"Philosophy - people are better than we allow, we should represent humanity more honestly in our images. We have the gift within our hands to produce images that lend a weight of assistance. This is what I try to do."
I think in time, more and more photojournalists have come to doubt their role in events. In this world of proxy media, it’s often difficult to disseminate anything but a deeply bleak, voyeuristic view of the human condition. There is almost a sense that if you photograph a smiling person in some developing country, what you are in fact practicing is ‘travel photography’ – the idea that news could encapsulate such a thing has become anathema.
All the images presented here were taken in what we might call developing countries or countries of conflict, countries with terrible human rights records or staggering poverty. That is of course the side that is projected to world, and that is a very good thing too. But its only partially representative – the world is mostly full of good people getting on with life. And regardless of wealth or ethnicity, religion or ideology, most people carry the normal values of family, community and industry, with a dutiful sense of human responsibility.
“As the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler discuss in the ‘Art of Happiness in a Troubled World’, it is the way we think that we need to look at if we are to stop the violence. Make people feel good about being human and make them relate to ‘the others’.”
