Blog

Remembering First Responders on 9/11

Dust Storm in the Desert

I was in a beat-up taxi traveling through the desert to a town called Jaisalmer near the India-Pakistan border. It was in June, and as hot as the planet ever gets. The rains had failed in that part of Rajasthan for thirteen years. I wanted to capture something of the mood of anticipation before the monsoon.

Close Call at the Beach in Bombay

This is the last frame I shot before I was attacked by a group of drunken revelers who pushed my head underwater (my camera was around my neck) while I was photographing the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Bombay. Remarkably, the roll of film still had images on it despite being submersed. You can still see the water marks on it. My camera and all of my equipment was destroyed in this incident.

Back to Nairobi

Earlier this week I was on a shoot in Nairobi and passed a hand-painted sign with the Kodak logo and I had someone take a picture on my Blackberry to send to a friend of mine at Kodak. The image that he took is pictured here.

Vrindavan - The City of Widows

I was walking down the street in Vrindavan when I saw her. I followed this old woman down the street, and after a few minutes, she noticed that I was behind her.

Vrindavan, India, is the city of widows. After their husbands die, they are often shunned by family and members of the community who see them as a drain on limited resources. They cannot remarry, and walking in their shadows is considered bad luck. Ostracized by society, thousands of India's widows go to the holy city waiting to die.

Chasing the Monsoon: A Year in the Rain

I was eleven years old when I saw a photo essay on the monsoon in India in Life Magazine by Brian Brake, the New Zealand-born Magnum photographer.

His work established his reputation as a master color photoessayist. Twenty years later, I proposed a story to National Geographic to photograph the monsoon. The next year I joined Magnum Photos.

People have often asked me what it was like spending almost a year photographing the monsoon. I spent several months following the monsoon which affects half the people on the planet.

Dith Pran - Out of the Killing Fields

I went to Cambodia in 1986, on an assignment given to me by Kathy Ryan of the New York Times Sunday magazine to photograph Dith Pran and Haing Ngor.

My assignment coincided with Diane Sawyer who was doing an ABC news piece on Dith Pran and Haing Ngor returning to Cambodia after filming the movie “The Kiling Fields.” It was the first time Pran had returned to his country, and it was still a bit dangerous because there were still Khmer Rouge in the countryside.

The Legacy of W. Eugene Smith - The Camera as Conscience

The first time I saw W. Eugene Smith’s photographs was in a fine art photography class in college. As we worked on our own pictures in the darkroom, we talked with awe about Smith’s legendary obsession for perfection, which drove him to spend long days in the darkroom. His drive and idealism fascinated me. He was so dedicated to his ideals and principles that later in his career, he was fired for refusing to use medium-format cameras.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

In Tibetan Buddhism, debate is considered an integral part of sharpening critical thinking and analytical abilities and demonstrating one's understanding of Buddhist logic and philosophy.

These monks are part of a sect called the Yellow Hat Sect or Gelugpa. It was formed by a reformer in the 14th century who wanted to emphasize compassion and emptiness. The Dalai Lama is the leader of this group. The picture of the debating monks was taken in India during the time that the Dalai Lama was present.