© Mustafah Abdulaziz, from his series on water in Sierra Leone, “Water Is Gold”
posts tagged "Mustafah Abdulaziz"
from the series Water In Sierra Leone
“A boy washes in the second of two water points in Kroo Bay. The area is without access to clean water. Efforts to chlorinate these water points through the slum face behavioral challenges from the population: cholera and other water-borne diseases thrive in these conditions, chlorine in the wells degrades as they are used and the buckets used to retrieve the water are often dirty.”
from the series Water In Sierra Leone
“A man collects water from the polluted river running through the Grey Bush. The sources for water are limited and while international aid organizations have created temporary solutions in stand pipes, the issue of proper sanitation and water access has yet to be resolved.”
Going off the grid for a number of days starting right now, so I’ll leave you with a totally left-field image I took for a Monster headphones, whom (whom?) I got a call for while on another job while in Portland, so I shot it as a local on the heels of three days for Adidas.
I spent three days taking entirely unlike-me photos, but I really enjoyed it. I’ll share a bunch more next week. It does feel funny, very funny, to be sharing such a weird, disparate-feeling breadth of work on a day like today, as I plow through studio duties and go through back catalogues of work and attempt to not stay too far behind on things before I leave San Francisco again. I feel most at home with a Mamiya 7, “adventuring”, like the Big Sur gallery. That’s the kind of work I want to be thought of for, if anything.
I’m currently looking at Mustafah Abdulaziz’s project on water in Sierra Leone, which makes me feel like the biggest piece of shit as I focus on skin tone and glitter and a fake party scene for the past 15 minutes. That’s a whole ‘nother deal. My dad always told me to be constructive in life and in life/career pursuits. Most days I feel really good about what I do, but on other days everything I do seems incredibly frivolous, destined to fade within the month, if not the week. That feels bad.
I’ve got tremendous respect for photographers like Mustafah and Tim Hetherington and Damon Winter for actually applying their craft to a greater good, a greater force in the community and in the world. And I’d like to do more of that myself, through pro bono work most likely. I feel like, generally, photography is the thing I’ve got to offer the world. It sure as hell won’t be knowledge of physics or public policy. I’ve got a dormant project on Western water use (hi, Darrius) that I desperately need to get back up and going now that 2012 is over and my head is above water a bit again. So. 2013. Intent. Meaningful projects, both personal and pro-bono. Talk to me in December.
(Source: jakestangel)
Traditionally, water symbolizes life and renewal, but in Sierra Leone it is also a vehicle for epidemic and death — the focus of photographer Mustafah Abdulaziz’s project “Water Is Gold,” which documents the causes and effects of the country’s recent cholera outbreak.
Last year, Sierra Leone experienced the worst cholera outbreak in its history, Abdulaziz writes for the Pulitzer Center, which funded his trip. There were 20,736 cases of cholera with 280 deaths since the beginning of 2012, he adds.
Abdulaziz spent most of his time in and around Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, which, he writes, was “built to support less than half the current population of 2 million.” The slums are overcrowded, unsanitary and sprawling — the perfect breeding ground for the disease.
Sierra Leone’s Water Of Life — And Death
Photo Credit: Mustafah Abdulaziz
(via benjaminrasmussen)
Holy Trinity Primary School, Freetown, Sierra Leone by Mustafah Abdulaziz (via Between Outbreaks: Women and Water in Sierra Leone | Pulitzer Center)
