Jaipur traffic from Conrad on Vimeo.
Every time we hit the road, it was like this.
The sidewalk shots that zoom by are actually very interesting if you pause and view them frame-by-frame.
Video shot by Conrad Chavez. Conradchavez.com
Blog
From Delhi Airport to Jaipur
Dehli airport to Jaipur from Conrad on Vimeo.
Our first encounter with the highways of India.
Jesse Powell: India 2009
Jesse Powell: India has more inspiring stories than could ever be told. Despire all the trouble, the hardship, the poverty, the Indian people seem eternally optimistic. Their optimism is not without good cause, thanks to organizations like Vatsalya, and the unwaveringly devoted, often self-sacrificing people who’ve committed themselves to the greater good. More than anything else, it was the stories of these crusaders that I found most intriguing. We’re not talking about people with nothing better to do. These are MDs, PhDs, – people with everything in the world going for them, who chose to give up lucrative careers in order to devote more time to humanitarian causes. The guts, the vision, the long-term societal interest put before one’s own – it pulls at the heartstrings. What are these men and women made of, and how can we make more of them? They’re setting an example that will be challenging, yet compelling to meet. I think all of us on the SalaamGarage team were blown away. With friends like these, who needs angels?
India 2009: Jesse Powell
Jesse Powell is the co-founder and CEO of Lewt, Inc. and the found of Verge gallery & Studio Project. His primary interests are philosophy, law, education, and psychology. He says, “Ultimately, I’d like to do something big to help improve education around the world, (including public education in the U.S.) My feeling is that poor education really is at the root of a number of the world’s other major problems. If we can get education sorted out, these other problems will solve themselves.”
Simon Cordova: Samvedna Mobile Van Project
Simon Cordova: I traveled to India to photograph Vatsalya’s mobile van project, Samvedna (Karune). Once on the ground, I met the broken but lucky few street children of Jaipur that have made it to Udayan. The other joyful faces I photographed in the slums made me think of my family in Kansas. The street children are the same age as my nieces and nephews but each one of them has faced hardships my family will never face. Just like my loved ones, they are just starting to learn about life. The children of Jaipur have learned to survive but know nothing of self-worth. Vatsalya gives care and deserved attention to their hair, nails, feet and imagination. This gives them the necessary self-confidence to start their own lives from a place we so often take for granted.
Simon Cordova is a traveling documentary/feature film photographer whose work embodies his adventurer’s spirit. Whether on a crowded bus in India or wandering alone int he Lower Ninth Ward, all of his senses are engaged, and his camera is poised to capture something incredible. When photographing faces, Simon’s subjects immediately recognize his friendliness, energy, and sincerity – and reciprocate with striking emotional honesty. Originally from Lawrence, Kansas, Simon studied photography at the institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. He lives in Los Angeles – until the next adventure begins.
simoncordova.com | twitter @simon_cordova
Amanda Koster:Guatemala 2010
Guatemala suffered more than 36 years of internal conflict (Guatemala Civil War 1960-1996), which formally ended with the signing of the Peace Accords at the end of 1996. Boxboles originated from the time indigenous Mayan peoples spent in hiding during that conflict. Tortillas were too risky to make—the slapping sounds could have given away their hiding places in the mountains. Boxboles are made without slapping dough, so they were a safer food to eat. After the conflict, the families have continued to eat them both in everyday and special occasions.
Guatemala 2010: Amanda Koster – Images by Amanda Koster
Amanda Koster
Amanda Koster is an internationally acclaimed photographer whose commercial and personal work has shown a consistent commitment to telling stories of real people, human rights, cultural diversity and global equality. She combines her anthropology background with multi-media skills to create content as a means for powerful communication and storytelling.
SalaamGarage is a digital storytelling organization that partners with International NGOs and local non-profits.
Participants (amateur and professional photographers, writers, videographers, etc.) connect with international NGOs, create and share independent media projects that raise awareness and cause positive change in their online and offline social communities.
We partner with grass roots, forward thinking organizations. Through our trips, one experiences rare access to the work of social entrepreneurs that would otherwise go unreported, while engaging with local communities on an entirely new level.
Our teams of traveling media makers publish their SalaamGarage projects in magazines, books and newspapers. They get the word out when they produce gallery exhibitions, write blogs, give presentations, organize fundraisers, and more. Our teams participate on-the-ground as creative global citizens, communicators, and change makers.
We are the media now. Join us.
Proceeds from this book will benefit the NGO profiled in its pages.
Udayan School: Aisha Zakiya-Boyd, India 2009
I was touched by Jaipur’s street children learning and living at Udayan school. Udayan literally means, “rising and moving ahead.” This is a place where children learn to be children again, while working through ad gaining support for all they have seen and been through. In a country where NGOs are seen as untrustworthy, questionable and unreliable, Vatsalya continue to make a difference and extend its reach to serve the community. Part of my mission is to raise awareness about the programs that Vatsalya offers to women and children. You can help with your donation or by simply sharing our stories with your friends and family.
Aisha-Zakiya Boyd has always enjoyed traveling and exploring new people and places, and for several years her job as a consultant allowed her to travel throughout the United States and its territories. In 2007, she picked up her camera and begin seriously developing her photographic eye,and it was with SalaamGarage that she dusted off her passport and began traveling internationally again. Currently traveling and shooting in the Caribbean, Aisha looks forward to experiencing and photographing new cultures this year to add to an expanding portfolio. When she is not traveling and photographing, Aisha spends time playing with doggies, salsa-dancing, laughing and creating art.
Jody Steere:Guatemala 2010
“Our camera lenses couldn’t capture all the hard work we were privy to witnessing, but it captured some of their natural beauty, their laughter, and their colorful traditions.”
Guatemala 2010: Jodi Steere – Images by Jody Steere
Jody Steere
Jody Steere, a homemaker, mother, and sports photographer was particularly attracted to the possibility of bringing her love of photography, travelling, and education together in a single event. She reflects, “the concept of people coming home and sharing what they’ve learned, from any angle or avenue, makes it that much more exciting.”
Jody is equally excited to join SalaamGarage as a granddaughter/ grandmother team, with her 83- year old “Grandma Phebe.” In the spirit of thinking globally and acting locally, Jody would love to create a multimedia educational opportunity for the children of the Seattle/Bellevue area based on her observations and experiences with the people of Guatemala.
Mira Zaki:Guatemala 2010
“My trip to Guatemala with SalaamGarage was one of the most incredible trips of the 21 countries I’ve visited and of the 31 years of my life so far!”
Guatemala 2010: Mira Zaki – Images by Mira Zaki
Mira Zaki
Mira Zaki is a New York City -based photographer. Educated at the Brooks Institute of Photography, she brings expertise and professionalism to the field of documentary and travel photography. Due to her upbringing with an Egyptian-American family in Seattle and Southern California, she has been infused with a rich appreciation of multicultural food exploration. 15 years in the photography business have prepared her to make a positive impact through storytelling and publishing less-publicized stories, such as the indigenous Mayans of Guatemala.
Her work appears at www.mirazaki.com, and she blogs at mirazaki.blogspot.com.
Patrick Lennox Wright:Guatemala 2010
“Perseverance through learning and hard work leads to one common goal in all Agros villages we visited: to provide a home, an education, and land for every child.”
Guatemala 2010: Patrick Lennox Wright – Images by Patrick Lennox Wright
Patrick Lennox Wright
Patrick Lennox Wright is a freelance commercial photographer living in Seattle. After growing up in Burlington, Vermont, he studied at the Rhode Island School of Photography in Providence. The past 15 years have included positions as photo editor of an online snowboard magazine and photo coordinator for a leading snowboard company.
Patrick currently shoots for a wide array of clients and organizations, lo- cal and national. His specialties include lifestyle, product, action sports, events, and photojournalism. Patrick’s current work can be viewed at www.plwp.com.
What are we losing in the Andes of Peru?
What are we losing in the Andes of Peru? One answer would be that we are losing glaciers. It is predicted that in the next 10 years 70% of the world’s tropical glaciers – found in Peru – will disappear. The result is that an entire region of people will be without water to drink or grow food. The effects are being felt right now by mountain communities in the Andes. When we take a deeper look we start to realize that it’s not simply the loss of water and villages. What’s being lost is the history of how the unique properties of glacial water have shaped these communities and how they in turn have come to understand the world around them. We are losing the accumulated wisdom found in ice cores and human cores. We are losing our collective history, the rings of our family tree.
Water from glaciers is more alkaline and contains more minerals than most water on Earth. People that live from glacial water in various mountain communities around the globe have healthier and longer lives. This serves them well in a rugged environment making their physical bodies more resilient. The food that grows in mountain communities is also packed with vitamins and minerals and many of them are known as super-foods today. If we look closely at how the water, land, and people are bound together we see that they make up a unique eco-system. Each eco-system is a web of other systems whether they are mineral, plant, animal, or human – creating life-cycles that are as unique as a single snowflake. The accumulated collective wisdom immeasurable – a living history there for us to respect and aspire to understand. The predictions are that this region will be in crisis mode within 5 years. This unique history of a resilient people is being lost in a few breaths of a single lifetime.
We can not change the course of what will happen to the glaciers and people of Peru, just as we can not cheat death in our own lives. We can however change how we live now and therefore our legacy. Our natural inclination to strive forward in life is the same motivation that compels us to understand on a more intimate level what is happening to the glaciers and people of Peru.
Eco-systems are a form of story-telling. Each one begins with a unique set of actors on their own stage, with a specific set of props. As the sun rises and sets her story unfolds. We are made of these stories. Water with its flowing nature is the hand that writes our living breathing biological story. Water with its power to transform from solid to liquid, and gas is the heart that writes our metaphorical story. As in the beginning- there is only ever the story of water.
I’m excited to lead this particular trip to Peru NOW and document this unique story and it’s people. I am burning with anticipation as to how glacial water will taste in my mouth and crisp mountain air will feel in my lungs. I want to compare how the sunlight reflects from their, trees, lakes, and eyes. How will our personal stories intersect with theirs? What do we share and what makes us different? Where are the contours of their snowflakes and where are ours?
We live in a unique time and important part of our collective human story. We need you to be a citizen journalist. We need you to come to Peru and listen to the stories happening there. We need you to personally carry those stories back and share them with your friends and family. We need you to look back and see that these stories have been carried by water from the Incas to the people of Peru today, to you. The glaciers may indeed disappear from the Andes but the stories must carry on.
Trip dates June 29th – Jul 10th 2011.
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