The Salt Workers

Continuing our celebration for astonishing yet under-appreciated workers of our world, we are excited to announce that the planning of a new book is in the conceptual stage under the working title “The Salt Workers of Afar.

This book will include portraits of Ethiopian salt workers and editorial images of their process of extracting salt from the hottest place on earth in the Danakil Depression, located in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Many stories have been written about this area recently including this article from the New York Times.

This book will be the second in a series depicting workers around the world. The first book focusing on market workers from Bahir Dar, Ethiopia was published in 2014.

Content for the book was obtained during several visits to the Afar region beginning in 2013. Most recently in February of 2018, a small team traveled to the area to set up a portable studio as part of a Prints For Prints project, donating photographic prints to each worker they interviewed. In addition to giving a cherished photograph to the nomadic workers, sunglasses were distributed which were donated from nursing home members in Coos Bay.

Events are planned to celebrate this nomadic culture, a tribe of people who shun modern tools and mechanization in favor of being led on foot by the sun and moon and shape their salt blocks by hand using ancient salt picks.

Current events are:

April 13-14, 2018, Where We Began: Night-time image video and sound projection on buildings in Astoria, Oregon as part of the IlluminART festival

August + September, 2018, The Salt Workers of Afar, print exhibit at Pushdot Studio in Portland, Oregon, reception August 2, 7-9PM

Contact us if you have questions or ideas about the project. We would love to hear from you!

Images from the Afar region of Ethiopia

Images from the Afar region of Ethiopia

The Market Workers: A Tribute

We are so very pleased to announce the launch of our beautiful little book The Market Workers, a loving tribute to some of the hardest workers on earth.

This book has been a labor of love for many years, starting when I first entered the market in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia and saw the tireless energy and positive mindsets of the market workers who work so very hard each day to bring food, clothing/textiles, spices and household wares to so many. From simple dinner tables to high end luxury hotels, these people make sure there is a ready supply of items that feed the body and soul.

This book could not have been created without the help from so many others. Enormous gratitude goes first and foremost to Lincoln Miller, owner of PushDot Studio, who labored over the files to get them to look colorful and lively, all with a consistent feel, even though the images were created over a three year time span. His talented and gracious wife, Dardi Troen, owner of Ditroen, worked with renowned educator and artist (and very good friend!) Kirsten Rian to create the look and feel of the design of the book and sequence the images. We could not select a cover image (this proved too difficult when I love all of the workers!) so the cover is a very simple black face with red/orange foil type.

Aida Muluneh, founder of the Addis Foto Fest, penned a heartfelt introduction to the book and coordinated an exhibit, and mentor and friend Mary Ellen Mark, who has had a huge influence on my visual heart and soul, wrote a special sentiment.

Words escape me when trying to articulate the gratitude I have for the assistance I received while in Ethiopia from my many friends there, from the city officials in Bahir Dar, and above all, from Habtamu, my trusty guide and friend who works in the markets in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.

The printing was done by Brown Publishing, with astonishing results. The colors are deep and saturated, and skin tones are true to life.

Each book was lovingly crafted with a hard cover, the highest quality papers and flat lying binding. This is a very short run (only 200 copies) and many of them were given to people in Ethiopia (including the energetic market worker who coordinated the project within the market) when the book was launched during The Market Workers exhibition opening at the National Museum of Ethiopia last December.

Prints have been shown at Lightbox Gallery, PushDot Studio, Katayama GalleryThe Clymb headquarters, and have been included in many other international exhibits. Special gratitude to Laura Domela, for her painterly hand at post processing each image to appear lifelike. The sales of these prints offset costs that enabled this book to be published, so a sincere thank you goes to those who purchased prints.

Each book costs $40, plus shipping and handling.  All proceeds enable me to pay for the cost of producing the book, plus allows me to keep doing the work I do in Ethiopia.

Kindly email me to reserve a copy.

 

The Market Workers Book

The Market Workers Book

Behind the scenes of the Market Workers series: Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

Market Workers Lightbox Gallery

 

TEDxPortland Book

Last summer, I received a call from the coordinator of the TEDxPortland, asking if they could produce a book of my images to hand out to all participants.

They wanted something with a gritty street look and feel, and requested that I send images of the “real” Portland and a few other areas: from skateboarders to drag queens to strippers to authors and everything in-between. I was also asked to create a few images for their sponsors as a thank you for their support.

This week the book will finally go to the printers and we could not be more excited to see it come hot off of the presses.  The book is available only to participants of the 2014 TEDxPortland talks.

If you want to take one home with you, get your tickets here.

Homeless man in park

Drag Queen at Peacock in the Park

Outside of the Chrystal Ballroom

TEDxPortland

Worldwide Photography Biennial Exhibition

One of my favorite images, “Abera”, was selected by Steve McCurry in his list of “special mentions by the juror” category and will be included in the curated exhibit opening at the Borges Cultural Center in December in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

This image is dear to me because while I was deep in a remote area of Ethiopia photographing a midwife, I turned around and saw this young boy looking at me with the most intense expression. I had seconds to react, obtain his ok to permit me to photograph him, and not lose that moment where he seems to be looking into my soul.

My focus was off. I usually focus on the eyes, and in this image the center of focus is on his hands. But had I taken longer to compose the shot to my liking, I would have captured an entirely different portrait.

I look at this image almost every day to remind me of the level of humanity that is found in the spirit of the Ethiopian people.

(Funds from any sales of prints are returned to projects in Ethiopia.)

 

Cheryl Strayed Author Photo: Wildly Running Rampant!

Holy Moly! Cheryl Strayed’s book, Wild, is taking the world by storm!

Her book is everywhere, she is being interviewed on all kinds of programs in numerous cities (at once!) and soon she will be riding the Hollywood train, as her book movie rights were purchased by Reese Witherspoon, who will produce and star in the upcoming movie.

I can’t keep up with her, and where my author photo is landing.  Here are a few places.

The New York Times:

NPR:

Interview Magazine:

 

The New Yorker

 

Random House:

 

The Boston Phoenix:

 

Biographie:

 

 

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