Randy Travis

Randy Travis is a unique performer. His deep, distinctive voice is easily recognized on the radio. But he is unique as a person too. I’ve had the privilege of photographing him on several occasions when he performed with his band at a small, intimate, venue at St. Louis Family Church in Chesterfield, MO. In this setting Randy is given the opportunity to relax and really open up. He has shared some very personal things with the audience and the audience in return allows him the freedom to get real.

Randy and his wife Elizabeth, donated a fully outfitted truck and utility trailer to Service International. It was extensively used for relief work for  Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Katrina, and for flood projects in Missouri. I mention it as just one example of how I have been able to see Randy Travis. I’ve had the privilege to see him as few people can see a star of his prominence. I’ve seen his love in action. He is more than a good  song. He is the real deal.

 

What a camera sees

I believe that a camera shows as much about the photographer as it does the subject. Rick Sammon is fond of saying, “The camera looks both ways.” If that is the case, then you can see the respect and admiration that I have for the man in this portrait. He is Trey Perry, Director of Service International. He has improved the lives of thousands of people all over the world. I caught him fishing during a rare free moment in his busy schedule. In the background you see the Port Bolivar Lighthouse and skyline of Galveston, TX reflecting in Galveston Bay. Mr. Perry and Service International did a lot of work to help people on Bolivar Peninsula after Hurricane Ike.

Sometimes God rewards a person, who cares and helps people like Trey Perry does. Just moments after this shot Trey landed a beautiful 10 lb Redfish.

 

foto, foto, foto

These children live in a slum on the outskirts of Phenom Penh, Cambodia. Their homes are made of discarded sheets of metal, scraps of wood and plastic tarps. But, they have such wonderful smiles. I remember vividly how happy they were. Running, jumping, playing all around us… and with us. It was so easy to connect with them. The very best thing about shooting with a digital camera is that you can take a total stranger’s photo then flip the camera around so they can see what you took. They enjoyed having their photo taken, but the look on their face as they see themselves and their friends on that tiny screen is just wonderful enjoyment for all of us. It always draws a bigger and bigger crowd as each person grabs someone else to have their picture taken with. Shouts of foto, foto, foto with wild hand gestures as they point to themselves and a friend or family member they want their photograph taken with. Then they start jockeying for position. Competing to have their photo taken next.

And sometimes, I give my camera to one of them and they take my photo with a group of smiling kids climbing all over me.  There are few photos of me when I’m on my trips, which makes those photos all the more precious to me. But, my highest treasure are photos like this, that remind me of the love I feel for the children that I have met.

 

Remnant of a Garden

As I’ve walked among the total destruction of the aftermath of a hurricane, I’ve seen some horrible sites. It affects me emotionally to see so much of people lives spread everywhere that you walk. Then you come upon something that stops you in your tracks. In the middle of devastation a flower springs forth. Something of beauty and yet you realize it was probably the last one left of what was once someone’s beautiful, treasured garden.

I think the other category of item that always make me stop and pause is Christmas ornaments. For some reason they seem like someone’s lost treasure that can not be restored. Like a pile of memories of Christmas past that have been stolen forever.

And then you come upon the toys. Toys that once gave so much joy. Now sitting silent, lost and the laughter all gone. Like the stuffed animal in the second photo on the right. It is laying in a ton of rotting mess that was once a home. There is no redemption for it now. It must be discarded and thrown into a pile of rubbish, remnants of lives broken by disaster.

It would all be too depressing if it were not for meeting and working with the people who you are helping. Their hope is restored and their laughter has returned because you, a stranger that has traveled a long distance to be there, are there helping them rebuild their life. Their gratitude is so encouraging. There is nothing like helping someone in the hour of their need. It helps to show that it is all just stuff and people are what is important.

 

Purple Cow

This weird ethereal fog settled over the farm field by my home. It was fun to watch as it danced and snaked around at a level of about 10 feet off the ground. It was elusive and always just out of reach. I was sure there was some thing just very odd about what I was seeing. But, I never saw the strange thing about this photo until I uploaded it to my computer. That is when I saw it! A purple cow was in the shot. I can’t explain it, but there it is. And photos never lie.

I’m more careful about fog now. Who knows what other odd creatures it may drop on top of you. Maybe an orange moose or pink walrus. I’m wearing a hat from now on when I’m photographing fog.

 

Lunch

Port Bolivar, Texas, Hurricane Ike.  When I took this photo I saw a story told by the juxtaposition of the damaged house behind the heavy equipment. The leaning foundation of the house in the background and the home eating machine in the foreground tells a lot about the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Most of the work that Service International did on Bolivar Peninsula was tearing down homes that had suffered too much damage and could not be  repaired back to safe code.  This was in stark contrast to the hundreds of homes restored by SI in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.  The majority of homes in New Orleans had suffered water damage from flooding and they did not have the wind and storm surge damage that destroyed homes in Texas. I observed that where the eye of Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the Gulfport, MS, and where the eye of Hurricane Ike made landfall on Bolivar Peninsula, it was total destruction and little of anything was left but tons and tons of piled up rubbish from toys to lumber to cars to beds. So much evidence of people’s destroyed lives just lying in heavy piles everywhere. Every little scrap of what is now junk told someone’s story.

 

Something for something

What is it about this photo that just everyone likes? I’m not really sure, but I think it is one of the photos I have sold the most. We have it hanging in our home and I find myself just staring at it. There is just something intriguing about it. It may be the colors, the pattern and arrangement of cups, the depth of field, or more likely it is all of the above.

The back story on the picture is a good memory for me. If you’ve read any of my blog posts, you’ll quickly find that all of my photos have deep emotional meanings to me, that go beyond what is visible in the photo. The whole reason why I write this blog is to tell these stories. It has been said that a good photo does not need any words. I suppose that is true. But, I find that a good caption gives the viewer more reason to look again and again. And when they do, it becomes more than a good photo and turns into something more. Something important, something interesting, something…. ha. That makes me think of my friend Fatosh in Kosova. When you ask her what something is and she does not know how to describe it in English, she says, “That is something for something.”

So, that is why I write this blog, my new tag line should read, Something for Something. I tell the stories so you’ll know and understand the something for something about my work.

So what is the story behind this photo you ask? I’ll continue that in the next post, called Tea for Two.

 

The Killing Fields

This photo is titled “The Killing Fields”. It is a very disturbing image for me personally. I had a very difficult time visiting the Killing Fields of Cambodia. It was an experience that was too hard to speak about or even attempt to explain with words. When I returned home I was still haunted by the images I had seen. I put this image together in Photoshop to attempt to express how it made me feel.

It is a composite of three photos. Two of the images were taken at two of the Killing Fields memorial sites in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The background is a shot of a torture room in S-21, Toul Sleng, a former school that was converted into a horrific, torture facility. The skulls in the shadowy foreground are from the Killing Fields, Choeung Ek. These places are now tourist sites and a memorial to all the people who the Khmer Rouge tortured and killed during their horrible reign of terror in Cambodia in the 1970’s. They are awful memorials. It was personally very painful to experience and see.

The third image of the little girl playing her drum is an image of hope. She represents the future that Cambodia has. I took her photo as I rode in a van driving through the market area of Phnom Penh. It was one of those shots that you catch out of the corner of your eye and then it is gone. I was ready with my camera and grabbed it just in time before she vanished as the van sped on.

It is impossible to try to wrap your mind around how something so horrific and barbarous like the Killing Fields could happen in the this modern age. Yet the future can only be determined by those who come behind. Will they forget history and repeat the past mistakes? Or will they march to a new beat and learn from the past? Have you even heard of the Killing Fields? I pray you have so we don’t have to live through another.

 

The Story of Hurricane Ike

Tells the whole story of Hurricane Ike

I shot this photo on the Bolivar pennisula in Texas after Hurricane Ike came through and left little of what had once been there. It tells a poignant story about the destructive force of a Hurricane. The eye of the hurricane came directly accross the narrow strip of prime ocean front properties. The enormous storm surge that came across the took the lives of many people who had decided to ride the storm out. I saw large expanses of areas where all that remained were graveyards of foundation stilts that once supported homes built “safely” above any possible high water mark. Or so people thought. Many were ten to fifteen feet too low.

 

Gypsy Friends

Some street friends in Kosova

The little, blue-eyed,  Kosova, gypsy girl in the photo on the right had the most amazing eyes I have ever seen. I was immediately reminded of the green-eyed, Afghan girl that Steve McCurry made famous on the cover of National Geographic magazine. This girl’s eyes were like the Afghan girl’s eyes, they were beautiful and haunting. This girl loved being photographed, but always wanted to be photographed with someome with her in the photo. She was with several other children. They were all “working” the crowd of people in the market square of Gjakova, Kosova. Or so I first thought, but they never asked for money or anything else from us. Like so many children I have met all over the world, from the inner city of St. Louis to Africa to Kosova, they needed someone to show love more than they needed food or money.

This photo was taken just a short distance from a large statue of Mother Teresa, whose mother was from Gjakova, Kosova. It is always a wonder to me how much respect Mother Teresa, an Albanian, has in this Muslim country. But it is like I said, love is the most important thing. It even breaks down barriers like religion. Mother Teresa knew this all too well.