Photography & Photojournalism In Vietnam By Aaron Joel Santos Now On Gaia Photos

Farmer Nguyen Van Duoc pauses to look out over his farmlands in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Photo © Aaron Joel Santos All Rights Reserved  Follow Me On Twitter

Vietnam: Urban Farmers In Hanoi is a new photo story now appearing on Gaia Photos. As photojournalist Aaron Joel Santos explains,

"Vietnam’s capital is at a critical junction, balanced precariously between its past and present, trying to maintain a certain sense of culture and identity while integrating further into the global economy. Rice fields and farmlands are being overtaken by new highways, skyscrapers and industrial areas. The lakes and rivers for which the city was once known are drying up and suffering from increased levels of pollution. And urban farmers who have relied on their families’ lands for generations are being slowly edged off their fields in the name of progress."

Please view the entire story about urban farmers coping with modernity in Vietnam on Gaia Photos.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aaron Joel Santos grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and graduated from schools in San Francisco and Boston before moving to Vietnam in 2007. These days, Aaron is an editorial and documentary photographer based out of Hanoi and working for clients across Southeast Asia. He is represented by Wonderful Machine in the United States & Invision Images across Europe and Japan. Aaron's work has been shown in a number of international magazines and publications, including The Wall Street Journal and Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, as well as in galleries in the US, Malaysia and Vietnam. He's a fan of warm weather, cheap beer and friendly people.

You can also search for assignment photographers at Gaia Photos, a place to explore and discover the issues facing the diverse population and locations of our world, both near and far.

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LAOS: HUNGER LOOMS After Tropical Storm Ketsana Batters The Poor Communist Nation

Buddhist monks receive rice from a woman standing on a dirt road in Southern Laos, where currently, rice is a precious commodity .

Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved - Follow Me On Twitter

According to an article written by Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children, "Tens of thousands of families face desperate food shortages after tropical storm Ketsana battered Laos. Twenty-eight people were killed and more than 200,000 others affected when the extreme weather hit the country’s south in late September, causing an estimated £56 million worth of damage."

Food shortages in Laos are nothing new. They arrive each Spring because the government fails to stockpile and distribute rice to the needy. In a country where, according to The World Bank, one-half of Laotian citizens live below the poverty line, rice grown by rural farmers in small villages is divided into thirds, the first third going to the Communist government. Instead of being able to sell this rice and keep the profits for themselves, the government procures it and administers the proceeds. Additional thirds go to the village rice collective as well as the growers and their individual families.

Unfortunately, Tropical Storm Ketsana exacerbated this annual problem.

"These people don't have enough rice to eat for the next year. They need over 3,000 tons for 2010 because they will not be able to grow rice again on the hillsides and rice fields until they first clear the land," said Samouy Deputy Governor Vilaysack Phomphakdy.

Just last month, the 25th edition of the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) was held in Laos. An expensive new stadium was built prior to the spectacle where participants from 11 Southeast Asian nations took part in a regional sporting event.

Perhaps it's time for the Communist Lao government to start thinking more along the lines of Abraham Maslow. Didn't he say:

"Food...clothing...shelter...sports stadiums?"

Maybe the Lao government should allow slash and burn subsistence farmers who spend their days cutting and burning the forest to prepare the soil for planting, earning only $15 USD to $30 USD per month, to keep the rice they harvest. Just a thought.

Please read more about the circumstances thousands of Laotians face.

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GAIA PHOTOS: Featured Photograph Of Drought Conditions In Kenya By Jenn Warren

Nomads bring their camels to the CARE International sponsored water well in Kumahumato, Kenya. The community struggles to keep their cattle alive due to a prolonged drought and failed rains in the region.

Photo © Jenn Warren All Rights Reserved - Follow Me On Twitter

The serpentine lines of a camel herd captured in this photograph by Jenn Warren outline the struggles CARE International faces while providing food and water to Somali refugees living in Kenya’s northern province.

Please view more photos from Parched Earth by Jenn Warren at Gaia Photos, a global group of 52 photojournalists who share a united mission of promoting quality and diversity in documentary photography worldwide.

Stay tuned to see more pictures from one of the nearly 100 photo stories you can view at the popular documentary photography website.

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CORPORATE GREED: Canadian Battles Corporate Giant Monsanto And Wins

A cornfield is cultivated near the Mekong River in Northern Thailand.

Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved

If you are a regular reader here, you know by now that I'm fond of the "little people" on our planet. And why not, since the old saw, "It takes one to know one" proves I fit right in.

Here is a little story that appeared online on July 3, 2008 on the Global Research website about a "little guy" living in Canada named Percy Schmeiser.

It begins, "On 19 March 2008 Monsanto accepted their responsibility for the genetic contamination of Schmeiser’s canola fields in an out of court settlement between Percy Schmeiser and Monsanto."

Apparently, a morally corrupt corporate giant, Monsanto, contaminated his field with their genetically modified seeds and then decided not to pay Schmeiser the $660 it cost him to remove the mature plants from his property!

Why didn't a wealthy multi-national corporation fork over $660 bucks?

According to the story, "Monsanto would have paid for the contamination damage, but only under the condition that Schmeiser signed a “gag agreement”, i.e. he would agree not to talk about the damage case, which would have deprived him and/or his wife of the right for the remainder of their lives to ever speak about the case publicly or to ever again sue Monsanto for contaminating their harvest in future before any court."

Schmeiser rejected being silenced by the firm's corporate lawyer, Richard W. Danyliuk, by saying, "The demands raised by Monsanto were totally immoral."

The story concludes by pointing out, "The acceptance of responsibility by Monsanto as the owner of the patented Transgene for the contamination of neighboring fields opens the path for all farmers in the world to demand compensation by Monsanto."

The genetically modified (GM) food story is becoming bigger each year in Asia as food prices rise, population grows and agri-businesses move in.

Nevertheless, we have to stick to our guns folks, just ask Percy Schmeiser!

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Photography Guest Of The Week Mark Spowart - Canada

Each spring and planting season hold the promise of a good year.

Photo © Mark Spowart All Rights Reserved

Canada: Family Farms - Living On An Endangered List

"The Canadian Family Farm has been a way of life for as long as Canada has been a nation. It has fed a country and the world through a variety of international relief agencies. Yet this longstanding noble profession is too facing an uncertain future. If the farmer is able to beat mother nature, raise the right crop and sell at the peak time, he will hopefully make enough to cover his costs."

So stated photojournalist Mark Spowart, who visited Canadian farming communities to see how this invaluable industry was faring in his photo essay Canada: Family Farms - Living On An Endangered List, now appearing on Gaia Photos, a new international photography source comprised of 41 photojournalists from around the world whose mission is to promote quality and diversity in documentary photography.

Mark Spowart is a freelance photojournalist whose photography has appeared in national and international publications.Mark's main interest is documentary photography and he spends extended lengths documenting stories. In 2007 he participated in PhotoSensitive's National project documenting individuals living with Cancer.

Born in England and raised in Canada, Spowart still holds his British citizenship, and is planning to set up a second office in England.In addition to his several long-term projects, Mark does editorial work.

He is member of the Canadian Association of Journalists, and the Eastern Canadian News Photographers Association. Mark Spowart lives in London, Ontario, Canada and is available for assignments.

Please Visit Us and search for assignment photographers at Gaia Photos, a place to explore and discover the issues facing the diverse population and locations of our world, both near and far.

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Photography Guest Of The Week Thomas Pickard - Thailand

A fisherman sleeps alongside a dead Yellowfin Tuna aboard a commercial fishing dhoni.

Photo © Thomas Pickard All Rights Reserved

Maldives: Pole Fishing

Commercial fishing is second only to tourism as a source of revenue in the Maldives, employing an estimated 30% of the population.

As Thomas Pickard explains, "Fishermen work 6 days per week, having Friday prayer day off. Fishermen in this photo reportage typically earn around $80 USD each for a 7 ton catch. A typical working day may last as long as 15 hours or more and while catch size varies significantly, fishermen can catch up to 30 tons on good days. Most weeks the fishermen shown may expect to earn roughly $300 USD to $400 USD per week."

Photographer Thomas Pickard spent 24 hours with a group of commercial pole fishermen in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Addu Atoll in the Maldives awhile back and documented the working environment of the men's quest for tuna in his photo essay Maldives: Pole Fishing, now appearing on Gaia Photos.

Gaia Photos is a new international photography source comprised of 41 photojournalists from around the world whose mission is to promote quality and diversity in documentary photography.

Thomas Pickard is a freelance photographer whose clients include: Action Aid, Adaaran Resorts, Maldivian Air Taxi, Photoshots, Quark Expeditions, Sri Lankan Airlines.

His photography has appeared in D la Repubblica, Kris Flyer Magazine, Outside Magazine and many more.

Thomas Pickard is based in Thailand where he is available for editorial, resort and hotel, and wedding photography worldwide.

Please Visit Us and view Thomas Pickard's website.

You can also search for assignment photographers at Gaia Photos, a place to explore and discover the issues facing the diverse population and locations of our world, both near and far.

Please subscribe to our new features page to keep track of new stories too!

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Photography Guest Of The Week Justin Mott - Vietnam

Truong Thi Nha, 51, stands in her cornfield in the village of Xuan Canh, near Hanoi, Vietnam. Standing just 4 1/2 feet tall, she explained that her growth was stunted by childhood hunger and malnutrition.

Photo © Justin Mott All Rights Reserved

International: Food Production

"Images in this collection are part of a 2008 series titled “The Food Chain” that I took while on assignment for The New York Times. In depth studies of assorted food production issues in 3 countries included palm oil shortages in Malaysia, inflated fertilizer prices in Vietnam, and the effect of drought on Australia’s livestock and rice production."

Those remarks by Justin Mott set the stage for his photo reportage, International: Food Production, now appearing on Gaia Photos, a new international photography source comprised of 41 photojournalists from around the world whose mission is to promote quality and diversity in documentary photography.

Presently a documentary, editorial and commercial photographer, Justin Mott was born in Rhode Island, USA. In 2008, his photographs of orphans living with the after-effects of the toxic chemical jungle defoliant commonly referred to as "Agent Orange" were recognized in the Photo District News (PDN) Annual, and he was awarded the Morty Forscher Fellowship for humanistic photography by New York's prestigious Parson’s School of Design.

Justin Mott lives in Hanoi, Vietnam and works throughout SE Asia on personal projects and assignments.

Please Visit Us and view more of Justin Mott's photography.

You can also search for assignment photographers at Gaia Photos, a place to explore and discover the issues facing the diverse population and locations of our world, both near and far.

Please subscribe to our new features page to keep track of new stories too!

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New Documentary Photography Now On Gaia Photos - France: No Anorexia by Emmanuel Fradin

As light as a snowflake, small lost bird Isabelle suffers from anorexia.

Photo © Emmanuel Fradin All Rights Reserved

France: No Anorexia is the title of the newest feature story by France's Emmanuel Fradin appearing on Gaia Photos.

As Fradin explains, "Little by little as she lost her kilos, Isabelle couldn’t live normally and was as frail as a famished sparrow. Soon she was only skin and bones."

He continues, "In spite of that she discovered a passion for theater which seemed to make her live again. She became an actress, writing, telling about her suffering and her hopes on a blog, a private diary in which she finally tells very little of herself, keeping her true pain deep inside."

Find out more about Isabelle and her bravery by viewing Fradin's poignant and artistic visual tribute and see another feature story by Emmanuel Fradin now appearing on Gaia Photos.

Please follow the rest of the Gaia Photos photographers to see our continually updated new features page too!

John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
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Photography Guest Of The Week Piotr Malecki - Poland

Braving freezing winter temperatures, Baltic Sea fishermen earn their livelihoods in the cod fishing industry.

Photo © Piotr Malecki All Rights Reserved

Poland: Baltic Fishermen

"Fishing quotas in the Baltic Sea are now regulated by the European Commission. From time to time, they are source of some disputes between Poland, Denmark and Germany who all have large fishing fleets in the same area of the Baltic Sea. There are economic interests at stake here, and in Poland alone, more than 5000 people have their livelihood in the Baltic cod fishing industry."

Those remarks by Piotr Malecki accompany his photo essay Poland: Baltic Fishermen now appearing on Gaia Photos, that documents the daily lives of fishermen working on the Baltic Sea.

Gaia Photos is a new international photography source comprised of 41 photojournalists from around the world whose mission is to promote quality and diversity in documentary photography.

Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1967, Piotr Malecki studied filmmaking at the Katowice University in Poland and photography at Bournemouth & Poole College of Art & Design in Great Britain.

In the early 1990's Piotr began his photojournalism career as a staff photographer at "Wprost", the Polish newsweekly magazine. In the mid-1990's he decided to become a freelancer.

While shooting self-assigned and commissioned photo features in Eastern Europe, Piotr often travels to more far-away places to produce picture stories. Furthermore, Piotr often shoots portraits, artists, politicians and businessmen while on assignments for magazines and newspapers in Poland, Germany, Great Britain and USA.

Piotr Malecki is represented by Panos photo agency while based in Warsaw, Poland and is available for assignments.

Please Visit Us and view more of Piotr Malecki's photography.

You can also search for assignment photographers at Gaia Photos, a place to explore and discover the issues facing the diverse population and locations of our world, both near and far.

Please subscribe to our new features page to keep track of new stories too!

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Photography Guest Of The Week Joao Pedro Marnoto - Portugal

A man at a local bar in Portugal enjoys the late afternoon.

Photo © Joao Pedro Marnoto All Rights Reserved

Portugal: Nine Winter Months and Three of Hell

"The national and global economic, political and social changes of the last few decades impacted local communities. While many of the younger generation left these locales in search of better opportunities their homes could no longer provide, most older residents resisted the appeal of the big city. Today, many of these areas have few citizens and elders comprise the majority of the inhabitants along with the occasional sprinkling of younger faces."

Such are the observations of Joao Pedro Marnoto that accompany his photo essay, Portugal: Nine Winter Months and Three of Hell now appearing on Gaia Photos. The photo documentary observes the lives of the people who have remained in the agrarian regions of Douro and Trás-os-Montes in northern Portugal, one of Western Europe’s poorest areas.

Gaia Photos is a new international photography source with 41 photojournalists from around the world involved with promoting quality and diversity in documentary photography.

Born in 1975 in Porto, Portugal, Joao Pedro Marnoto had a passion for photography at an early age, taking his first basic photography course at when he was just 14.

After completing his degree in Photography in the United Kingdom, he returned to Portugal full of ideas and desires. While working on a freelance basis he gradually turned his attention to photo documentary work. In 2007 Joao Pedro Marnoto's first book was released about the Douro region in Portugal.

During that time he also did some teaching, experimented with video and exhibited works throughout Portugal after receiving a grant from the Portuguese Center of Photography.

Presently, he is finishing his first video documentary, working to release a new book and launching a project in collaboration with “Doctors of the World”.

Please Visit Us and view more of Joao Pedro Marnoto's photography.

You can also search for assignment photographers at Gaia Photos, a place to explore and discover the issues facing the diverse population and locations of our world, both near and far.

Please subscribe to our new features page to keep track of new stories too!

John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
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CAMBODIA: Food Security Threatened As Poverty Gets Worse

Channa, a hungry 4-year-old child laborer, enjoys a bowl of noodle soup at the Stung Meanchey landfill in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved

Once upon a time, a man saw the photo you see above and remarked, "When will THEY end world hunger?" To this day, I'm still trying to figure out who he thinks THEY are. Doesn't the man own a mirror?

According to a May 7th 2009 article that appeared online at IRIN, a humanitarian news and analysis project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the economic crisis has renewed food insecurity among women and children in Southeast Asia.

Coming only months after Asia's most recent food crisis, the World Bank predicts that Cambodia will be hardest hit among Southeast Asian countries.
According to the Economic Institute of Cambodia, as of May 2009, rice prices stood at 2,500 riels per kilogram (rpk) vs. 3,200 rpk a year ago (4150 riels = 1 USD May 2009). Declining food prices are creating difficulties for farmers who need to pay off debts, raising fears that urban workers returning to the countryside will not find work in the agricultural sector.

"Back-to-back effects of, first, the high food price crisis of last year and now the economic slowdown are likely to not only create categories of new poor... but also push into deeper food insecurity the already chronically poor,"

Jean-Pierre de Margerie, Cambodia country representative for the UN World Food Program (WFP), told IRIN."Last year, a majority of poor households facing higher food prices had to resort to very damaging coping mechanisms such as contracting new debts or even cutting back on food consumption," he added. Acute malnutrition in poor urban children increased to 15.9 percent in 2008 from 9.6 percent in 2005, as poor families cut back on food expenditure, according to the 2008 Cambodia Anthropometrics Survey, released in February by the government.More women are also forgoing proper nutrition and healthcare during pregnancy, raising the risk of death during childbirth, the UN said in its April 8th statement.

Five pregnant women die every day in labor, giving Cambodia one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Asia at 472 deaths per 100,000 births, according to the most recent government data from 2005.

Please view complete story and continue reading

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you already know I have touched on these issues in this post Worldwide Financial Crunch Hits Cambodia's Garment Industry as well as this post addressing Cambodia's urban poor.

Now my question to YOU is: Do YOU own a mirror? If you do, you may want to re-read what I said about publisher Bernard Kirsher and The Cambodia Daily:

"One frequently recurring full-page public service announcement explained a program developed by the paper's publisher, Bernard Kirsher. The program, "Skip A Meal And Save A Cambodian Child" was developed by Kirsher in conjunction with Japan Relief for Cambodia and Kirsher's own American Assistance For Cambodia (a non-profit registered as a 501c (3) organization (corporation) in the USA). The program was developed in response to The World Food Program (WFP) "abruptly halting" rice distribution to schools in 2008."

Please view the complete post

OK great, we all have our mirrors now and we realize that THEY are US! Now you can surf around this blog to find literally dozens of ways we can become them. You might even want to contact the The Cambodia Daily directly to see what's cooking with American Assistance For Cambodia.

When viewing your mirror, does Channa, a hungry 4 year old child laborer, look like a THEY or an US to YOU?

John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
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Stung Meanchey Landfill Phnom Penh Cambodia Photographs

Photography Guest Of The Week Alex Masi - England

A man is moving a heavy load of half-processed leather on arrival from a different unit, to a new plant for further processing. Knowing whether children were employed in the process is the real challenge when outsourcing leather in Jajmau.

Photo © Alex Masi All Rights Reserved

India: Productive Lives

Productive Lives is a series focusing on the socio-environmental exploitation in Jajmau Industrial Area, near Kanpur, central Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and one of its poorest.

"Grown uncontrolled on the banks of the Holy Ganges River, it is renowned for being one of the most important centers for leather in Asia. Its items, produced mostly on commission for international retail empires are widely traded worldwide. Hidden inside many of the tanneries I discovered children collecting skins in dark wet pools; others were bent under the Sun, employed in scraps disposal grounds."

These tanneries, some of which are illegal, exist in a maze of run-down buildings, narrow roads, dumping grounds and sewage drains in Jajmau and they are the focus of Alex Masi's photo reportage India: Productive Lives, now appearing on Gaia Photos.

Gaia Photos is a new international photography source comprised of 41 photojournalists from around the world whose mission is to promote quality and diversity in documentary photography.

Alex Masi is an international journalist and photographer based between London, UK and Mumbai, India. Alex has an instinct for interesting story ideas while pursuing meaning and originality in his work.

He recently received Honorable Mention at Prix des la Photogaphie Paris - Water, and the Redux Scholarship for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2009 in Manali, India.

His work has appeared in various publications including D – La Repubblica, Le Figaro, El Pais Semanal, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, 'Panorama, Condé Nast Portfolio, Geographical, L' Espresso and Marie Claire among others.
Please Visit Us and view more of Alex Masi's photography.

You can also search for assignment photographers at Gaia Photos, a place to explore and discover the issues facing the diverse population and locations of our world, both near and far.

Please subscribe to our new features page to keep track of new stories too!

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Photography Guest Of The Week Andrew Wheeler - France

Photo © Andrew Wheeler All Rights Reserved

France: Cider Making in Normandy

"Laurent Delaporte, of Emmanville near Rouen, France has always made cider with his grandfather’s wooden press. He uses special apples from his father’s small farm and also from some land he owns nearby."

Examining this old method of making cider where the apples are crushed slowly is the subject of Andrew Wheeler's photography story, France: Cider Making in Normandy, now appearing on Gaia Photos, an Internet photography portal comprised of 39 photojournalists from around the world whose mission is to promote quality and diversity in documentary photography.

Initially, Mr. Wheeler traveled all over the world completing personal projects and assignments. Today Andrew says, "I try to focus more on the local stories I'm interested that include craftsmen, entrepreneurs, unusual people and farmers who work the land in a respectful way."

He has undertaken corporate assignments for companies and organizations such as HSBC, UNESCO, OECD and Nokia. Editorial clients include Bloomberg News, Globus Weekly and Insight Guides.

Andrew Wheeler is represented by Photoshot.
Currently he lives and works as a freelance photojournalist and photographer while based in Paris and Normandy France and is available for assignments.

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Please view more of Andrew Wheeler's photography and search for assignment photographers at Gaia Photos, a place to explore and discover the issues facing the diverse population and locations of our world, both near and far. Please subscribe to our new features page to keep track of new stories too!

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Travel Photography In Phnom Penh Cambodia

People crowd around a food vendors outlet during lunchtime at the Russian Market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved

While I know that stock photographs of markets are everywhere, I wanted to capture a moment inside one of Cambodia's top tourist attractions, Phnom Penh's Russian Market. Food is cooked inside the smoky market on wood burning stoves and the city is subject to an intermittent power supply.

Phnom Penh's residents encounter a busy way of life and the city is Cambodia's most populated. Further, it's home to many expatriated people who work in the giant non-profit industry.

If you have a destination you want to promote in SE Asia, email me and maybe we can work something out.

John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
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Asian Travel And Food Photography In Cambodia

Vendors sell various food items such as eggs, fruit and live insects throughout the Kingdom of Cambodia.

Photos © John Brown All Rights Reserved

In the average U.S. household, 15 % of the budget is spent on food. That percentage changes to over 50% for many people in Cambodia. The local fare in Cambodia may be a bit different than you are used to back home, but give the local cuisine a chance.

Packaged food high in saturated fat such as cookies, potato chips and ice cream is available to travelers from the Western world but since 80% of Cambodians have no electricity, hence no refrigeration, their edible food needs to be fresh.

While fish provides Khmers with 75% of their daily dietary protein, they eat low on the food chain and consuming pigs, ducks, chickens, frogs, beef, eggs, fruit, vegetables and insects meet their dietary needs.

Although these photos are three humdrum examples of stock photography, they may help serve as a reminder of the words of Robert Zoellick, president of The World Bank, who said,

“While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs.”

John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
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Photography Guest Of The Week Jenn Warren - Sudan

Batula Sheikh, 104 years old, is a Somali nomad living outside of the Dagahale Refugee Camp. Photo © Jenn Warren All Rights Reserved

Somali refugees living in Kenya’s northern province are the people portrayed by this week's Photography Guest of the Week, Jenn Warren, in her photo story "Somalia, Kenya: Parched Earth", now appearing on Gaia Photos.

Jenn is a documentary photographer based in East Africa who specializes in NGO, humanitarian and development projects. Her clients include Medecins sans Frontieres, UNICEF, UNESCO, CARE, WFP/PAM, Amnesty International, PSI, the National Democratic Institute, SafePoint and TASC.

Jenn was featured in the Best of ASMP 2008, Alligator Juniper Photography Annual 2008, and the 2008 Center for Fine Art Photography Peace Corps Exhibition. She was recently awarded the 2008 Nikon Emerging Professional Scholarship to attend the Missouri Photo Workshop 60, and was a nominee in the category of Professional Photojournalism for the 2008 Black & White Spider Awards.

Jenn also keeps busy teaching photography, and is proficient in Arabic as well as American Sign Language. She has attended several workshops and lectures including: The Digital Photo Academy, Instituto Europeo di Design Milano, Peace Corps Jordan, International Center of Photography, Steve McCurry Workshops, Daylight Community Arts Foundation, Art Institute of Boston and Citizen Schools.

Her work is exhibited and collected in New York City, Amman, Jordan, Washington, DC, Boston, MA, and Houston, TX.
Be sure to click here to see more of Jenn Warren's photography, and if you need to enhance your media products learn more about Gaia Photos, a growing group of thirty-six photojournalists from around the world, by visiting Gaia Photos to see our continually updated new features page.

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Photoshelter's Allen Murabayashi Tells Me Why Nobody Reads My Blog

Photo © John Brown All Rights Reserved

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The photo offers proof that I know a celebrity from the world of entertainment that has fun and enjoys parties and nightlife when I see one. Carabao anyone?

Photoshelter's Allen Murabayashi says I am probably already on my path to failure regarding this blog because nobody wants to read it, and no one is. He says there are two reasons for a blog:

1. A person has something so incredibly interesting and viral that people can’t stay away.


2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO).Allen says no one will ever care about this blog because I will never say something amazingly noteworthy. Moreover, I should write in a journal rather than post thoughts online. Ok, that's fair enough. Internet rankings and an examination of the stats back up that assessment. Although this blog's Alexa ranking has moved up 5,200,000 places in the past month or so, it's still mired in 4,806,417th place according to Technorati.com.

Furthermore, of the people who do visit, only 10% ever return. Clearly, very few people are interested in reading more of my brand of BS once they see it so Allen Murabayashi is right. Let's look at four topics people are staying away from.

1. Child laborer Chantal Srey Mao, 16, who was killed at Stung Meanchey Landfill in Phnom Penh, Cambodia a few months ago.

2. The rape and disembowelment of Lao Hmong women and children currently taking place in conjunction with an ethnic cleansing program being jointly conducted by the Lao and Vietnamese Armies in northern Laos.

3. A Cambodian woman stricken with breast cancer who faces death as a result of being denied access to a foreign funded NGO by the Cambodian government.

4. Sixty million people living in Southeast Asia's Mekong River Basin, some of whom will become victims of ecological damage while enduring human suffering due to hydroelectric dam projects.

Admittedly, these subjects are "incredibly uninteresting" to readers of this blog and that's backed by the fact that no comments were left regarding them. Allen is an intelligent man and he knows what he's talking about.

Ok. Ok. I get it! So what are more important subjects to YOU? Celebrities? Entertainment? Fashion? Film? Food? Football? Fun? Parties and Nightlife? Shopping? TV? Video? All of those words are among Technorati.com's "Top 100 Tags" relating to blogs.

The problem folks is those tags apply to people living inside the bubble of Western prosperity and some people just don't care about that bubble too much. It's not that I don't take notice of these pop culture topics, it's just that I want to diversify.

What does the tag "food" mean to those who have enough to eat vs. the 40% of the population in Cambodia that is malnourished? There is food for eating of course, but also food for thought.

How about "TV" and "video"? In a country where TV news is censored by the government but eighty percent of the people lack the electricity to turn a television on if they had one, that tag takes on new meaning.

In Galeano's words, "While society would draw and quarter us, disembowel us, cut us up into little pieces in order to fake an understanding of the human condition but in fact subdue us, what we really crave is to put the pieces together. We are what we do to change ourselves. We are daily involved in the struggle to reconcile the contradictions that bedevil us."

Therefore, Mr. Murabayashi, I'm going to continue to march along my path towards personal failure because the world's contradictions certainly bedevil me and "we are what we do to change ourselves", not our little blogs nobody is reading anyway.

John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS

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Keep An Eye Out For Good Food Photography - It's Rare!

Keep An Eye Out For Good Food Photography - It's Rare!

Normally editors like photos of food to look appetizing, flavorful and delicious. What all this means is that good food photography is a real talent and I for one admire those who do it well. A lot of food preparation, lighting technique and set design goes into great food photography but that doesn't mean that you can't keep one eye out for opportunities to shoot food yourself.
The local fare in Cambodia may be a bit different than you are used to back home, but give the local cuisine a chance. Be more adventuresome than a couple I overheard the other day while I was in Phnom Penh……… they were playing it a bit too safe……..

"Oh look how thin the people are here remarked an overweight woman to her equally heavy husband as they peered at passers by through the window of the new Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Phnom Phen, Cambodia. "I hadn't noticed," remarked the man as he lit into another drumstick.

In the average U.S. household, 15 % of the budget is spent on food. That percentage changes to over 50% for many people in Cambodia." While this percentage may seem high, contrasted to thirty years ago when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime nearly starved the country out of existence, today's hungry Cambodians are much better off. Although the World Food Program estimates that 39% of Cambodia's population is malnourished, more than half of the country's 15 million people now enjoy a fairly high measure of food security. About 59% of Cambodia's children are now growing up with enough to eat.

Since 80% of Cambodians have no electricity, hence no refrigeration, their edible food needs to be fresh. Some people carry food on top of their heads while others sit in baskets filled with fruit. Food is sold on streets and sidewalks, live or dead, raw or cooked. Everything from pigs, ducks, chickens, frogs, beef and insects is on the menu. The local variety of red-hot chili peppers can set one on fire for 20 minutes.

Moving In

While Burger World and Lucky Burger have existed for over 5 years as a local answer to fast food outlets, international food franchises are now setting their sights on Cambodia's tourist areas as witnessed by the opening of the new KFC. Not even Colonel Sanders himself would have been surprised to see that new Kentucky Fried Chicken store. Likewise, packaged food high in saturated fat is slowly emerging from the western world and cookies and potato chips now compete for shelf space with dried fish at small neighborhood stores.

Most mid-sized towns sport a convenience store or two and in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's largest city, full-blown western style supermarkets are slowly muscling in. Because no dairies exist in the country, imported items containing high cholesterol such as milk and cheese can only be found at these new grocery outlets. Although these "superstores" cater primarily to comparatively highly paid foreigners that comprise a "parallel economy" working in the country, locals, including Buddhist monks, can be seen cruising the aisles pushing shopping carts.

As an agrarian state, few Cambodians sit at desks all week or consume massive amounts of beer while watching sporting events on weekends. Their ecological footprint is small and their meals consist of fare low on the food chain, including insects and snails. As with most third world countries, Cambodians looking for a quick snack have yet to experience the joy of screaming into metal boxes, "extra fries please!", before rolling up to the takeout window in their cars. When they begin to, they may order fish burgers for fish provides Khmers with 75% of their daily dietary protein.

So when you get to Cambodia, keep an eye out for photography opportunities related to food, and eat some too! Just don't be a pig about it.

Oh, and one more thing:

"While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs." Robert Zoellick, President, The World Bank

John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
My Mondo Library Photography
My Photoshelter Photography Archive Homepage

Is This Cambodia? What Would Albert Einstein Think?

Well yes, this is Cambodia too! It's The Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) in Phnom Penh. The FCC once served as a refuge for foreign journalists but journalists themselves don't hang out much here anymore and neither do local Khmers. It's a nice place for people "traveling through" though.

Many folks passing through the Cambodian tourist "metropolis's" of Siem Reap and Phnom Penh are surprised when they learn that about 40 % of the 15 million people who call Cambodia home would have to work 3 weeks to afford just one beer at this establishment. This scene is proof that some people at least don't have top save up quite that long.

Fifteen or twenty bucks will feed 40-50 orphans a day in Cambodia so start saving up! Whether you spend your savings on beer or food, well that's up to you. Please keep on mind though that the "Average Joe" in Cambodia doesn't ever have to make that decision. His stomach is doing the talking….growling???

If you are a reader of this blog it's apparent that I am no Einstein as the saying goes. I'm an "Average Joe" too. So take it from the man himself.

“The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far has created problems that cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them.”

Albert Einstein

John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
My Mondo Library Photographs
My Photoshelter Archive Homepage