Evan Abramson: Bolivia

Evan is a freelance photographer in Bolivia for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald and Bloomberg News. His website tells us that he dedicated the past three years to creating a visual narrative of the lives and experiences of Andean farmers in some of the highest and farthest settlements of humans in Bolivia. He participated in as much of the daily lives and rituals of the Andean farmers as he could, including the Tinku, or “Encounter”—a ritual fight between members of neighboring zones or villages—even going so far as to learn the Pre-Columbian Quechua language more widely spoken in the Andean countryside than Spanish.

He lived and traveled through a wide network of rural Andean villages and provincial lands of barren pastoral settings, meeting mostly farmers, economically impoverished, but humble and earnest in their approach to life.

His affection for the Bolivian people, and his strong connection to Bolivia, are both evident in his powerful, and yet sensitive, work.

This is the second posting on Evan's work. The first was in mid February, when his work on the Tinku festival was published in a slideshow feature in the New York Times. I look forward to admire further work from Evan.

Dirk Panier: 'Must-See' Multimedia

Dirk Panier is a photographer from Belgium, and has created an incredibly beautiful multimedia flash website...probably one of the best I've seen. It's a 'must-see"....not necessarily for the photographs, but for the creativity of the whole feature.

His multimedia galleries are not only creative, but are inventive, of extremely good taste, and are visually and aurally compelling. Cuba, Morocco, Tunisia, Sicily, Syria, Jordan, Istanbul, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand are represented, and are all exceptionally attractive galleries.

Dirk's galleries are accompanied by interesting music and chants. The gallery of Tunisia is accompanied by an Egyptian soundtrack, but this slight oversight hardly matters. Don't miss the steam coming out of the teapot's spot in the Moroccan feature!!!

I have considerable admiration for the aesthetic skills and creativity required to bring all the elements of this multimedia package together, and I strongly encourage you to devote ample time to savor it and then bookmark it. I'm envious of Dirk's skills...you may be too.

James Nachtwey: United Nations Show

The United Nations is currently exhibiting the superlative photographs of James Nachtwey depicting the pain and suffering of people afflicted with AIDS and tuberculosis.

A poignant passage about the exhibition from the article in the New York Times:

"In Thailand, north of Bangkok, he (Nachtwey) came across an American priest named Michael Bassano who spends endless days with the most desperate of AIDS patients, massaging their feet, changing their diapers, helping them die. Their flesh clings like cellophane to their bones, and their eyes roll up in their heads. In one photograph Father Bassano’s arm just barely extends into the lower right corner of the frame, clasping the tiny wrist of a young woman named Lek. She stares doe-eyed back at him, as if from the grave."