Back in Haiti, Again

Erika and I made it safely to Haiti on Tuesday after a rather long but uneventful couple of travel days. A year ago I would have counted having my camera gear nearly kidnapped for a day by a second-rate Haitian airline as a noteworthy event, but that is just a footnote in this place.

We were pleasantly surprised, however, when we opened the Delta Sky magazine during one of our flights and found some photos I shot for a restaurant client. You never know when you’ll see your work pop up.

This makes my third trip to Haiti, and Erika’s first. It’s such a great thing to come here and engage in meaningful work for a client I really believe in.

We spent most of the day yesterday resting – for some reason the travel here always wipes me out. Today we began working on a series of portraits documenting the varied host of folks who come through the mission’s gates every day.

I’ve posted just a few here. I like the high-key approach for these. It has always seemed to me that these people are even more engaging and powerful when removed from their surroundings of poverty and despair, which sometimes can minimize and dehumanize the masses who live in countries like Haiti. Our interpreter helped us record interviews with each person before we photographed them.

Tomorrow we’re heading over to one of the mission’s nearby orphanages to look around and see what there is to shoot. Erika will be helping the orphanage director update her file photos of some of the children for their sponsors.

It’s hot here, as always. And humid like a damp blanket. But oddly enough it has not bothered me much this time around. I suppose that could change tomorrow…

Erika is doing great here. She jumped in head-first with a thirst for learning Creole, and in 48 hours has already built a fledgling vocabulary that impresses even a few of the Haitians. Wish I could say the same, but Erika excuses me, saying I’ve got other things on my mind.

This time around the mission put us up in a great little room which happens to be connected to a back-up power system, so we are some of the few lucky ones in all of rural Haiti to have fans that run all night. Life has little perks, to be sure.