Today was my first day out in public, among others, among other citizens since the onset of Covid.
I was reminded how much I missed being around community, their pets, and signs, smiling and welcoming each other.
It was such a beautiful day to be protesting threatening conditions that may force more people back on the street in the glaring face of a virus with Greek Alpahbet attached.
The federal funding is here. The will of the people have spoken: Keep the Shelter-in-Place hotels open.
I was looking over my photos today and rediscovered this image from Haiti. I had split from my group and decided to take my Holga for a walk when I came upon a group of mausoleums. I observed the reddish-brown demarcation on the mausoleum where the floodwaters had risen,…..when from nowhere this young boy, walked into the frame. I was relieved that I was not seeing an apparition. This relief was based on my sense of rawness – from that sense of bearing witness to collective thirst, hunger, and misery. When we had arrived with our supplies we were not rushed upon as people had grown too weak… this was compounded by an eerie sense of quietude – as all the animals had either died in the flood or eaten to survive.
While the ten year anniversary of hurricane Katrina has came and gone, little has been reported about the second category five hurricane that hit just three weeks later – hurricane Rita washed ashore, impacting the already vulnerable states of Louisiana and the rural, sparsely populated regions of Texas.
BAY ST. LOUIS, MS — SEP 12, 2005: A soil sample is placed on a desk in the kindergarten classroom at Secondary Elementary School in Bay St. Louis, MS on Monday September 12, 2005. PHOTO: Ana Elisa Fuentes for The New York Times.
BAY ST. LOUIS, MS — SEP 12, 2005: Gene Herring, Environmental Engineer with the Mississippi Department of Health takes a soil sample from the kindgergarten classroom at Secondary Elementary School in Bay St. Louis, MS on Monday September 12, 2005. Samples were collected to check for heavy metals and toxins. PHOTO: Ana Elisa Fuentes for The New York Times.
BAY ST. LOUIS, MS — SEP 12, 2005: Gene Herring, Environmental Engineer with the Mississippi Department of Health holds a clay sample washed to shore from the “bottom of the Mississippi sound” – the area of water between the barrier islands and the shore. Samples were taken to test for heavy metals and toxins released from the hurricanes storm surge. Samples were collected at Secondary Elementary School in Bay St. Louis, MS on Monday September 12, 2005. PHOTO: Ana Elisa Fuentes for The New York Times.
GULFPORT, MS — SEP 9. 2005: Dr. Alan Manevitz, psychiatrist from New York, New York, embraces Frances Fields, an epidemiology nurse, from district two, Tupelo, Mississippi. Both are members of the Mississippi Emergency Agencies on the gulf coast. Dr. Manevitz, is a trauma expert who worked with the public during 9/11; volunteered to assist during hurricane Katrina. Photo: Ana Elisa Fuentes for the New York Times.
A nomadic woman walks with her belongings to the river, along the Plateau of Tibet, at elevation of 12,000 feet. Selected for the Voices Exhibition, on the occasion of The First Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, at the United Nations, in New York, New York. Photographed on Kodak color slide film with flash fill. Photo copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes.
Nuns walk with their dri ( a juvenile yak) on the Plateau of Tibet. Image copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes. Photographed on color slide film, donated by Kodak. Selected for the Voice exhibition, on the occasion of The First Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, United Nations.
Two women wait for a bus in Bluefields, Nicaragua. Selected for the Voices Exhibition, on the occasion of The First Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Photographed on Kodak color film. Photo copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes.
Women, members of the Dani tribe mourn, the passing of their tribal chief, in the Baliem Valley, of Irian Jaya. A very rare photograph. I was permitted to sit on my haunches at the entrance to the mourning hut to record three frames. Recorded on color film. Photo copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes. Selected for the Voices Exhibition, on the occasion of The First Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
A refugee from the war in El Salvador, this young girl studies at a school in San Miguel Desamparados, a village outside the of San José, Costa Rica. Recorded on Kodak black and white film, copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes. Selected for the Voices Exhibition, on the occasion of The First Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Selected for the exhibition by Her Eminence Mary Robinson.
Children on a street corner, with a playful scheme in mind, in Havana, Cuba. Recorded on black and white film. Image copyright, Ana Elisa Fuentes. Selected for the Voices Exhibition, on the occasion of The First Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
A mother carries cooking embers with her children following behind, on a main street in Port-au-Prince,Haiti. This photograph was recorded after the UN exhibit. However, it illustrates one of the main points in my presentation which I will deliver in Oxford, England, next month. Digital image, photo copyright, Ana Elisa Fuentes
A Haitian hurricane survivor waits for medical attention, at a refugee camp, in Jimani, Dominican Republic. Digital image copyright, Ana Elisa Fuentes. This photograph was recorded after the UN exhibit. However, it illustrates one of the main points in my presentation which I will deliver in Oxford, England, next month. Photography copyright, Ana Elisa Fuentes
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