21-JUN-2009
Delusion, Portland, Oregon, 2009
A trembling hand pressed to a head, barely glimpsed through the window of a bus stop shelter covered with graffiti. The fringes of downtown Portland are laden with homeless men such as this one. It was a sad sight, made more so by the contrasting optimistic warm colors of a summer Sunday morning. Delusion is the human value that most comes to mind here.
21-JUN-2009
The reader, Portland, Oregon, 2009
It is disheartening to walk on the fringes of Portland’s downtown – so many along its streets seem lost -- alive, yet without a purpose in life. However this man reads. He seems to read with intensity and deep thought. The well-thumbed book has passed through many hands. I don’t what he may be reading, but I made the image because it expresses two important human values: using the imagination and thinking about ideas. It is heartening to acknowledge that the imagination can flourish even here in a place where so many live in desperation and anguish.
20-JUN-2009
Baggage Room, Amtrak Station, Portland, Oregon, 2009
There is a certain nostalgia that hangs around a railroad station. For more than century, we moved from place to place by train, and the places of our departures and arrivals were like palaces underscoring the importance of our journeys. Portland’s renovated Union Station displays much of its 19th century charm, yet some of its passengers, like this elderly woman, prefer to wait for their trains in what now seem to be baggage rooms. She clasps her hands, elevates one leg, and listens for the call to board. I saw in this image a number of human values -- some anticipation, a stoic sense of patience, and perhaps a touch of nostalgia, a fond remembrance of things past.
11-NOV-2008
The victor, Tozeur, Tunisia, 2008
I found these men playing a Tunisian game in a Tozeur café. I pointed at my camera and smiled. They smiled and nodded back, resuming their game. I made many images, and this one was my last. The man at left grabs all the tiles on the table and, with a cigarette hanging from his mouth, spontaneously pulls them toward himself as he mutters the Tunisian phrase for “I win.” This image is rich in human values. The human values of triumph, possessiveness, enthusiasm are present here. The man in the hat looks at me, as if to distance himself from the moment of triumph, while the man in the scarf at right is already calculating his comeback. We see only the resting arms of the fourth player here. They become a symbol for the passive onlooker in all of us.
22-OCT-2008
Landscapers, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2008
This body language of this landscaping crew, at work here in a Scottsdale city park, conveys the human value of teamwork. The three seem to work as one here, their heads moving closer to the ground from left to right as the job gets more intense. I have abstracted the image to strengthen its hold on the viewer’s imagination. We see neither the faces of the men, or the flowers they are planting. What we see instead is the effort itself, and how these men combine the work of three into one.
13-SEP-2008
Fishing, Lower Falls, McCloud River, California, 2008
Relaxation and intensity are human values, and both are present in this image. The woman at left approaches the sport of fishing from a horizontal position, while the fellow seated at right seems to be virtually willing a fish on to his hook. This photograph also illuminates the choices we have life. How we choose to behave, for example, is really up to us. In this case, there is no right or wrong way to go fishing, and this pair proves it.
20-MAY-2008
Child mortality, Chinese Camp, California, 2008
This is a painful image to look at. And pain is a human value that we all share. The death of young children was a fact of life in the California mining camps during the 19th century. This image expresses a sense of loss that began in 1877 and continues on into the 21st century. Mary Ann Kempston died when she was eight years old. (It appears that her three brothers must have died in childhood as well.) A collection of stuffed dolls surrounds Mary Ann’s tombstone. They are sodden from the spring rains. A blue teddy bear lies face down in the mud. The dolls and tombstone are in shadow here – the warmth of the sun does not reach the gravesite. The prone posture of the dolls echo the sense of pain and loss that is felt by visitors to the Catholic Cemetery overlooking the old gold mining town of Chinese Camp 130 years after Mary Ann Kempston’s premature death. Human values are universal – we do not know these people, but we can emotionally share the tragic event evoked in this image because we identify with the victims and their grief stricken parents.
28-APR-2008
Challenger, Arizona Science Center, Phoenix, Arizona, 2008
School children use the museum’s broad steps as both picnic area and playground. This boy seems to be issuing a challenge to his classmates as he dashes down the steps toward them. The clenched fists, red shirt, and the angle of the leg express self-confidence and demand the attention of his peers. This image is a virtual catalog of human values, caught in the blink of an eye by the camera’s lens.
29-MAR-2008
Suffering, Varanasi, India, 2008
India’s cities are often polluted. Engines are not to blame. Auto traffic is relatively light. India suffers instead from air laden with the smoke of a million fires and from dust that lies heavily upon the land. These women are suffering from its effects – they cover their mouths so they won’t have to breathe in smoke and dust. I can see resignation on their faces – there is little they can do about it except cover their mouths. Both suffering and resignation are human values, and they are at the core of this image.
27-MAR-2008
Intimacy, Agra Fort, Agra, India, 2008
I found this couple seated at the end of a gallery, alone in their own little world. I framed them with ancient marble columns, and backed them up with a marble wall befitting the emperors who lived here. They can see none of it. They only have eyes for each other – among thousands of visitors, they have carved out their own space, a space expressing the human value of intimacy.
27-DEC-2007
Handicapped children’s school, Dalat, Vietnam, 2007
One of the most moving experiences of our visit to Vietnam was the few hours we spent with the young students at Dalat's Hoa Phong Lan Handicapped Children's School. Most of the children were delighted to see us. This child is looking at some of the visitors through the window of his classroom. To some, the bars might look as if the children are restrained. To me, the bars simply represent the barrier between two worlds – the outside world, and the world of the school itself. We represented the outside world, and this child’s excitement at the prospect of meeting us, learning from us, and sharing something with us was palpable. The entire experience was an adventure in such human values as curiosity, enthusiasm, confusion, pleasure, and in a few cases, avoidance. You can view other images from this school visit by clicking on the thumbnails below.
26-DEC-2007
Walled off, Nha Trang, Vietnam, 2007
The motorbike has changed Vietnam. They have become inexpensive enough to allow almost anyone who wants one to drive one. There are very few private cars in Vietnam, and these motorized bikes are rapidly replacing the ones powered by pedals. The streets of every city and town are over flowing with hundreds of thousands of these mechanized bikes. And when the motorbikes are not jamming the streets, they fill the sidewalks. There are few, if any, no-parking signs in Vietnam. Mobility is a human value. So is immobility. In this image we see symbols of both. The child is too young to drive, yet her life is already defined and circumscribed by the mass of parked machines that wall her off from friends and family. Mechanization is another human value, and it is rapidly becoming the dominant factor in daily life in Vietnam.