Still Here: Images from Haiti

Still Here: Images from Haiti is a show which is currently hanging at the Ag2 Gallery in the French Press at 1101 State St. in Santa Barbara, CA. The images were taken while I was in Haiti this March and April working with a few NGOs.

Still Here: Images from Haiti

Photographs by Lindsey Ross

Innocence, playfulness, levity, and weightlessness still exist in Haiti as people seek escape from tragedy and hardship.

Haitians have a relentless spirit and enjoy life in ways anyone can relate to: spending time with their family and friends, swimming in rivers on hot days, riding bikes buoyantly through their neighborhoods. While it is important to be aware of Haitian hardship, it is equally important to celebrate the other, joyful side of Haitian life. One does not exist without the other – both are essential to the human experience.

The title “Still Here” was borrowed from a multimedia dance performance “Still/Here” choreographed by Bill T. Jones, which expressed all facets of the human experience of terminally ill patients. My parents took me to see this dance performance at the Wexner Center in Columbus, OH when I was 13.

IV Halloween 2009

Carp beach at night, full moon

Ciao, Marco Panini

Marco Panini, thank you for your relentless wit and passion for life. I learned a lot about myself as a photographer and person by following you around downtown Carpinteria.

Richard Hardeman - Carpinteria Bus Driver

I am fortunate enough to freelance for a weekly newspaper in Carpinteria, California called the Coastal View News. They will publish a six month long series of monthly picture stories I will produce about residents in their town who give it the small-town character. The idea for this series was inspired when I audited a picture story class at the Ventura Campus of Brooks Institute this fall. In my class we discussed how the news is overrun with violent and freakish stories often in order to gain readership. These stories are so prevalent, publications lose track of everyday people who work hard and lead "normal" lives. His challenge to show our readers "normal life" in an interesting way. The series I am shooting for Coastal View News is both a tribute to locals who make Carpinteria tick year-round and also an exercise for me in creating interesting picture stories about everyday people who are often overlooked. So far it has been a fun, rewarding and good learning experience.
I typically shoot journalistic projects with a Nikon D200 or D700. I use autofocus a lot. I purposely shot this entire assignment with a Leica M8 and mostly with a 50mm f/1 lens. The Leica, although it is digital, has limited settings, it is very basic, and does not offer autofocus. This forced me to slow down while shooting this assignment think about composition and framing and shoot more deliberately. It also produced more dreamlike, ethereal photos than the Nikon because of the narrow depth of field of the 50 mm f/1.