Photographers Blog

The year of the Aquinos

Cheryl Ravelo

Aug 3, 2010 15:40 EDT

By Cheryl Ravelo

One year ago, my country was in mourning when former President Corazon Aquino died. Cory, as she is known, is revered as the mother of Philippine democracy because of her role in the overthrow of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Today, I’m at Mass in the same school gymnasium where her body was laid for the public to pay their last respects. I’m with the same media people who covered the week-long mourning period and funeral. I’m photographing the same Aquino family, whom some call the Philippines’ Kennedys. There’s a crowd of supporters, gleaming in the yellow shirts and ribbons that were Cory’s trademark.

Unlike a year ago, the gym is not jam-packed. There were no queues of people from all walks of life, just families, friends and supporters gathered to attend the memorial service. Fewer people perhaps, but I feel the same feeling of unity and hope in democracy from the crowd.

The La Salle Greenhills gymnasium has another important connection with Cory. Here in 1986, an election tally showed Aquino leading Marcos in the snap elections he had called. When it was clear that Marcos had stolen the election, some generals mutinied, sparking the People Power revolution that drove the dictator into exile and Cory to the presidency. A blackboard with that vote tally from almost 25 years ago still hangs on one wall of the gym, joined this year by a bronzed ribbon loop that became a symbol both of the country’s liberation from dictatorship and Cory herself.

from Russell Boyce:

“Allah-u-Akbar! God is Great!”

Russell Boyce

Aug 2, 2010 00:31 EDT

Some pictures still shock me. Some make me laugh; many provide an insight or window into a new idea but only a few haunt me with my mind's eye returning to them again and again.

On Wednesday 28th July an Airblue plane crashed  just outside Islamabad in the beauty spot of the Margalla Hills killing all 152 on board. The cause of the crash, as yet unconfirmed, is thought to have been the driving monsoon rain. I edited the pictures shot by Reuters photographers who reached the scene. Images ranging from smoke drifting through the hills, men scrambling in the charred rocky, woodlands, picking through twisted metal and rocks looking for signs of life; tied cloth bags, dripping with the blood  that contained the remains of the passengers, to a severed arm and hand, the fingers still perfectly formed, just lying on the ground. There were no survivors.

Policemen and soldiers raise their hands while shouting "God is great," to lift their spirits as the team worked through heavy rain to search for bodies and a flight data recorder at the site of the Airblue plane crash in Islamabad's Margalla Hills July 29, 2010. Heavy monsoon rains in Islamabad on Thursday hampered recovery efforts at the site of a Pakistani plane crash that killed all 152 people on board a day earlier, a senior police officer said. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

The next day, as relatives identified and claimed the broken bodies of their loved ones, the search continued for the black box and for more human remains. Pakistan Chief Photographer Adrees Latif returned to the miserable scene. Police, ill dressed for the appalling weather, soaked to the skin and cold, were carrying out the thankless task of the fingertip search in the charred and soaked scene. Suddenly a shout "Allah-u-Akbar! Allah-u-Akbar!" God is Great, the officer in charge both recognising fate and trying to raise the spirits of his men. The moment captured by Adrees, their belief in God transcending the misery and seemingly hopelessness of their task, the image and their unfaltering faith, left forever in my mind.

As the week continued driving monsoon rains led to rising flood waters, the worse seen in a generation, taking the lives of an estimated 1100 people with a million displaced from their homes. The "death mask" of cream worn a boy sitting in the flood waters shot by Akhtar Soomro in Karachi seemed to me to herald the coming deaths.

Covering the aftermath of the Love Parade stampede

Dark side of Japan’s pet boom

Kim Kyung-Hoon

Mar 29, 2010 09:21 EDT

Approximately one and a half million unwanted dogs have been put to death in public animal management centers across Japan in the last ten years.

It was a very surprising figure for me as I had only been covering Japan’s colorful and luxurious pet boom, so I decided to shed some light on the dark side of the industry.

(View the full text story here)

After more than a year of seeking permission, I was finally given the go-ahead to shoot an animal management center in Tokushima and I went on a 745 mile (1,200 km) long journey from Tokyo with my DSRL camera for shooting still and video.

After 8 hours of traveling by car and train, I arrived at the town where I would have two opportunities to witness the euthanasia treatment for unwanted dogs. It became one of the saddest assignments of my life.

There are seven cells in the center, one for each day of the week. When a dog enters the center, it is placed in the cell of the corresponding day, meaning that each dog has only seven days left to survive if it cannot find a new home.