From my upcoming Through The Infirmary documentary project.
Tag Archives: Xamtai
Through The Infirmary #47
Through The Infirmary #2
In Laos, as in most of Asia, one takes off their shoes before entering a building. This is a great practice, keeping the inside of buildings much cleaner. However, it can lead to a bit of chaos right at the doorway… click to enlarge.
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Beauty In Simple Things, #2
I love the way the back rim of this bowl starts to blend into the background. I’m not sure what this particular bowl is used for, but I’ve seen them all through the hospital. One, holding bloody surgical instruments after a surgery; another holding water used to wipe the face of a woman in labor; and another, in a remote health center, again holding surgical instruments—instruments doused with alcohol and set afire to sterilize them. Such a simple item, so many uses, polished by so many hands.
This is the second post in my series Beauty In Simple Things. Take a look at the first post in the series here.
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Through The Infirmary #17
Since the hospital had long since run out of high intensity lamps for the operating theater, this is what was used when operating on a patient… apparently it is quite dark inside a human! From the upcoming Through The Infirmary project.
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Through The Infirmary
This is from a new project tentatively titled Through The Infirmary about my experiences while working with an non-governmental organization in a Laotian hospital. And yes… it is a color photography project. My first…
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Lao Woman
I took this photo of the feet of a Lao woman after she had taken a long journey. This when I was shooting with Médecins Sans Frontières in the Xamti District Hospital in the far Northeast of Laos. She was the wife of the village chief—and had walked three hours to get to the hospital.
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No Words, #24
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Beauty In Simple Things, #1
I was photographing at a hospital in Laos with the team from Doctors Without Borders, and I turned around and noticed one of these sheets blowing in the wind. As usual, I had my camera preview set to black and white and the shape and motion really caught my eye. (Be careful with the volume level if you are using a laptop or tiny speakers—YouTube really beat up the audio!)
If you can’t see the video above, please click here.
I don’t know if anyone else finds it beautiful—or meditative—maybe I do as I simply have an emotional attachment to that experience in Laos. Sometimes I find it hard to separate the experience while photographing something and the actual thing being photographed. Maybe it’s the fact that I know this sheet was from the operating theater and people have lived and died on it. Maybe to most people it’s just a piece of fabric drying on a line someplace they’ll never see.
I could probably come up with a thoughtful metaphor for the sheet symbolizing how a person I knew moved gracefully on the earth and was as thin and weightless as that sheet when she left it. Maybe there is more there than meets the eye—but maybe not. Maybe one has to know the story behind the image to find meaning in it. Or better yet, can impart their story, their meaning to it.
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No Words, #20
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Laotian Boy: 1, Water Buffalo: 0
Yeah, looks can be deceiving. Especially when his looks are around 1200 lbs., he has an incredible rack of horns, he can move in water and on land, and he has his head lowered like he’s going to charge.
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