The children of Dadaab: Life through the lens
Through my video “The children of Dadaab: Life through the Lens” I wanted to tell the story of the Somali children living in Kenya’s Dadaab. Living in the world’s largest refugee camp, they are the ones bearing the brunt of Africa’s worst famine in sixty years.
I wanted to see if I could tell their story through a different lens, showing their daily lives instead of just glaring down at their ribbed bodies and swollen eyes.
It was a challenging project. As one senior photographer asked, how else can we tell the story without showing images that clearly illustrate the plight of the starving millions? Few photographs cover all aspects of life in the camps.
Many of Dadaab’s children are dying. And then there are others who, despite living in the world’s oldest refugee camp, embrace their childhood; they play, go to school, care for their siblings and collect water for their families. I wanted to incorporate all of these aspects of life for Dadaab’s children into this project.
To tell the story, I combined Reuters photography captured during the height of the famine with footage I had collected when I was in Dadaab six months ago, before the severity of the crisis hit international headlines.
The point is, when news of the famine made it to the front pages, the children I had filmed in Dadaab were now only perceived as children on the frontline of famine. Not just as children who were excited with the furor we brought to the camp.
Don’t leave home without it… a camera
The most beautiful photographic moments jump out in front of you unexpectedly and then, as quickly as they appeared, vanish into thin air. Wonderful photographs exist for an instant before they’re gone forever… alluring eye candy seductively winking at you in plain sight waiting for an easy invite to go home with you, be framed, and then proudly shown off for a lifetime.
Sound easy? It is, only if you follow the most basic rule of photography… don’t ever leave home without a camera.
Any camera, big or small, size doesn’t matter!
Great column. Love it so much and this is very true thoughts for every photography fans! Thank you for posting and sharing all this!
Editor’s choice – November 9
Taiwanese pianist Chen Kuan-yu performs during a concert in the middle of a rice paddy in Chishang Township, Taitung County November 7, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer
French priest Pouchard is given oxygen after suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning during his mass in Angres church near Lievin, northern France, November 8, 2009. About 150 people were listening to the mass in the church when the incident occurred. REUTERS/Stringer
Parishioners at Greater Vision Community Church cry during the altar call as a pastor offers prayers for those killed in the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in Killeen, Texas, November 8, 2009. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
Editor’s choice – November 6
Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall (L) reacts as she waits for her husband Prince Charles to fire the gun on the HMCS Haida in Hamilton, Ontario November 5, 2009. REUTERS/Fred Thornhill
Drivers of mass transit system buses receive H1N1 vaccine injections at a hospital in Hefei, Anhui province November 6, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer
Tiger Woods reaches for the ball as he plays on the 8th hole during the 2009 HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai November 6, 2009. REUTERS/Aly Song
Editor’s choice – November 5
New York Yankees players celebrate with Alex Rodriguez (13) after they defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 to win the 2009 World Series in New York November 4, 2009. REUTERS/Bill Kostroun
Visitors at Durban’s Ushaka Marine World get a good view of a shark, November 1, 2009. REUTERS/Rogan Ward
Buddhist monks walk through the Shwe Indein Pagoda near Inle lake November 4, 2009. REUTERS/Soe Zeya
Editor’s choice – November 4
Bostan Khanr, who is fleeing a military offensive in South Waziristan, waits for a medical check up, at the Army Field Camp Hospital for internally displaced persons (IDPs), in Dera Ismail Khan, located in Pakistan’s restive North West Frontier Province, November 3, 2009. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
A 32-metre (105 feet) statue of late Chairman Mao Zedong in his youth is seen under construction in Changsha, Hunan province, November 3, 2009. REUTERS/China Daily
A member of the Philadelphia 76ers “Hare Raisers” grabs the ball to dunk in between periods of the Philadelphia 76ers versus the Boston Celtics NBA game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania November 3, 2009. REUTERS/Tim Shaffer
Editor’s choice – October 23
Joshua Grant (L) and Brock Hayhoe, members of New York’s professional all-male Dance Company “Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo”, also known as the Trocks, pose for pictures in Sydney October 23, 2009. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz
Shi Liliang, 33, a monk from Southern Shaolin Temple, performs a special Chinese martial art stunt, known in Chinese as Shuishangpiao or “running on water”, at a reservoir on the outskirts of Quanzhou, Fujian province, October 22, 2009. Shi ran on the surface of a row of 1-centimetre-thick (0.39 inch) plywoods for 18 metres (59 feet), breaking his own record of 15 metres (49 feet) created several days ago, local media reported. REUTERS/Stringer
A policeman beats a man, who was fleeing a military offensive in South Waziristan, for cutting in front of others at a food distribution point for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Paharpur, 40 km (about 25 miles) by road from Dera Ismail Khan, located in Pakistan’s restive North West Frontier Province, October 22, 2009. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood
great selection of shots and good examples of the camera at work.
Editor’s choice – October 22
Los Angeles Dodgers hitter Manny Ramirez gets ready to hit in the eighth inning of play against the Philadelphia Phillies as fans hold up signs in Game 5 of their Major League Baseball NLCS playoff series in Philadelphia, October 21, 2009. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
A novice Tibetan monk pauses during a prayer meeting at Lower Wutun Monastery in Tongren, Qinghai province October 22, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Lee
A crane lifts a damaged coach of a passenger train at the site of a train accident on the outskirts of the northern Indian city of Mathura October 21, 2009. A speeding passenger train rammed into another waiting near Mathura city station early on Wednesday, killing at least 21 people and injuring several others, officials said. REUTERS/K. K. Arora
Editor’s choice – October 21
Students take part in a march against Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe in Bogota October 20, 2009. The students also demanded an increase in public university funding during the protest. REUTERS/John Vizcaino
The shadow of a bomb disposal team member falls on the site of a blast as he takes photographs at the International Islamic University in Islamabad October 20, 2009. Taliban militants attacked Pakistani forces and recaptured a strategic town on Tuesday while two suicide bomb blasts at an Islamic university in the capital killed six people and wounded at least 20, officials said. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
An Afghan man carries a sack at a market in Kabul October 21, 2009. REUTERS/ Omar Sobhani
Editor’s choice – October 20
A man stands in front of a decorated house in the small village of Sietes, northern Spanish region of Asturias October 19, 2009. The Spanish village of ‘Sietes’ (Sevens) is being decorated with corporative Windows 7 operating system colours for a presentation event that will be held on Thursday October 22 as part of the Windows 7 international launching. REUTERS/Eloy Alonso
A child looks on as a policeman patrols the streets near Manguinhos slum as the violence continued two days after drug traffickers shot down one of their crime-fighting helicopters, in Rio de Janeiro October 19, 2009. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
A masked man shouts slogans in favour of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas as he waves a scarf with the yellow-red-green Kurdish colours during a pro Kurdish demonstration in downtown Istanbul October 19, 2009. REUTERS/Murad Sezer
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Resident Photographers Blog Expert
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The Wall
It is very hard with even the best efforts and intentions to overcome corruption: bribes and payoffs, extortion, protection rackets, insiders syphoning off the oil and mineral revenues, corporations pretty much doing whatever they want and enslaving entire populations, and commodities traders driving the price of grains and fuels up.
I know, Africa should lower the tax rates for the top 1% to 15% and they will create lots of jobs!
Too bad they don’t have Fox News in Africa.