Houkami Football Club

Today I arrived at my hotel in Cote d'Ivoire and ended up having the afternoon off; so I decided to find my own photo assignment. I've been wanting to shoot a soccer match since arriving in Africa and saw my opportunity across the street from the hotel. I was a bit concerned leaving the grounds with no local escorts, but decided to chance it anyway. The hotel grounds actually look more like a prison than a comfortable place of lodging; complete with barbed wire, guards and metal gates. But, this would probably be my only chance and life is all about taking a chance. So I headed out with a backpack filled with roughly $15,000 worth of camera gear and some broken French. I walked across the street in a light rain and found a spot to shoot from on the sandy field. I only got a few frames off when I was approached by a man speaking rapid French, but with a welcoming smile. We made our introductions and I soon found out he was the president of the village football club, "Centre de Formation de Football Houkami." What a name! Sylvain, the president, then called each and every one of the two dozen players over so we could all be introduced. We ended up speaking (in French I can proudly say!) for about 15 minutes until the formalities were over and the match got under way. The rain let up and the sun burned its way through the clouds. I shot for maybe an hour until I noticed it was past time for me to take my anti-malarials. So I said goodbye to everyone and started to walk back. But Sylvain wanted to make sure I got back safely so he (and about 4 others) escorted me back to my door. Cote d'Ivoire is the poorest country we've been to and one of political turmoil and instability. But so far its people have been the friendliest.

Cape Coast

I spent yesterday and this morning in the coastal fishing village of Cape Coast in Ghana. The site where thousands of slaves were held before being shipped off to the new world. A place where oppression and division began that eventually spearheaded a Civil War. It was a bit surreal. I didn't have a specific assignment, besides a portrait session in the afternoon, so I decided to try to find some women working at cleaning or cooking fish (women do not actually fish is this part of Africa). One of our local contacts took us deep into the village where the sandy road turned into more of a footpath. We drew a lot of stares but everyone was extremely friendly. In the end I didn't get a lot of images but a couple came out nice. I shot for maybe 20 minutes and left with a feeling I could have spent a month and barely scratched the surface of their story. I hope to one day return.

The Nutsheller

My former omnipotent assistant photo editor sent me on a quest to find a nut-sheller during my journey through Africa. I searched far and wide and finally came across the elusive contraption in a remote fishing village along the Ghana coast. I hope you're happy Z-Man.

Kasese Goat Project

Last Wednesday I departed Kenya in order to visit a goat project that has been installed to help the local women in southwestern Uganda near the D.R. Congo border. After an early flight from Nairobi to Kampala we departed on a six-hour journey across the Ugandan countryside, a car ride I will not soon forget. The first couple of hours of dodging potholes and slamming into random speed bumps while passing cars on blind hills were entertaining, but this soon grew stressful when night fell and our driver continued to race through dark villages at speeds in excess of 130 kph. I pictured villagers diving out of the way as we came screaming through, but they didn’t even give it a notice as we speed past, apparently unaware that death was just inches away. To them, the more entertaining notion was the mzungu (white man) in the passenger seat. The road turned from pavement to red dirt and back again countless times, sometimes even coming to a dead end with no warning. But apparently you just drive around these things on whatever path is available. No worries! Along the way we traveled through various “highway construction projects” were a lane was closed. Where should we go? Just drive in the other lane! Don’t worry about oncoming traffic. The Ugandans have a sophisticated system of flashing lights and honking horns in order to avoid head on collisions. And there’s no need to lower your speed, you can always just slam on your breaks to approaching cars if the road becomes too narrow, or better yet, don’t slow down and drive on the side of the road. This way you can kick up a lot of dirt as you come fishtailing back onto the road; this really helps add to the ambiance of driving in Eastern Africa. We finally arrived at the hotel, stiff and white knuckled and we managed to only get lost once. We got a few hours sleep and the next morning headed into the foothills to check on the goat project. After about 45 minutes of shooting I was then informed we had to cram back into our vehicle in order to met another contact in Kampala by 4. So if your keeping count, that’s a total of 12 hours of driving with less than one hour of shooting. Along the way back one of the rear tires finally grew tired of slamming into speed bumps at a high rate of speed and decided to blow out. Thankfully there was a spare and a jack so I had us back on the road in less than 10 minutes. We got back to Accra a few minutes late but our subject had apparently decided she couldn’t wait on us any longer and was already out the door. We met her right before she was getting into a cab so I quickly composed a portrait, fired about 5 frames and she was gone. At least it was something. I finally got back to my hotel bed that night around 1100pm just in time to get 2 1/2 hours of sleep before catching a 5am flight to Accra, Ghana.

I LOVE IT

Red Soil School

This is the Red Soil School outside the village of Ngong. Before I left for this trip I was asked to get some shots of girls in a classroom, but Winrock had not set anything up in advance. I asked how to go about doing this and was told to just walk in and ask. So while my writer was conducting an interview I went to explore a school next door. And just like I was told they were all too happy to show me around and let me take photos of the kids. This was completely different than shooting at a school in Springdale, Arkansas where the teachers try to set up your shots and harp you about getting permission slips from the kids' parents. The shot of the classroom was actually during their midterm exam! I hope a white man with a camera wasn't too much of a distraction.

The Rurii Women

These images are from the Rurii Women's Group in the village of Kibiko near Nairobi, Kenya. They were taught to make these half-cooker baskets so they could sell them at the markets. We traveled to this village to document one of the projects a woman named Fridah Mugo oversees as part of the Winrock AWLAE documentary.

Next stop Nairobi

I leave for Africa today. Check back for posts!

Diamonds & Dice

I shot a promotional for the "Diamonds and Dice" charity event here in Fayetteville. It was last minute and I threw something together with only one light and a painted wall as a backdrop. Does the model look familiar?

The Great Smoky Mountains National Drive-In

Last week I moved my girlfriend, Dianna, back from NYC to Arkansas and we decided to stop off in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It would turn out to be a big mistake. While heading out of the city we realized it was Memorial Day weekend and every suburban family in America would be fleeing their gated communities for the first summer vacation of 2007. After crossing the Tennessee border we stopped at a welcome center to get some info on the park. That's when we learned The Smokies were the MOST VISITED park in America, getting twice as many visitors as the Grand Canyon. I began to realized we might be making a huge mistake! So instead of driving to the park that night we found a spot to camp in the national forest off some Tennessee back road and had a great night in the woods. Monday morning we headed to the park and entered Tourist Town, USA (aka Gatlinburg) which should have been a foreshadow to run like hell. But still determined to check out some peaks we ventured on. Well to make a long story short - it took about 5 minutes in the park to realize this was not the place we wanted to be. Stressful traffic jams are not what I'm looking for when I go to the woods. So we found a pull off that didn't have 40 cars in the parking lot and hiked up to a small waterfall; then high-tailed it back to the Natural State.