11/29
2010
2010
From now until December 15, send me an email at glennagordon at gmail dot com if you’re interested in purchasing a photo print for the holidays and I’ll fill you in on the details.
I’m Glenna Gordon, an American photographer and journalist, presently commuting between West Africa and Brooklyn. Previously, I lived in Liberia. And before that, I lived in Uganda. I’ve traveled and worked in over a dozen countries in Africa.
I found the scarlett lion on the roof of a friend’s house in Kampala back in 2006 when I went through a crate of discarded items he and a few other artists had gathered. On that day, I was looking for something and I found the lion: a discarded kid’s toy made in China on the cheap, that somehow found it’s way to East Africa. Something about the hollowed out, paint chipped figurine appealed to my understanding of this place: I’d never seen a real lion, after all.
From now until December 15, send me an email at glennagordon at gmail dot com if you’re interested in purchasing a photo print for the holidays and I’ll fill you in on the details.
For the past couple of months I’ve been in the USA, and thanks to the wonders of fast interent, a bit of distance and time for thinking, as well as a great editor, I’ve given my portfolio site an overhaul. Here are some highlights, and I hope you’ll head over there and take a look.
Secret Lives of Uganda’s Gay Community
Delicate Balance: A Rainforest Threatened
Bill Diggs is a young Liberian journalist who took a photography workshop I taught in November 2009. He’d never formally learned about photography before, but he was an incredibly quick study. He worked hard, listened carefully, and made some beautiful images. Bill and I worked together pretty consistently after that. He helped me out with some projects, and I taught him as much as I could.
We got to shoot together in the field several times, which was always very fun.
Here’s a photo I took of him snapping in a rice farm in central Liberia:
And here’s the photo he took, followed by a couple of others also by Bill.
What’s even more amazing is that Bill’s not just a great snapper, he’s also a great teacher. Bill is now teaching photography at Liberia’s first post-war visual arts academy. When he first told me that he’d be teaching photography, I felt so incredibly proud of him and confident about his future. Not just does Bill have amazing skills, he’s now sharing them.
If you’re looking for a photographer or a fixer in Liberia, get in touch with Bill. His email is kukudiggs at yahoo dot com. You can also read his blog, and I know he’s working on getting a photo website up soon too. For more information about the Visual Arts Academy, contact Leslie Lumeh or with Bill. Tell them I said hello.
The next generation of Liberian storytellers is in good hands.
I think the stereotyping of Africa as “a dark continent” through photography is gradually changing. We still have a long way to go. It is good to see that the new generation of photographers who throng Africa are generally more sensitive than was the case.
Another point worthy of note is that there are quite a number of African photographers now who can tell their own stories. We didn’t get here in a day, so let’s give ourselves sometime to see the perception of Africa properly balance.
That’s Nana Kofi, a great Ghanaian photographer, chiming on a post I put up a couple weeks ago, Just how stereotypical are images of Africa?
There are 20 well thought out comments on that post — and that’s amazing. It’s amazing to me that so many smart people are invested in this debate. Perhaps that’s the strongest indicator we’ve got that things are indeed changing. Go over there and check out the debate!
An outtake from when I worked as a fixer for a film crew that did a short piece on the amputee football team in Liberia. See more of my pictures of the team here.
For everyone waiting for the clock to turn to weekend, here’s a great way to spend 3 minutes and 45 seconds. And it does indeed involve gold heels, magenta leggings, and a purple satin top, in case you were wondering. Big thanks to Shelby Grossman for sending this one my way.
Paynesville, April 2010.
Caption: “Be satisfied with what you have.” (Iva R. Skoch/GlobalPost)
GlobalPost has a great series of photos of sex ed murals in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The photos are by Iva R. Skoch who writes about sex and relationships around the world.
Only one qualm here — the headline says, “Murals teach Tanzanians to practice safe sex by avoiding parties, sugar daddies and big butts.” But really, this mural isn’t saying to avoid big butts, it’s about not straying from your relationships. For the record, big butts do not, in fact, pose any danger to your sexual health.
For the second time in my career, I have found out that someone I photographed has died. I don’t always get to find out what happens to people further down the line, and it’s an unfortunate reality that it’s likely others have passed away as well. But this is the second specific instance where I’ve known for certain that someone is gone.
Earlier this year, I spent quite a bit of time at the King George Home for the Elderly in Freetown, Sierra Leone, working on a portrait project. A couple of days ago, a colleague headed over to there to collect a couple of pieces of information for me since some of these images will be pubslished soon. She reported back to me that Santigi Sesay had passed away. After I got the news, I stared at his photo for awhile. Santigi wasn’t particularly talkative or friendly when I was there. He just sat in his chair, smoking cigarettes and staring out the window. But I loved this photo of him. It captured his not-particularly-friendly self, somehow, and speaks to the idea of isolation even within a group.
I’ll be back in Sierra Leone at King George’s early next year, but Santigi won’t be there. I wonder if someone else will be in his spot, or if it will remain empty. I wonder about his family, and his friends at King George’s. I printed photos for many of the residents, including him, and I wonder what he did with the photo.
It’s likely that this is the last photo of Santigi. It feels so surreal that he’s gone, but that a piece of him is still alive and present here.
I intended to put up a post about funding Krisanne Johnson’s amazing Swaziland work via Kickstarters, but her work is already funded. She’s that good. The money was raised prior to the deadline so she’ll be headed back there soon to continue work on I love you real fast. UPDATE: She’s also continuing to collect funds so as to have additional resources for her upcoming trip.
Her project “chronicles young women coming of age amidst the H.I.V/AIDS epidemic in Swaziland. Coming of age for Swazi girls is tough. A tiny African kingdom of 1 million, Swaziland reports the highest percentage of H.I.V positive people in the world, with the hardest hit being women aged 15-29.” The images are startling - both intimate and universal, and a testament to the power of visual storytelling in the hands of a committed documentarian. Be sure to check out her work, and if she needs funding anytime in the future and and head over there and make a donation. I can’t think of a better way to spend $10.
