As powerful as words can be, the human mind is often more easily moved by images. Reading stories of hope or despair can be gripping, but pales in comparison to witnessing the moments in a person's life leading to such emotions. When the images that bear witness to these moments are captured by the individuals themselves, "powerful" becomes "worldchanging." Zana Briski's Kids with Cameras project -- documented in the award-winning Born Into Brothels movie -- is one example of just how meaningful such efforts can be, but today I found another: Ethiopia Lives.
Nineteen Ethiopians turn their cameras onto their own lives and invite you to share their very personal perspectives. From diverse backgrounds and different parts of the country, their photographs give a rare insight into life in Ethiopia now.
The project was launched in Addis Ababa in late June, and will run through 2005. The pictures -- there are already dozens, probably hundreds, and eventually there will be thousands -- capture people, moments and places important to the photographers. Many have the kind of simple, haunting beauty that makes it hard to breathe. Some of the photographers provide notes explaining what they've photographed; others allow the images to speak for themselves. Visitors can page through the photos by theme and by photographer, and new entries are posted to an RSS feed, making it easy to follow how the pictures and subjects evolve.
This is why I love the Internet. Combine inexpensive digital cameras, basic web connections, and a blog site with an automatic RSS feed, and suddenly we have access to the thoughts and art of every day citizens from a part of the planet usually thought to be outside the reach of the digital world. This is a clear, powerful example of networks as a tool of democracy.
For many in the West, the image of Ethiopia is stalled on the bleached landscape and desperate faces of the famine and drought of the 1980s. But these pictures remind us that the country is far more diverse than many of us might know, both in environment and industry. The stories the photographers tell about their own lives bears little resemblance to the fixed narrative assigned to Ethiopia by much of the world.
And along those same lines, these photographs provide an absolutely necessary balance to the kinds of images most often seen coming from Africa as a whole: starving children; devastated environments; rampant disease; a people lacking even a meagre control over their own lives. Such pictures aren't lies by any means, but neither are they the whole truth. There is much, much more to Africa than poverty and misery; there is hope, there is community, and there is the promise of a better future.
(Via Random Acts of Reality)
