honorable mention
Richard Street united states
Photo © Richard Street
title
Saving Haitians from tuberculosis
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entry description
Working seven days a week, 12 hours a day, Dr. Megan Coffee directs a team of volunteer doctors and Haitian and American nurses who care for a vulnerable population in a country afflicted with the highest TB infection rate in the Western hemisphere. In two portable buildings and a tent surrounded by the ruins of Port-au-Prince, Coffee treats patients diagnosed with both HIV and TB. She -- and a constantly evolving staff of volunteer doctors and physicians -- save lives for pennies a day.about the photographer
I m an academically-trained historian (Ph.D, University of Wisconsin)who became a photographer in order to submerge in the cointem,porary side of the field that is my special expertise. I cover all aspects of agriculture, defined broadly, big peaches to undocumented workers, with extended essays on the U.S.-Mexico border, farm labor, undocumented immigrants, organic agriculture, the United Farm Worker union, winemaking, farm communities, and pesticide poisoning. My goal is to carry on, extend, and amplify the work of Dorothea Lange, only in color, perhaps with a harder edge, often lit with strobes. My technique is that of the submergence/participant observer investigating people and places outside the realm of short-form newspaper coverage. I have been arrested a dozen times, once spent three days in the Yellow Prison in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and proudly listed these experiences on my CV until warned against it. I spent the academic year 2014-2015 at Princeton University as Anschutz Distinguished Professor teaching “Liberation Photography: The Engaged Photographer in the Age of Narcissism.”back to gallery
