Rhonda Rubinstein Essay

I went around the world in 288 photo essays. Along the way I encountered stories about gypsies and farmers, religious rituals and strippers, AIDS and Agent Orange, women behind veils and women behind bars, lost tribes and demolished housing projects, martyrs and murderers, the poor and the poorer, and always the stories about wars that do not end. The competition entries in FiftyCrows' International Fund for Documentary Photography allowed me a glimpse into what is happening beyond the borders of our everyday lives.

I saw innovative approaches to telling stories through images. Stories about the lives of the poor in Brazil seen solely through their close-quartered makeshift housing. Photographic techniques more commonly applied to architectural monuments were used to give the shantytowns of Rio the lush color and brilliance of exotic villas. The allure of the photographs intrigued me to consider the lives of people who lack basic water and electricity.

Or stories about the Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina. Presented as diptychs, I saw intense close-up portraits of the mothers with the pain etched on their faces, combined with lyrical images of the places where their sons or daughters were last seen. In between I can only imagine what might have occurred, and what the mother must live with.

The photo essays also made me realize that documentary photographers are the real journalists and story-tellers of our times. Dedicated photographers working (sometimes for years) on a single project can reveal unimaginable truths, beauty, and-all too often-horrors. They do the research, gain the trust, spend the time, and reveal complicated issues through their photographic narratives and explicit captions. These photographers are so committed to telling a story that they forfeit their comfort and often risk their lives to take the pictures they want the world to see.

These are not easy photographs for the world to see. It was hard to look at a photograph of children walking past a burnt body along a street in Nigeria. But it was even harder to realize that this may be a common sight for these children living amidst brutality and war.

There are not many places to see such compelling photographs. For these stories are not necessarily today's news. These are the ongoing struggles or rituals of life, the personal stories that illuminate the bigger issues. The twenty images that make up each photo essay offer a context to empathize with the subjects and understand their situations. With so few opportunities to see in-depth documentary stories, it is a privilege to have gone on such a journey to see these photographs. These are not stories that can easily be forgotten.

Rhonda Rubinstein August 2003

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