The Honey Man

Sioux City, IA

This is the VP of Research and Development at Sue Bee Honey.

You might be wondering what research and development would mean to a company whose only product is honey.  

Turns out, its more about developing more and better ways to ensure the purity of the honey, as more and more of it is imported from around the world - Argentina, Vietnam, India. (everywhere but China, he tells me). At one point,  honey imports were widely used to import contraband (the smell of honey masks whatever else might be hiding in the box, so Im told).  But those days are over as regulations have been stepped up, and the R&D department at Sue Bee continues to work tirelessly toward their mission of honey purity.

 And who is their biggest client for the honey once it's packaged?  The United Arab Emirates.  "They like honey over there... and bees don't do too well in the desert."   You can see SueBee's Arabic Label on the far left of this picture.  

From around the world, to Sioux City, Iowa and back again.

And for the record, Sue Bee treated us really well.  and even helped carry our equipment when the cameraman threw his back out.  Long live Sue Bee....

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A Tree House in Appalachia

Near Newport, PA

This is Dennis.  He lives down a long dirt road, in a small clearing of trees, totally and completely removed from any sign of human life.  

Dennis is the Pennsylvania State Apiary Inspector by day, but when he comes home, you see him as he was meant to be, totally and completely surrounded by nature.  

He has an open house.  No windows, only screens.  Really nothing more than a wood floor and a roof.  I wondered if he got cold in the winter.  He says he just throws on an extra duvet at night.  I ask if the rain ever gets to him.  he says sometimes it soaks the bed , but it's a small price to pay.  I ask him what his wife thinks of all this.  He was a little less direct with that response.  And she wasn't there to answer for herself.

Dennis spends alot of time out in the elements, collecting things that interest him and putting them in resin blocks.  Leaves and insects, mostly.  He has taken these resin blocks and created incredible pieces with them.  Below, you will see a chandelier that he is currently working on.  As well as a box filled with bits yet to be incorporated into larger projects.

Being with him as he enthusiastically shared his passion for his lifestyle - his home and his hobbies - as well as his philosophies on life, was truly a highlight for me.  It was a beautiful night, he cooked steaks for me and Goro, the cameraman.  We watched hummingbirds and deer and drank beer.  After a particularly difficult shoot, it was greatly appreciated.  He claims that I am suffering from NDD - Nature Deficit Disorder.  That may be true, though I don't think Id feel the same if I had visited him in early January...

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Harare and Dinner with Mugabe

Harare, Cape Flats, South Africa

This neighborhood, I found out, was well known as the most dangerous in all of south africa.  Though, just like everything in South Africa - the best and worst, the most dangerous and the safest, the ugliest and the most beautiful, are all defined neatly along color lines.  

So, while the black township of Harare was well known as the most dangerous to my Koi San ("colored" being the local label) driver, my  Xhosa (black) security staff all knew it as being a perfectly safe neighborhood.  It would be Athlone, the "colored" township that was the seat of organized crime - and therefor, the most dangerous.  

Everything breaks down this way, which, given the country's history, is no real shock.  And even though there is fear across the board about whats happening in Zimbabwe - the causes of the economic woes in the country are a result of a mad dictator if you are white, or western sanctions if you are black.  Mugabe is a freedom fighter in the flats and a corrupt dictator in the city bowl.  I thought Mugabe would be something the world could agree on.  How very wrong I was.  

I've been reading this book, written by a white woman, because it purports to chart the history of Mugabe from freedom fighter to dictator, and reveal all the shades of grey in between.  Hopefully, I can learn a little bit myself and have a more educated opinion about the whole thing.    In the meantime, whatever you think of Mugabe, a stark reminder of the crisis that country is in can be had by checking out the exchange rate on a daily basis and seeing how many zeros are added everyday to the price of a loaf of bread.  Looks like they are headed toward a cool quadrillion (thats 15 zeros), according to this article.  

And while you contemplate all that chaos, check out this little green bird on a Harare Tin Roof.  Cute.

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Dodging the Ball

Barrydale, South Africa


I was taking this picture, thinking how much I dreaded games involving balls when I was younger. Baseball, football, basketball.  Anything ending in "ball".   I couldn't catch, couldn't throw.  The ball was my enemy.  Dodging the ball was a way of life.  So, obviously, it was the only game that didn't leave lasting psychological scars.  I was pretty good at running.  And pretty good at hiding too.  So, Hide and Seek, along with other games that don't have national leagues, like Red Rover, Musical Chairs, and Connect Four, were more my forte.  

While I was watching these kids, I was looking for that one kid that didn't want to be there.  I always do that when  I see kids playing.  You can usually spot the miserable outcast pretty quickly.  But these kids were all genuinely enjoying themselves.  And that made me happy.  It looked like they were playing some strange hybrid between volleyball and dodgeball.  

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3 Phones, a Stack of Phone Books, and a Calculator

Mumbai, India

Apparently that's all you need to open a travel agency in Mumbai.  This is a photo of the travel agency where I bought my ticket to Sri Lanka.  I took it because it looked suspiciously like the travel agency where I was held up 3 years earlier - same room set up, same glass top table - same phone and calculator.  Its funny the things you remember...  But realistically,  most all travel agencies in India are probably nothing more than a table with a phone and a calculator.  

Which then got me thinking about Jan Chipchase.  I read about him in this article a few months ago and now check his blog regularly.  He works for Nokia and travels the world, studying people's habits to figure out how people are using their cell phones, and how that might change in the future.  Its pretty fascinating stuff.  Cell phones, in many parts of the world, have become much more than just a way to communicate.  In uganda, houses are now identified by their phone number, not an address number.  It's become an identity.  And in villages across africa, people are buying phones primarily to be used as ATM machines and facilitate the transfer of cash from family members in the city to family in the village - in exchange for airtime!  Phones as banks!

What an interesting job.  And an Interesting guy.  

Now, if these guys at the travel agency got one of those phones with a calculator built in, they could really save on costs.

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The New Order

Railton, Western Cape

This is a township outside the tiny town of Swellendam, where all the shacks have disappeared as the government subsidized housing program takes root.  Hundreds and hundreds of houses, painted in a rainbow of colors, in neat tidy little blocks.  Looks like a monopoly board.  Appeals to my aesthetic.  I took several pictures of this neighborhood

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Gorillas vs Guerillas

Virungas National Park, Rwanda

I always knew the mountain gorillas were under threat.  There are fewer than 700 left straddling the border between Rwanda and the DRC (former Zaire) - a notoriously unstable area.  The gorillas have been caught up in the midst of seemingly endless guerilla warfare. 

But apparently, things are getting worse.  Read about the charcoal mafia that has developed in this part of the world.  Its ugly and scary, but, according to 60 minutes anyway, there is hope - It doesn't have to be the end of the gorillas. 

This photo was taken a couple years ago when I was in Rwanda.  I like it because their hands look so surprisingly human.  They mirror us in so many ways, in fact.  And to sit with a family of them is intimate in a way that is hard to explain.

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...And one of my favorites

Swellendam, Western Cape, South Africa

Dance for All Junior Program Student.  Just before a performance.

this one makes me smile. Read more!

Rainbows and Telephone Poles

Montague, Western Cape
Between thunderstorms, on the road to Montagu. Taken at 140km/hr Read more!

Technicolor Townships

Khayelitscha, Cape Town
Driving into the cape flats, where most of the black townships were created during apartheid, (and continue to grow to this day), you pass a massive sign reading "Respect the Debt of Third World Beauty".  

Kodachrome was invented for just such a landscape.  Beautiful and sad and a little unreal 

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The African Ballet

Guguletu, Cape Flats, South Africa


HBO has picked up a short documentary I developed last year about South Africa's first black ballet school.  I just recently returned to Cape Town to begin production.  These are the kids I've been shooting.  This photo was taken during their most recent tour of the western cape.

And below is the development reel, if you are interested ... Its pretty lo res, so it might be difficult to read the subtitles.  

And if Nkosinarte's tire shoes inspire you, check out this site.

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I love penguins

Cape Point, South Africa

These are from the tip of Africa - where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet.  

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