Peacemaker Interview
- What does visual peacemaking mean to you?
Visual peacemaking to me, is about sharing a story – engaging hearts and minds with a perspective that celebrates diversity and beauty – abolishing the bland, colorless and even destructive stereotypes that at times seem to easily embraced.
- What motivates you to be a peacemaker?
Transformation. Cutting through misconceptions or illuminating seemingly hidden beauty throws open the gates of opportunity for change.
- Have you ever felt stereotyped?
Undoubtedly. As a young boy raised in rural Canada, I lived a number of months in the city of Kingston, Jamaica - it was a powerful and personal example to me of the impact of stereotypes. Later in life, the experience has been repeated in part as I’ve traveled the globe. To varying degrees I have been cast a certain way by the color of my skin and nationality on my passport.
- How does your camera get you to reflect on your world and your life?
Ever look at a folder of thumbnail images covering a vast swath of time? Perhaps a 365 project where you take a photo every day? It instantly becomes apparent that we are but a breath… a vapor. It matters how we spend our days.
- What do you like to photograph best?
People – in visually distinct cultural settings - working, playing, laughing – doing life.
- What technical aspect of photography do you find most challenging?
Stopping action in low light.
- Is there a particular group you feel is misunderstood or stereotyped that you’d like to document common humanity amongst?
Buddhist Monks of Northern Thailand.
- Do you have an idea worth sharing?
It’s easy to ‘take’ photographs; consider what your photographs ‘give’.
My Biography
A passion for evocative and compelling photographs has led me to peer into the hearts of cultures, and the eyes of their people. From South America to South East Asia, the Caribbean to North East Africa, I am drawn by their beauty, struggles, hope, and the narrative of their lives. The chapters I have captured in photographs have truly enriched my own story along the way.
With a penchant for venturing to hard places, the odyssey of cultivating cultural, destination, and humanitarian photography is where I am most alive. N49TH – Evocative. Compelling. Photography.
My Recent Activity
- I added: Haiti, Beyond the Quake
to Galleries on September 27, 2010 - I added: Haiti, Re-Cycled
to Photo Stories on September 26, 2010 - I added: A Taste of Thailand
to Galleries on August 23, 2010 - I added: Egypt
to Galleries on August 23, 2010
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