Photojournalism nominee

I learned of Fidel Castro’s death in the departure gate in Amsterdam as we waited to board our flight to Havana for a long-planned holiday. We arrived in Cuba to a subdued nation, and for nine days traveled in a country in an official period of mourning for the departed leader. For nine days, music, parties, and alcohol were banned. In Viñales and Pinar Del Rio, we queued with locals and with busloads of students to pay our respects. In our casa particular, with our hosts, we watched round-the-clock television coverage of tributes in Havana, and the procession of Fidel’s remains across the country to Santiago de Cuba. Later, after time in a Havana slowing returning to its lively self, we visited locales in the south, their buildings plastered with signs of remembrance. This was not the Cuba we had expected to see, but it was authentic, at times raw, and with the facade of gaiety peeled away.

I am humanitarian photographer with a lifelong love of meeting and learning about people. I leaned early the wide divide between peoples. While living Thailand and the Philippines I witnessed families living in very basic conditions, bamboo and banana leaf hut, and I was amazed at their dignity.

My one goal is to capture powerful images that convey the hope and dignity of children, the vulnerable for the international NGO community. Past clients within that community include Classrooms In the Clouds (Nepal), Sky Memorial Foundation (Nepal), Curry Without Worry (Nepal) Kampuchea Action to Promote Education (KAPE) (Cambodia).

Recent exhibition:
2019 5 Oct – 30 Nov solo exhibition at theLab in Porto, Portugal, “I want to go to school” Educating girls in Solukhumbu, Nepal