The latest Barefoot Initiative Newsletter has been published. This newsletter contains many of my photographs from the time I spent there recently.
NGO Photography
Working with Oxfam America in Guatemala
I have spent the week working with Oxfam America in Guatemala. The week began calmly with documenting an extraordinary women’s group in the outskirts of Antigua. As the week continued, we moved across the Western highlands to the Marlin Mine, where interviewed some locals, and heard some disturbing stories. Heading back out to the hotel on the first evening, our mini-van was surrounded by at least 20 men in balaclavas, pointing the barrels of the rifles at us. After a somewhat nervous 10 minutes, we were allowed to pass, lucky for us, they were looking for someone else. I will share links to blog posts and videos of the stories from this trip as they are published by Oxfam. In the meantime, here are a few photos from the trip:
© Anna Fawcus / Oxfam America Guatemala, 2011© Anna Fawcus / Oxfam America Guatemala, 2011
© Anna Fawcus / Oxfam America Guatemala, 2011
© Anna Fawcus / Oxfam America Guatemala, 2011
© Anna Fawcus / Oxfam America Guatemala, 2011
© Anna Fawcus / Oxfam America Guatemala, 2011
Oxfam America are doing an amazing job with very important human rights issues in Guatemala, it was a real pleasure to work with them and photograph some of the people they are assisting. For more information about how to support them and their work, please see their website.
Recommendation from The Brooke on LinkedIn
Today I received a recommendation from The Brooke on LinkedIn relating to my work in Guatemala.
It was a real pleasure to work with Anna. She went beyond the call of duty to meet the requirements of the photography brief we set and produced an exemplary set of photographs which we were delighted with.
The Brooke, May 27, 2011
If you would like to see this recommendation, and others, please feel free to view my Linkedin profile
Working with The Brooke in Guatemala
I have recently finished working on assignment with the Brooke in Guatemala. From the Mayan temples of Tikal to the stunning countryside of Chimaltenango, I spent the week exploring some of Guatemala’s most stunning landscapes. I was hired as a photographer to work with The Brooke, a UK based charity who assist with veterinary training and services in many countries, in particular with horses and donkeys. Most of the week was spent documenting the incredible work of the Brooke team and partner organization ESAP. The work that the charity is doing in Guatemala is making a significant improvement to the general health of the animals, and thus the productivity of the horses to assist their families to create an income. For more information about the Brooke, and the work that they do, please have a look at their website.
© Anna Fawcus / The Brooke Guatemala, 2011 © Anna Fawcus / The Brooke Guatemala, 2011
© Anna Fawcus / The Brooke Guatemala, 2011
© Anna Fawcus / The Brooke Guatemala, 2011
© Anna Fawcus / The Brooke Guatemala, 2011
© Anna Fawcus / The Brooke Guatemala, 2011
Global Fairness Initiative: The Voiceless Majority
I'm currently living in Guatemala, and working on an ongoing project with Global Fairness Initiative (GFI), an American non-profit organization, based in Washington DC. The project has been a documentary of the informal sector living in Guatemala and is called 'The Voiceless Majority'.
Here's a summary of what the project is all about:
In Central America, on average, 50% of the labor force works in the informal economy. In Nicaragua alone 7 out of 10 jobs are created in the informal economy and in Guatemala the rate is even higher. The informal economy in the region is characterized by vulnerability and diversity composed of wage employees, the self-employed including small-scale farmers, domestic workers, home-based workers, and micro-enterprises. Informal workers generally do not have access to government benefits such as social security or health care, are highly exposed to market fluctuations, and broadly lack physical and financial security.
Informality creates an alternative or shadow economy, which is not recorded in macro-economic terms, shrinking the perceived gross domestic product (GDP) and limiting formal exports, financial transactions, and technological investments. The formalization ceiling prevents micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) from fully participating in economies of scale, hindering their competitiveness in global markets. Informality also eats away at government capacity, reducing the tax base and segregating the population from its leadership.
Like food security or poverty reduction, informality is one of the major development issues of our time and should be addressed with comprehensive strategies and programs aimed at its root causes. Yet informality remains the domain of white paper reports and not of field based interventions, despite economic impact that it creates in developing nations. So why would an issue of such significance stay in the academic sphere while related issues like poverty are mainstreamed into development initiatives? We believe the reason is the image.
When you ask someone “what is poverty” an image jumps into their head. It’s the destitute farmer on a drought ridden plain standing outside a dilapidated home, or it’s the tattered rag picker squatted on a busy street in Dharavi. Ask the same about food insecurity or gender inequity and an image comes to mind. But, ask about informality and there’s no image, thus no story, no context, no response to drive action.
The Voiceless Majority photography project is aimed at providing an image and story on informality by exhibiting the experience and “face” of the informal sector. The project will display a collection of photographs of the lives and livelihoods of 6 informal sector workers from Guatemala. For each series audio recordings of the actual subjects will broadcast to provide a combination of “face” and “voice” that tells the story of an informal worker and thus personalizes “informality.”
Each story will become a blog post. I will update this blog post with links to each of the new posts:
Next stop Ethiopia (Again!)
I should be in Ethiopia right now but my flight got cancelled due to snow closing down Heathrow airport. It has been a somewhat frustrating few days, as the airline offices are closed, as are their phone lines, which makes it difficult to re-book a new flight! I have been travelling to the airport every day with my luggage in the attempt to get onto a stand-by list if a flight is going. So far, planes are still grounded, which is causing chaos. Fingers crossed I will be able to get a flight soon…
Next stop Ethiopia!
I have been invited to work in Ethiopia with a non-profit organization from Australia called Barefoot Initiative. Tickets are booked for December and I am looking forward to the trip! Barefoot initiative is a Non Government Organisation (NGO) that is a group of three young Australians who have been working in the Afar region (hottest inhabited region on Earth) of Ethiopia since 2004. We will stay in a remote community, living in a mud hut for a month, with no electricity or phone reception. This means I will be out of contact with no access to a computer or telephone from December 18th to January 18th. For more info on the project, check out their website: www.barefootinitiative.org
Recommendation from Oxfam America on LinkedIn
Today I received a recommendation on LinkedIn from Oxfam America for the work I did in Guatemala. Here is what they had to say:
I recently worked with Anna for six days in Guatemala to document some of our work in the area near Chimaltenango and in the western highlands (San Marcos area). Anna was really easy to work with, she took a creative approach to documenting some challenging stories and her final results are simply excellent.
Oxfam America, June 10, 2011.
If you would like to see this recommendation, and others, please feel free to view my LinkedIn profile