For “A Mother’s Devotion”, photojournalist Jessica Dimmock documented the story of Natacha, a mother fighting to keep her children healthy in Burkina Faso. Watch the interview:
Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
Interview with Photojournalist Jessica Dimmock
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010Interview with Photojournalist Marcus Bleasdale
Saturday, June 12th, 2010Marcus Bleasdale, the photographer behind “Frustration”, traveled to Djibouti in northeast Africa where he captured not only what malnutrition looks like, but also why it exists, how mothers of malnourished children experience it, and what MSF is doing to try to fight it. Watch the video interview:
The Art of Invisible Photography
Monday, June 7th, 2010Stephen Mayes – Director, VII Photo Agency
Burkina Faso 2009 © Jessica Dimmock/VII Network
India 2010 © Stephanie Sinclair/VII
Democratic Republic of Congo 2009 © Franco Pagetti/VII
It’s tempting to think that a photographic project should be about photography, but in the context of Starved For Attention this would be misleading.
The challenge to the photographers working on this project with MSF was to inform and inspire the viewer, to provoke and raise questions, but not to distract from the issues under scrutiny. The mission was to make simple images about complex subjects, pictures that would peel away the layers of statistics and data to reveal an unadorned truth: this is about real people with the same daily needs as our neighbors in New York, London or Tokyo.
There is no magic in these pictures, only a direct truth about subjects that might seem far away but which in reality are immediate and familiar to all of us. We all need a square meal.
But the idea of a square meal is deceptive in its simplicity. Working in collaboration with our inspiring colleagues at MSF the photographers of VII found ourselves exploring convoluted layers of surprise, contradiction and irony. We found lives lived in the midst of plenty yet wasted for the price of a fish that is within reach yet unreachable; we witnessed abnormality made normal by the shrunken expectations of the preceding generations; we visited the vast corn fields of Illinois and watched the massive machinery of American industry pouring $6 billion into a hole that cannot be filled by corn alone.
And above all we found hope in the midst of despair: a child crying full-force in his fight for life amidst a lush but war-ravaged landscape; a mother hewing wood from dawn to earn the money to buy a meal she won’t eat so her baby will grow, and mothers walking so many miles to find the help and support they need to care for their children.
And as we looked at the images loading onto our servers from around the world we ultimately saw the true simplicity of this complex issue: this condition of malnutrition that is today decimating the lives and futures of 195 million children is curable now. All it takes is knowledge and the will to make a change.
There is no place for art or artifice in this situation, only action. We hope that you appreciate the photography and we hope that you ignore it. Look through the images to see the lives behind them. If some simple photos can spark a reaction, your action, our efforts will have been fulfilled.