me some time to begin to penetrate the meaning of what I see around me. For now, I revel in the beauty of the spontaneous encounter with the divine.

Variations on a theme

2008-08-06T00:17:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh... lovely stages of color.

Evening Gossip, Pokhara

2008-08-05T21:55:00.000-07:00

The Geometry Lesson

2008-08-05T07:50:00.001-07:00

What's a boy to do?.....

2008-08-05T04:29:00.001-07:00

Fernando has come to spend a few weeks in Nepal with me. Even though he gets a little impatient sometimes when I wander off to take photos, I think he actually likes the opportunity to make new friends.... (though he also often falls prey to charmingly smart little girls that sell purses and has to tell them that he will NOT buy one, sorry!)

Women Against Violence Against Women

2008-08-05T03:06:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, August 3, a group of women rallied in Kathmandu to protest the killing of Laxmi Bohora. Murdered by her husband and mother-in-law in May in Kanchanpur, Bohora was a social worker fighting for women’s and human rights. Women protesters have been holding a hunger strike for the last 3 weeks to draw attention to the cause of domestic violence awareness and demand that Bohora's killers be charged (they were released on bail, and the case dropped.) Not getting the response from government officials that they wanted, they decided to do something radical. The hunger strikers dressed in black, with part of their undergarments showing, and marched to the Constitutional Assembly. Police held back the demonstration, claiming that the women were acting indecently, and became physically violent with some of the women. Some of the demonstrators were taken to the police station, and those injured were taken to hospital.

I caught the tail end of the demonstration later in the afternoon, when the friends of the detained women marched to the police station to demand the release of those being held. As the protesters chanted for justice, the police held the order. A lot of tension was in the air, but finally, the demonstrators were allowed through the police gate and joined the others. Snacks were handed out, and the women who’d been accosted by police showed their bruises.