Social Documentary Photography and Film
Posted in Stirring The Fire on Apr 28th, 2010
“Women make change, but not in circumstances of their own choosing. They have to negotiate. They have to subvert tradition that once silenced them in order to give voice to new aspirations. . . We can use our tradition to navigate change.” Ted Talk by Kavita N. Ramdas, president and CEO of the Global Fund [...]
Posted in Stirring The Fire on Mar 24th, 2010
When One HEART decided to begin its program to address maternal mortality with the indigenous Tarahumara in Northern Mexico they contracted with Alisun Chopel to do a feasibility study for the program. Alisun was a student working on her Masters Degree in Public Health at UC Berkeley. She applied for an internship with One HEART [...]
Posted in Stirring The Fire on Mar 11th, 2010
For cross-cultural global health programs it’s critical to ensure that there is compatibility between the values of the program and the recipient culture. Since most Tarahumara women live several hours or days away from the nearest clinic or hospital they suffer one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in North America. Of course it [...]
Posted in Stirring The Fire on Nov 11th, 2009
When I read in the book Half the Sky (Kristof/Wudunn, [New York: Knopf, 2009], xx-xxi) that the Joint Chiefs of Staff now consider the education of women and girls important to our military goals in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and consequently to our security here at home, it gave me hope that US military thinking has [...]
Posted in Stirring The Fire on Oct 28th, 2009
Rachel Lloyd, founder of GEMS, New York City Exploited and trafficked girls in the United States According to the Department of Justice, over 100,000 adolescents are involved in prostitution in the United States. Sgt. Fassett of the Dallas Police dept pointed out an obvious irony of this situation. “If a 45 year-old man has sex [...]
Posted in Stirring The Fire on Oct 22nd, 2009
Women Empowered has been my primary focus project for sometime now. I am currently expanding the exhibition to include multimedia profiles of a number of the women. The first that I have completed is the story of Akhi, who at the age of 13, was sold as a sex worker. She has since accomplished the [...]
Posted in Stirring The Fire on Oct 8th, 2009
There are many who believe that the greatest handicap to development in Muslim Middle Eastern societies is the status and roles they give to women. Nowhere has this been more evident than in one of the poorest and dysfunctional countries in the world—Afghanistan. During the reign of the Taliban essentially all women working outside the [...]
Posted in Stirring The Fire on Sep 16th, 2009
In 2004, I began documenting the work of organizations whose focus is the empowerment of women and girls. After visiting dozens of projects and meeting hundreds of participants and staff around the world, I have also come to believe that the most efficient way to alleviate poverty and reduce population pressures in the developing world [...]
