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from Photographers Blog:
The tragic legacy of KISS
Santa Maria, Brazil
By Ricardo Moraes
It was an unforgettable end to enormous pain and a ravaged mind. The last day of coverage of one of Brazil’s greatest tragedies touched me so much that I’m only going to tell how the story ended.
The morning of January 30, 2013, I met a woman who was devastated, confused, and completely lost inside of herself - wounded to the heart.
The first contact with her was moving. We arrived at a building on the outskirts of Santa Maria and knocked on the door of apartment 121, on which there was a message left by children offering help and consolation for a woman named Gelsa. In spite of the obvious clue that inside lived the mother of a disaster victim, we hadn’t reached that place by chance; we were led there by Carlos, a friend of Gelsa, the woman whose small family had now been reduced to just one, herself.
Gelsa Barcellos opened the door dressed in her nightclothes, her hair in a mess and looking confused. She was lost. Carlos introduced us as journalists wanting to know the story of her son, Joao, who died three days earlier. Gelsa invited us to come in with an apology for the state of her home.
from Photographers Blog:
The KISS that ended in tragedy
Santa Maria, Brazil
By Edison Vara
It was early Sunday when my cell phone began ringing nonstop. Reuters called to inform me of a tragedy that was happening in the Kiss nightclub in the city of Santa Maria, with more than 70 known dead initially. That number would soon rise past 230. After more than 30 years as a photojournalist I was still jolted by the news, grabbed my equipment, and left for the site three hours away.
When I reached the gymnasium in Santa Maria where the bodies were being taken for identification, I was shocked to see the parents, children, brothers and sisters of victims searching for information, but I had to photograph all these moments of desperation, with respect for those who didn’t want me to.
from Photographers Blog:
The flood and the pub
Tewkesbury, southwestern England
By Andrew Winning
On a dull Monday morning in London, my assignment desk rescued me from a dreary assignment to travel to Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire to cover the effects of the second of two consecutive weather systems that brought flooding misery to many parts of southwestern England.
I arrived with about an hour of daylight left to work with and inquired if there was any flooding. Some helpful local people pointed me towards the White Bear pub, on the northern side of the town. As I arrived I found David Boazman, and his brothers Michael and Richard, pumping flood water out of his bar. They kindly invited me in, through the window, to have a look.
from Photographers Blog:
Staten Island’s stories of Sandy
Staten Island, New York
By Mike Segar
As New York braced for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy three weeks ago, I was in California for a long-planned personal event. But I wasn’t about to miss what was shaping up to be a major story. I was determined to get back. I found a united flight to Detroit, Michigan, that was still listed as “on-time.” How far a drive would that be to New York? 10 hours? Through a hurricane?... I’ll take it, I thought. Seven hours later I was on the ground in Michigan driving through the night towards New York as winds howled and Sandy was coming ashore. I made it back to a region knocked to its knees by this storm.
The next seven days were a blur of finding and photographing those worst hit by the storm and hunting for gas for vehicles to keep going (not to mention returning home to a house without power, heat or hot water and without my wife and children who had evacuated to Massachusetts). Together Reuters photographers Lucas Jackson, Shannon Stapleton, Brendan McDermid, Keith Bedford, Adrees Latif, Andrew Kelly, Tom Mihalek, Carlo Alegri, Steve Nesius, Chip East, Adam Hunger and myself covered the immediate aftermath of Sandy in countless locations. We documented places and people affected by this massive natural disaster, one of the most destructive ever to hit the Northeast U.S. Our team made amazing pictures throughout and our collective photographic documentation of this disaster speaks for itself.
from Full Focus:
Surviving Sandy
Photographer Mike Segar went to Staten Island where almost everyone he met had homes destroyed by hurricane Sandy. He found they had compelling stories of loss or survival to tell. The resulting 19 portraits show people who were born and raised in stable, long term communities who are now surrounded by devastated remains of houses that held generations of families. Read Mike's personal account of the project here.
from Photographers Blog:
Inside the world’s biggest nuclear plant
Kashiwazaki, Japan
By Kim Kyung-hoon
“Sleeping nuclear giants” - That was my first impression when I visited the world’s biggest nuclear power station, Kashiwazaki Kariwa power plant in Japan's Niigata Prefecture.
GALLERY: IMAGES FROM THE PLANT
With seven reactors which can produce a total of 8,212 megawatts of electricity, this power station is officially registered as the largest nuclear power station in the Guinness Book of Records. But the reality of the power station is much different than its reputation. Two of its reactors were shut down for a time after the 2007 earthquake and the remaining reactors were taken offline for safety checks and maintenance due to public concerns about the safety of nuclear energy in the quake-prone country after Fukushima’s nuclear disaster.
from Photographers Blog:
Hong Kong’s National Day ferry disaster
By Tyrone Siu
When the National Day fireworks ended in enthusiastic applause, most photographers – especially those who were functioning on an empty stomach like me - thought we could finally call it a night. After all, we had witnessed all the hustle and bustle since early in the day at the flag-raising ceremony. It was, we thought, perhaps enough sensation for a single day.
I was about to enjoy a nice hotpot dinner with other battered journalists after filing my fireworks pictures, when a reporter on site mentioned a brief report online that ruined the plan.
from Photographers Blog:
Keeping safe in a quake-hit zone
By Jason Lee
Around noon on September 7 two shallow earthquakes struck the mountainous area of Yiliang county of Yunnan province, China. I received my assignment to travel to the area at around 6 p.m. when the death toll reached 60.
As you can imagine, it is never easy to get to an earthquake-hit area. I had only 20 minutes to pack and prepare before a 3-hour flight. After that, I traveled another 8 hours by car followed by a one hour ride on the back of a motorcycle before reaching my destination. Along the road I didn’t see many collapsed buildings, but there were lots of giant rocks that had probably rolled down from mountains as the quake hit, as a result, many cars were smashed into pieces.
from Photographers Blog:
Waist deep in Tropical Storm Debby
By Brian Blanco
It's an awkward feeling walking through someone's home while photographing their children sloshing through rising floodwater in the living room. It is, I can assure you, another feeling entirely when that same homeowner yells down from the second floor, "It could be worse, at least we still have power" as I look over to see the electrical outlets mere seconds away from being submerged. These are the moments that help to remind me that there are dangers involved in covering just about any natural disaster and that it's important not to be complacent just because a named storm may "only" be a tropical storm, as was the case with Tropical Storm Debby.
SLIDESHOW: DEBBY SLAMS FLORIDA
As a Florida-based photojournalist I've covered more named storms than I can recall, ranging from those forgettable storms that, thankfully, produced little more than twigs in the street, to the now infamous Hurricane Katrina. I'll admit that I was initially guilty of underestimating this storm. After getting the call from Reuters to cover Tropical Storm Debby, I was packing my car when my wife popped into the garage to tell me to be careful and I scoffed and said, "Oh Honey it's "just" a tropical storm. I'll go make some rain features and be back in a couple of days." As it turns out, I was wrong, this storm caused more damage from flooding and tornadoes than I've ever seen a tropical storm cause. It ended up touching a lot of lives and, in meeting those affected, touched my life as well.
from Photographers Blog:
Cruising to Venice
By Stefano Rellandini
Venice has always been a peculiar destination for everyone who visits. As a town built on water it appears somewhat atypical; no cars, no motorcycles, not even any bikes. The only way to travel through the city is to walk or use the gondolas, the traditional boats of Venice.
Ships are primarily used to reach Venice and in recent years these have become bigger and bigger. Every weekend seven or eight arrive at the lagoon of Venice. They then sail in front of San Marco square to reach the harbor.
