My image in an upcoming Black and White Photography exhibit

Great News!! An image of mine from Guatemala was selected for the upcoming "Back in Black" Black Box Gallery show in Portland, Oregon. The show will feature selected Black and White images from around the world.

Life in the Alotenango Dump

A special note regarding the image above, These are the hands of a young child no older than ten that works in the dump alongside his family.






This morning I accompanied two of the workshop students on a trip to the Alotenango dump which acts as Antigua's main dump. There are quite a few families that live and work on the grounds, they spend their time sifting through the garbage in search of valuables such as plastics and metals to later sell. I'll tell you as I told the students on our way back from the dump, for a growing photographer photographing such a scene, this was a maturing assignment and subject matter. Watching and photographing this woman with two children, one of which is tied onto her back, searching through the dump for plastic bottles is simply moving. It's difficult not to be affected by your subject matter and their surrounding enviroment but you must for the moment, put those those feelings aside and work on telling the story.

A trip to the Orphange

Yesterday we took a trip with the photo students to an Orphanage run by the God's Child Project. We shared great moments with the kids and employees.

Antigua, Guatemala

Our workshop has moved on here after some time in the big city. A beautiful ancient city, Antigua was the capital of Guatemala from the 1540's through the 1770's. My first impression photographing in this town was about how difficult it was to take an image that didn't look too touristy as we were maneuvering between the street vendors that hassle each gringo along the way. We split up into smaller groups of 2-4 each and explored the area hitting the local market where to can find nearly everything and anything for sale. After being out photographing from morning till dusk, with minor breaks throughout the day for some great coffee and Coca-Cola with real sugar of course, we gather in a local restaurant for dinner and cerveza to critique our days works. The critques so far have been lasting nealry 3 hours, well into the night. Then we wake up the next day and begin the cycle again. A photographers dream, here are my shots from today. Enjoy.

Day 2 in Guatemala, La Limonada Slum

A quick shot while cruising around this morning on our way into La Limonada Slum, the most dangerous slum in Guatemala City.