On opening day eve, I spent most of my day dealing with my framers from hell. It's been such a fiasco dealing with these people. Mozambique hasn't quite gotten down the idea of customer service, so it has been extra frustrating. In essence, I've been lobbying these people to hand over or just let me see my frames that they had promised me would be done last Saturday. They were finally ready to be picked up this morning. They packed them into my car quickly trying to beat the rain. When I got home and had a chance to really examine them it was a glaring mess.
First, they didn't properly mat them. They used black construction paper rather than the white bevel-cut traditional mat I had requested and paid for. Thank goodness I had my receipt with all of this documented along with their stamp (they're big into stamps in this country). Besides the "mat," there was crud inside the glass of virtually every picture such as sawdust, cardboard and paint chips, and the backs of the custom frames had been taped shut. The nominal mats were poorly cut with slice marks, crooked lines, and creases.
I returned to my framer with a Mozambican friend, who as a native Portuguese speaker with cultural prowess that I just don't have, was able to navigate through the layers of workers in the shop and get them to agree to do what they should have done in the first place. We had to negotiate the time that they would be done which was gut-wrenching because we were supposed to have hung the show this evening. They said they'd be done at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. I'll be there at 9:00.
I told the handymen I hired to help me hang the photos to meet me at the gallery tomorrow at noon. It's going to be an incredibly busy day hanging the show and preparing the gallery for the opening reception at 6:30. I did get the keys to the gallery and I do have two big pictures that I printed for the window front in place there. So, at least there will be something to see along with wine, food, cool programs, caption boards and a soundtrack.
Showing posts with label Mozambique. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mozambique. Show all posts
20.11.09
19.10.09
Major Project Summary
John Easterby suggested writing out a summary of my project to help in the editing process. It worked. This is my "artist's statment," a term I feel uneasy with, and what I will have printed on the exhibition program and post in the show itself:
“The devastating impact of climate change, mainly caused by ballooning carbon emissions from rich Western nations, will hit hardest in Africa, a United Nations report has warned…Up to 30 per cent of Africa's coast could disappear as sea levels rise from between 15cm to 95cm in the next 100 years. Important cities such as Cape Town, Dar es Salaam and Maputo are at risk.” –The Independent, Nov. 6, 2006.
Vanishing Coast is an examination of the people who make Maputo’s beaches unique, find them sacred and spiritual, or use them for recreation or their economic livelihood. I began the project in 2007, initially building on an idea to document Lisbon’s marginal from Lisbon to Cascais. However, the evidence of coastal erosion in Maputo was so shocking, I immediately changed my focus. As a staff photographer at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in the U.S., I worked on an award-winning project called “The Beach Builders.” This project documented the impact of coastal erosion in Florida and other states. I tapped into that experience and began researching the problem in Maputo.
The collapsing road between the Mercado do Peixe and Costa do Sol was the most glaring example of erosion along the Marginal. Repairs were made and sea walls were built in an effort to prevent the ocean’s advance. Exposed roots of casuarina trees, originally planted to slow erosion, hang like skeletons to show where sand dunes once stood. And the most striking example of what Maputo’s beaches looked like less than 80 years ago are found in photographs of colonial Lourenço Marques by photographer José dos Santos Rufino. These photos, taken circa 1929, show a vast coastline with large beaches that no longer exist, as do other historical photos taken throughout the 20th century.
An advisor to the Mozambican government predicted that within 10 to 50 years Maputo’s beaches will disappear. The tees planted to slow deterioration are regularly felled and efforts to slow erosion, such as building seawalls and dumping construction rubble along the beach have failed. Experts attributed the 2007 flooding of Bairro dos Pescadores to climate change and Costa do Sol’s greatest protection from the Indian Ocean, Xefina Grande, is at risk of disappearing from the effects of rapid erosion.
Rather than photograph the progression of the coast’s physical deterioration, I chose to create a portrait of the coast through the people. This is a look of what will be lost without intervention.
“The devastating impact of climate change, mainly caused by ballooning carbon emissions from rich Western nations, will hit hardest in Africa, a United Nations report has warned…Up to 30 per cent of Africa's coast could disappear as sea levels rise from between 15cm to 95cm in the next 100 years. Important cities such as Cape Town, Dar es Salaam and Maputo are at risk.” –The Independent, Nov. 6, 2006.
Vanishing Coast is an examination of the people who make Maputo’s beaches unique, find them sacred and spiritual, or use them for recreation or their economic livelihood. I began the project in 2007, initially building on an idea to document Lisbon’s marginal from Lisbon to Cascais. However, the evidence of coastal erosion in Maputo was so shocking, I immediately changed my focus. As a staff photographer at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in the U.S., I worked on an award-winning project called “The Beach Builders.” This project documented the impact of coastal erosion in Florida and other states. I tapped into that experience and began researching the problem in Maputo.
The collapsing road between the Mercado do Peixe and Costa do Sol was the most glaring example of erosion along the Marginal. Repairs were made and sea walls were built in an effort to prevent the ocean’s advance. Exposed roots of casuarina trees, originally planted to slow erosion, hang like skeletons to show where sand dunes once stood. And the most striking example of what Maputo’s beaches looked like less than 80 years ago are found in photographs of colonial Lourenço Marques by photographer José dos Santos Rufino. These photos, taken circa 1929, show a vast coastline with large beaches that no longer exist, as do other historical photos taken throughout the 20th century.
An advisor to the Mozambican government predicted that within 10 to 50 years Maputo’s beaches will disappear. The tees planted to slow deterioration are regularly felled and efforts to slow erosion, such as building seawalls and dumping construction rubble along the beach have failed. Experts attributed the 2007 flooding of Bairro dos Pescadores to climate change and Costa do Sol’s greatest protection from the Indian Ocean, Xefina Grande, is at risk of disappearing from the effects of rapid erosion.
Rather than photograph the progression of the coast’s physical deterioration, I chose to create a portrait of the coast through the people. This is a look of what will be lost without intervention.
16.4.09
Deadly Borders: Landmines in Mozambique
Landmines make up a sinister physical border where crossing may bring death or maiming. These remnants of war create a barrier to keep military opposition but remain long after conflicts pass. Mozambique fought wars for nearly 30 years, first in a colonial war against the Portuguese and then in a civil war which lasted 16 more years.
After the war ended in 1992, the country left in shambles still held the undignified spot as one of the poorest in the world as it had after independence from the Portuguese in 1975. More than a decade later it still remains near the bottom. Left behind were scattered minefields throughout the country, many of them unmapped or without documentation. With a collapsed economy and dangerous terrain scattered with mines, aid organizations began helping the country.
The HALO Trust came to Mozambique in 1994 to take on the landmine problem and along with other organizations has been largely successful in clearing the northern portion of the country. In 2006 APOPO, a Belgium-backed group started their work using rats to detect landmines in Mozambique.
Men and women who work clearing minefields place themselves within delicate borders daily. Within the zones that are lined with explosives in Mozambique’s heat, they work behind protective masks and armored vests as a barrier between them and a potential detonation. With metal detectors and a few garden tools moving inches at a time inside a box marked with nylon rope and a piece of wood that they push forward gradually as they check for mines and other ordinances. It is a dangerous job and workers are sometimes killed in their mission to make the land inhabitable for Mozambicans.
Over the years thousands of Mozambicans have been killed and injured by landmines, and villagers have learned where minefields are after losing neighbors, loved ones or even livestock. They have been invaluable sources to organizations trying to clear the sites. Living with landmines bordering your village, has led to frustration and even feelings of betrayal after years of promises from organizations and inaction by their government. They know where they are, but simply need somebody to clear them, said Lawrence Timpson of HALO Trust.
Just outside of Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, landmines still remain in Mahlampsene. Although the site is still being cleared and portions have been released, people have already moved in along its border, living literally next to a minefield. Seeing an opportunity, Alex Joaquim, 28, could not pass up purchasing a home next to the former FRELIMO munitions site where he now runs a cantina where one of his main clients are HALO Trust workers.
The land is marked with stakes driven into the ground painted red or white. Red indicates that the land is unsafe, while white sticks means that the area has been cleared but is has not been officially released. These indicators guide villagers walking through where it is safe to step, often narrow spaces. On the land, Joaquim and neighbors are now farming.
In Gaza province, workers from APOPO are using Gambian pouched rats to find mines in the village of Mpilane. During the civil war mines were placed to ward off rebels from taking the railroad or gaining control of the Limpopo River which farmers depended on. However, after the war it took the leg of Francisco Tivane, 60, a farmer who working the land. Although he can no longer work and depends on friends and family, he considers himself lucky. His accident served as a warning to others in the area to stay out of the potentially deadly zone
Landmines are a borders created by man with the sole intention of killing or injuring others. In Mozambique, these deadly barrier are still harming people.
Deadly Borders - Images by Michael Barrientos
After the war ended in 1992, the country left in shambles still held the undignified spot as one of the poorest in the world as it had after independence from the Portuguese in 1975. More than a decade later it still remains near the bottom. Left behind were scattered minefields throughout the country, many of them unmapped or without documentation. With a collapsed economy and dangerous terrain scattered with mines, aid organizations began helping the country.
The HALO Trust came to Mozambique in 1994 to take on the landmine problem and along with other organizations has been largely successful in clearing the northern portion of the country. In 2006 APOPO, a Belgium-backed group started their work using rats to detect landmines in Mozambique.
Men and women who work clearing minefields place themselves within delicate borders daily. Within the zones that are lined with explosives in Mozambique’s heat, they work behind protective masks and armored vests as a barrier between them and a potential detonation. With metal detectors and a few garden tools moving inches at a time inside a box marked with nylon rope and a piece of wood that they push forward gradually as they check for mines and other ordinances. It is a dangerous job and workers are sometimes killed in their mission to make the land inhabitable for Mozambicans.
Over the years thousands of Mozambicans have been killed and injured by landmines, and villagers have learned where minefields are after losing neighbors, loved ones or even livestock. They have been invaluable sources to organizations trying to clear the sites. Living with landmines bordering your village, has led to frustration and even feelings of betrayal after years of promises from organizations and inaction by their government. They know where they are, but simply need somebody to clear them, said Lawrence Timpson of HALO Trust.
Just outside of Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, landmines still remain in Mahlampsene. Although the site is still being cleared and portions have been released, people have already moved in along its border, living literally next to a minefield. Seeing an opportunity, Alex Joaquim, 28, could not pass up purchasing a home next to the former FRELIMO munitions site where he now runs a cantina where one of his main clients are HALO Trust workers.
The land is marked with stakes driven into the ground painted red or white. Red indicates that the land is unsafe, while white sticks means that the area has been cleared but is has not been officially released. These indicators guide villagers walking through where it is safe to step, often narrow spaces. On the land, Joaquim and neighbors are now farming.
In Gaza province, workers from APOPO are using Gambian pouched rats to find mines in the village of Mpilane. During the civil war mines were placed to ward off rebels from taking the railroad or gaining control of the Limpopo River which farmers depended on. However, after the war it took the leg of Francisco Tivane, 60, a farmer who working the land. Although he can no longer work and depends on friends and family, he considers himself lucky. His accident served as a warning to others in the area to stay out of the potentially deadly zone
Landmines are a borders created by man with the sole intention of killing or injuring others. In Mozambique, these deadly barrier are still harming people.
Deadly Borders - Images by Michael Barrientos
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