ZEKE Fall 2019

2018 2019 VOL.4/NO.2 VOL.5/NO.2 $9.95 US/$10.95 US/$11 CANADA 

ZEKEFALL 

THE MAGAZINE OF GLOBAL DOCUMENTARY 

Published by Social Documentary Network

FALL 2019 VOL.5/NO.2 

$10 US/$11 CANADA 

Toby Binder from Youth of Belfast 

Rory Doyle from Delta Hill Riders 

Michael O. Snyder from Rising Tides 

Carol Allen-Storey from Out of the Shadows 

2 | YOUTH OF BELFAST 

Photographs by Toby Binder 

WINNER OF ZEKE AWARD FOR DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY 

Text by Alessandra Bergamin 

14 | DELTA HILL RIDERS 

Photographs by Rory Doyle 

WINNER OF ZEKE AWARD FOR DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY 

Text by Zeb Larson 

26 | RISING TIDES 

Photographs by Sean Gallagher, Lauren Owens Lambert, 

Michael O. Snyder 

Text by Tammy Danan 

44 

| 

OUT OF THE SHADOWS: 

SHAMED TEEN MOTHERS IN RWANDA 

Photographs by Carol Allen-Storey 

40 | Aesthetics of Documentary: 

Why Good Pictures of Bad Things Matter 

by Glenn Ruga 

43 | Contributors 

52 | Interview with Lekgetho Makola 

by Caterina Clerici 

54 | Book Reviews 

60 | Award Winners 

On the Cover 

Emily. Photo by Toby Binder from 

Youth of Belfast 

Lekgetho Makola from Market Photo Workshops, 

South Africa. Photo by Siphosihle Mkhwanazi

ZEKE 

THE 

MAGAZINE OF 

GLOBAL DOCUMENTARY 

Published by Social Documentary Network 

Dear ZEKE Readers: 

Welcome to the tenth issue of ZEKE magazine! 

What keeps us going is 1) our love of the photographic image, and 2) our belief in the 

ability of photographs to communicate important information about our world, especially 

at a time when our experiences are more visual than ever. To lay out a greater case for 

the documentary image, I hope you will take a few minutes to read the essay I wrote on 

page 40 of this issue about the aesthetics of documentary photography and why good 

photos of bad things matter. I believe, more than anything, this describes why documentary 

photography matters to me. 

In this issue of ZEKE, we are proud to feature the work of the winners of the first ZEKE 

Award for Documentary Photography, Toby Binder (Germany) and Rory Doyle (US), in 

addition to features on Rising Tides with photographers Lauren Owens Lambert and 

Michael O. Snyder (both from the US), and Sean Gallagher (based in Hong Kong); 

and finally a feature on teen pregnancy in Rwanda by UK-based photographer 

Carol Allen-Storey. 

As a prelude to the next issue of ZEKE, we have an interview by Caterina Clerici with 

Lekgetho Makola, Head of the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa. What 

we learned from this interview is there is a remarkable photo community in Africa, which we 

know little about here. We look forward to exploring this vibrant community in the next issue 

of ZEKE which will be a special issue on photography in Africa, guest-edited by Makola. 

At the time I am writing this letter, the US is reeling from two mass shootings—in El Paso, 

Texas and Dayton, Ohio. The first by an avowed white supremacist espousing racial hatred 

and the second by a mentally ill person just filled with hate. What these two shooters have 

in common is that they are white, male, and have unfettered access to semi-automatic high 

powered weapons. While I wouldn’t suggest putting any restrictions on the first two qualities 

(some may disagree with this position), it is long overdue that we question whether highly 

dangerous and lethal weapons should be freely available to anyone. We don’t allow access 

to automatic weapons or certain classes of explosives; we enforce speed limits; we heavily 

regulate food, children’s toys, medicines, automobiles and many other aspects of our society. 

It is about time we outlaw these weapons. 

But the connection I see between photography and mass shootings in the US is not the 

obvious one—it is not to shine light on the shooters or the massacres. Rather it is to shine 

light on the sanctity of the lives of everyone else—me, you, our families, friends, coworkers, 

fellow citizens in these united states of America, and to make a case why these lives 

need to take precedent over the dubious right to own weapons of mass destruction. What 

photography does so well is to describe individual people and to help us see both our 

common humanity and our common diversity, all deserving of equal love and protection. 

Matthew Lomanno 

Glenn Ruga 

Executive Editor 

ZEKE FALL 2019/ 1

YOUTH OF 

BELFAST 

Photographs by Toby Binder 

Northern Ireland will have to 

leave the European Union due 

to UK’s Brexit referendum in 

2016, although a majority of its 

citizens voted to remain. While 

the local Protestant Unionists 

voted to leave, the Catholic Nationalists 

wanted to remain within the EU. 

This photo essay covers the situation 

of young people in Catholic and 

Protestant neighborhoods of Belfast. 

It shows that kids in Northern Ireland 

often suffer the same problems no matter 

if they live on one or the other side of 

the wall: unemployment, drug abuse, 

violence and lack of perspectives are 

often omnipresent. 

Toby Binder, born in 1977 in 

Germany, studied at the Stuttgart State 

Academy of Art and Design. He focused 

his photography on social, environmental 

and political topics. Now based 

in Argentina and Germany, he works 

on assignments and personal projects 

where he finds his topics in post-war 

and crisis situations as well as in the 

daily life of people. 

His work is patient and intimate, 

without being pervasive and has been 

awarded internationally: the Nannen- 

Preis in 2017, the Sony World Photo 

Awards in 2017 and 2019, and the 

Philip Jones Griffiths Award in 2018. 

In that year, he received an Honorable 

Mention at the UNICEF Photo of the 

Year. 

His work is published by Stern, 

Sueddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, die 

Zeit, Greenpeace Magazin, Amnesty 

Journal, Neue Zürcher Zeitung and 

others. 

2 / ZEKE APRIL FALL 2019 2015

Megan (16) and Joshua (17) 

photographed in 2017 at N 

Howard link, Shankill. They are 

still together and have a baby 

girl. Joshua is working in road 

maintenance now. 

Not a subscriber? Click here to receive the print version of ZEKE. 

ZEKE APRIL FALL 2015/ 2019/ 3

Sophie and Jade at a local water 

reservoir in Clonard. It’s a popular 

spot for teenagers to gather as it’s a 

small park with a lake and not seen 

from the streets. 



Cole, Sandy Row. 


Rachel, Clonard. 



Young girls sitting on the sidewalk 

of Tennent Street, Shankill. 

Often there is not much to do 

and kids just meet on the streets. 



Sean’s Mini Market at Cavendish 

Street, Clonard—a typical corner 

shop where many teenagers 

gather, buy their soft drinks, 

cigarettes, crisps and chocolate. 

Growing up in Belfast, photographer 

Toby Binder said, “these 

little shops always were the 

places for me to get in touch with 

the young people or meet them 

again.” 

ZEKE APRIL FALL 2019/ 2015/ 11

Youth of Bel 

Struggling 

with a Legacy 

of Conflict and 

the Looming 

Brexit Crisis 

by Alessandra 

Bergamin 

Photos by Toby Binder 

Last April marked more 

than twenty years since 

the end of Northern 

Ireland’s sectarian conflict 

known as “the Troubles.” The 

more than 30-year war pitted 

Irish Catholic nationalists, 

who favored unification with 

the Republic of Ireland to the 

south, against Protestant loyalists 

who supported continued 

British rule. While memories 

of bombings and bloodshed 

linger and signs of segregation 

still divide the capital city of 

Belfast, the country’s youth are 

torn between a palpable past 

and an uncertain future. 

The roots of the Troubles 

stretch back to the creation 

of Northern Ireland itself. The 

Unionist political establishment, 

which was largely Protestant, 

maintained power over the 

Irish Catholic minority through 

discriminatory policies. In 

the 1960s, inspired by the 

American civil rights movement, 

the country’s Irish Catholic 

community formed a civil 

rights association to protest the 

systemic discrimination. But the 

organization’s peaceful protests 

were often met with excessive 

force, only heightening tensions 

between the police, politicians, 

and the movement. As the 

situation escalated, the British 

Army was deployed to Northern 

Ireland, and soon Unionist 

and Republican paramilitaries 

— such as the Irish Republican 

Army (IRA) and the Ulster 

Defense Association — formed. 

As riots and bombings became 

commonplace, brick and steel 

“peace walls” were erected to 

separate sectarian communities. 

The Troubles reached a new, 

violent height in 1972 when 

British paratroopers opened 

fire on Catholic demonstrators 

in Derry, killing 13 people and 

injuring 14 more. In 2010, an 

official inquiry determined that 

the attack, which came to be 

known as ‘Bloody Sunday,’ was 

unjustified. 

An actual possibility for 

peace wouldn’t arrive until the 

late 1990s when the British 

and Irish governments and 

paramilitary groups met to 

discuss a peace treaty. The 

talks led to the landmark Good 

Friday Agreement in December 


1999 and the creation of the 

Northern Ireland Assembly—a 

power-sharing legislative 

body that has the ability to 

make laws in areas including 

housing, employment, education, 

and health. By the time 

the bloodshed and bombings 

ceased, more than 3,600 

people had died and thousands 

more were injured. In the 

decades since the treaty was 

fast 

As the country’s hardwon 

power sharing 

agreement flounders, 

Brexit looms with uncertainty, 

and the country’s 

youth face issues of 

continued segregation 

and suicide, a united 

Northern Ireland is more 

important than ever. 

signed peace has been successful, 

albeit tenuous. Now, as 

the country’s hard-won political 

assembly flounders, Brexit 

looms with uncertainty, and the 

country’s youth face issues of 

continued segregation and suicide, 

a united Northern Ireland 

is more important than ever. 

A Legacy of 

Violence 

While Northern Ireland’s youth 

have experienced the fruits of 

peace rather than the tribulations 

of war, research has 

found that intergenerational 

trauma continues to affect 

the country’s population. A 

2010 study by researchers 

at the University of Ulster in 

Northern Ireland found that 

30 years after Bloody Sunday, 

the victims’ children and 

immediate family members 

reported significant psychological 

distress. In some cases, 

especially among those closest 

to the victims, their distress 

was comparable to those who 

had lived through war itself. 

Stephen Mullan, the executive 

director of Dreamscheme—an 

organization that works with 

at-risk youth in Belfast—has 

observed this intergenerational 

trauma. 

“When there’s pain 

in your family history, 

that’s harder to get over,” 

Mullan said. “There’s a lot 

of emotion that’s passed 

through those stories.” 

More broadly, Northern 

Ireland’s youth are struggling 

with mental health issues, 

including anxiety and depression. 

The legacy of conflict, 

continued discrimination, poverty, 

and high unemployment 

are all contributing factors. 

As a result, Northern Ireland’s 

suicide rate is one of the highest 

in the United Kingdom. 

Between 1999 and 2014, 

more than 3,700 people lost 

their lives to suicide and nearly 

a fifth of those people were 

under 25 years old. Studies 

have linked the high youth 

suicide rate to the conflict in a 

number of ways. In particular, 

poverty combined with continued 

segregation is thought to 

increase risk factors that may 

result in suicide. 

“Kids now are not so much 

hurting each other,” Mullan 

said. “But hurting themselves.” 

Sectarianism & 

Segregation 

While the country’s ‘peace 

walls’ are slowly being torn 

down, sectarianism and 

segregation still linger. In housing 

estates such as Creggan, 

where poverty and unemployment 

are high, sectarian sentiments 

are strong and appear to 

be increasing as paramilitaries 

regroup. Earlier this year, on 

the night before Good Friday, 

journalist Lyra McKee was shot 

dead during a riot in Creggan. 

The New IRA, a radical splinter 

group of the original IRA, later 

claimed responsibility but no 

one has been charged with her 

murder. 

Segregated schools add 

to the problem. Only seven 

percent of school-aged children 

in Northern Ireland attend an 

officially integrated school. 

This low percentage has created 

a barrier to friendships 

that stretch across ideological 

lines. These divisions, however, 

are disliked by young 

people, many of whom prefer 

integrated education. Dirk 

Schubotz, a senior lecturer at 

Queen’s University in Belfast, 

directs an annual survey of 

16-year-olds across Northern 

Ireland and says this growing 

preference for integrated 

schools reflects young people’s 

desire to separate themselves 

from the past. 

“Young people go out of 

their way to say that ‘this is not 

our conflict, it’s our parent’s or 

our grandparent’s,’” Schubotz 

said. “We also live at a time 

where religion has become less 

important— that’s not unique to 

Northern Ireland, but there’s a 

different element because of the 

conflict.” 

Looking Toward 

the Future 

Even in its uncertainty, the 

prospect of Brexit has posed 

a new concern for segments 

of Northern Ireland’s youth. A 

recent report found that 61 percent 

of middle-income teenagers 

are highly concerned about 

withdrawing from the European 

Union. Brexit, if enacted, would 

have wide-reaching implications 

for trade, immigration 

and Northern Ireland’s shared 

border with the Republic of 

Ireland. More locally, Northern 

Ireland’s political system has 

essentially unraveled. The country’s 

power-sharing Assembly 

has not been in session for 

more than two years due to a 

falling out between Republican 

and Unionist parties. For many 

young people, optimistic that 

the future of Northern Ireland 

is one of unity, the Assembly’s 

failing is a reminder that the 

shadow of conflict will be present 

as long as divisions persist. 

“Most young people 

would like Northern Ireland 

to progress to the point where 

you wouldn’t have to ask if 

someone is British or Irish,” 

says twenty-one-year old Tara 

Grace Connolly who grew up 

in Belfast. “We would like a 

future of prosperity and progress, 

not fear.” 


Delta 

Hill 

Riders 

PHOTOS BY RORY DOYLE 

It’s estimated that just after the Civil War, 

one in four cowboys was African American. 

Yet this population was drastically underrepresented 

in popular accounts, and it is 

still. The “cowboy” identity retains a strong 

presence in many contemporary black 

communities. 

This ongoing project, “Delta Hill Riders,” sheds 

light on the overlooked subculture of African 

American cowboys and cowgirls in the rural 

Mississippi Delta. The work resists both historical 

and contemporary stereotypes. Rory Doyle has 

captured black heritage rodeos, horse shows, trail 

rides, “Cowboy Night” at black nightclubs, and 

subjects’ homes across the Delta. 

It’s a story that’s particularly timely with the current 

political environment, and one that provides a 

renewed focus on rural America. Doyle has captured 

a group of riders showing love for their horses 

and fellow cowboys/cowgirls, while also passing 

down traditions and historical perspectives among 

generations. 

Rory Doyle is a photographer based in Cleveland, 

Mississippi in the rural Mississippi Delta. Born and 

raised in Maine, Doyle moved to the South in 2009 

and has remained committed to the region ever 

since. His work often highlights unique Southern 

subcultures commonly overlooked. 

Doyle is a 2018 Mississippi Visual Artist Fellow 

through the Mississippi Arts Commission and 

National Endowment for the Arts for his ongoing 

project on African American cowboys and cowgirls, 

“Delta Hill Riders.” Doyle won the 16th Annual 

Smithsonian Photo Contest with the project in 2019. 

The work was featured in the Half King Photo 

Series in New York and The Print Space Gallery in 

London before opening at the Delta Arts Alliance 

in February 2019. He was also recognized for the 

project by winning the 2019 Zeiss Photography 

Award, and the photojournalism category at the 

2018 Eye Em Awards in Berlin, Germany. 


Bree Wrenn pets her friend’s horse 

at sunset in Tallahatchie County, 

Mississippi. April 2019. 



James McGee poses for a 

portrait atop his horse in Bolivar 

County, Mississippi. November 

2017. 



Moonie Myles breaks a horse 

before a looming storm just 

outside Cleveland, Mississippi. 

March 2018. 




Frank Simpson poses for 

a portrait in his home 

in Shelby, Mississippi. 

November 2017. 


Peggy Smith groom her horse, 

Big Jake, while others relax in 

the afternoon light in Bolivar 

County, Mississippi. October 

2018. 



Black 

The American West 

has been endlessly mythologized, 

and of its many myths, one of 

the most enduring is the idea of 

the West as a space for white 

Euroamericans. Indigenous peoples, 

Mexican Americans, and 

Asians all existed in the West, but 

in popular memory and culture 

their presence is either missing 

or heavily circumscribed. Like the 

West, “cowboy” has taken on 

an image all its own: it evokes 

a white man on horseback, probably 

between 1870 and 1890. Of 

those missing groups, however, one 

is especially conspicuous: the African 

American cowboy. In a February 

2017 issue of Smithsonian Magazine, 

journalist Katie Nomjimbadem 

estimated that as many as one in four 

cowboys was black. 

Enslaved Cowboys 

Before the United States had declared 

its independence from Great Britain, 

enslaved persons were working as 

cowhands and ranchers in parts of 

the Carolinas. Even before emancipation 

and the end of the Civil 

War, enslaved persons worked as 

cowboys in parts of the American 

South. Once Texas was added to 

the union, enslaved persons working 

as cowboys became normal there. 

Historian Peter Wood notes that some 

plantation owners went so far as to 

request new slaves from the Gambia 

River region in Africa because they 

were accustomed to working with 

cattle. Enslaved cowboys were often 

treated better than people working 

cotton in part because their skillset 

was more specialized and they were 

not easily replaced. They had access 

to better food, though they remained 

in bondage and were traded much 

like the livestock they saw after. 

24 / ZEKE FALL 2019

Cowboys 

BY ZEB 

LARSON 

Once the 13th Amendment 

permanently ended chattel 

slavery in the United States, 

many of the freemen put 

their skills to work by seeking 

employment as cowboys. 

Many of them remained with 

their former masters out of 

convenience, and compared to 

freed persons who had worked 

growing cotton, they enjoyed 

far better circumstances. Their 

labor was better compensated, 

especially because of the 

postwar demand for beef and 

the absence of white labor in 

places like Texas. In the Journal 

of Blacks in Higher Education, 

African American cowboys 

were estimated to be anywhere 

between a quarter and a third 

of the men who worked the 

famous Chisholm Trail. Part 

of the cowboy lifestyle in the 

South was born out of necessity: 

Southern states actively 

prevented freed slaves from 

purchasing land, and it was 

easier to work as a ranch hand 

than it was to try and become 

a farmer. 

The Wild West 

However, black cowboys did 

not remain confined to the 

South. The South was violent 

and repressive, and it only 

became more so with the end 

of Reconstruction and the 

return of white segregationist 

governments to power. Many 

cowboys headed out West to 

escape the suffocating racial 

mores of the South. To be sure, 

the West was no guaranteed 

safe haven for cowboys: plenty 

of white settlers had moved 

west precisely because they 

didn’t want to compete with 

African American laborers. 

However, cowboys could still 

leverage the skills that they 

had, and because many parts 

of the American West remained 

poorly settled, accepting their 

labor was a necessity. 

Defying the World 

The era of the Wild West 

produced several noteworthy 

African American cowboys, 

many of whom filled the role to 

the hilt. Nat Love, better known 

as Deadwood Dick, was born 

in Nashville, Tennessee into 

slavery. In 1870, he headed 

west and ended up in Dodge 

City, where he worked on 

cattle drives. He later headed 

further out west to Arizona. 

Like many cowboys, Dick liked 

to tell tall tales of his exploits: 

he claimed to have been an 

expert gunfighter, participated 

in cattle drives and 

rodeos, and liked to 

brag that he rode his horse into 

a saloon to order whiskey for 

the both of them. 

Regardless of how much of 

his life was the result of colorful 

embellishment, it’s clear 

he embraced the cowboy life 

because it offered a degree of 

freedom. In his autobiography 

The Life and Adventures of Nat 

Love, written in 1907, Love 

spelled out why he liked being 

a cowboy. “Mounted on my 

favorite horse, my long horsehide 

lariat near my hand, and 

my trusty guns in my belt…I felt 

I could defy the world.” He was 

respected among his fellow 

cowboys — black and white — 

and his employers trusted him. 

Rodeos and Riding 

The cowboy era of the Wild 

West was in decline after 1890 

because much of the West had 

either been settled or enclosed 

through barbed wire: ranchers 

no longer needed cowboys 

to take cattle on long drives. 

This did not mean the end 

of cowboy work for African 

Americans, however. Even as 

the cowboy tradition declined, 

its presence in the popular 

imagination grew, partly 

because of literature, music 

and attractions like rodeos or 

Wild West shows. The former 

showcased cowboy skills like 

riding and lassoing, while 

the latter helped to create the 

idea of the mythologized West 

through staged gunfights and 

trick shows. 


also helped to create the idea 

of a cowboy in the public 

imagination. Deadwood Dick 

allegedly got his name from 

participating in one such rodeo 

in the town of Deadwood, 

South Dakota (he also claimed 

to be a record-holder for breaking 

a horse in nine minutes). 

The African American cowboy 

Bill Pickett, also known as the 

Dusky Demon, was responsible 

for helping to invent 

another rodeo tradition: steer 

riding. Pickett was a cowboy 

in Oklahoma who invented a 

practice known as “bulldogging” 

to wrestle steers to the 

ground: he would jump from 

a horse, grab the steer by the 

horns, and bite it on the lip to 

force it to the ground. Pickett 

became famous and toured 

with the likes of Buffalo Bill 

Cody until his death in 1932. 

Today, the tradition of 


survives through rodeos and 

other public exhibitions. The 

Bill Picket Invitational Rodeo is 

an all-black touring rodeo that 

is now entering its 34th year 

of operations. Young cowboys 

are drawn to it for a variety 

of reasons. A young rider in 

Charleston, Mississippi told 

me how he got into riding: 

he wanted to impress a girl 

for prom by showing up on 

a horse. For him, riding a 

horse offers the same sense of 

tranquility it offered Nat Love: 

“It was kinda like a peace-ofmind, 

it was a runaway place 

from me. Just coming out of 

high school, trying to figure out 

life. It was a different feeling 

and I still use it as a runaway 

place. It’s just a peace place. 

The horse will get your mind 

out of whatever’s going on.” 


Rising Tides 

Photographs by: 

Sean Gallagher 

Lauren Owens Lambert 

Michael O. Snyder 


With the sea levels expected 

to rise between 10 and 32 

inches or higher by the end of 

this century, more and more 

coastal communities are on 

the brink of living in limbo. 

According to the Internal 

Displacement Monitoring 

Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, 18.8 million 

disaster-related displacements happened 

in 2017. And while such displacements 

are linked to natural disasters, the worsening 

global warming could be the root 

cause. The World Bank also estimates that 

by 2050, 143 million people from Latin 

America, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan 

Africa alone would be forced to migrate due 

to climate crisis. 

Sean Gallagher’s exhibit, Tuvalu: 

Beneath the Rising Tide shows the expanse 

of this South Pacific nation island — how the 

seas are slowly consuming the land and the 

impact of strong water surges on the dwellings 

of 11,200 Tuvaluans. Lauren Owens 

Lambert’s Along the Waters Edge shows 

what melting ice in places like Antarctica 

does to regions like New England. While 

her exhibit, The Farmer and the 

Fishermen, displays how coastal communities 

adapt and change livelihoods. Michael 

O. Snyder, with his exhibit Eroding Edges, 

infuses emotions into still images showcasing 

the everyday lives of people in the US — 

how rising tides bring out hope, innovative 

solutions, and the human grit to keep pushing 

forward. 

Photo by Lauren Owens Lambert 

The farming crew of Merry Oysters handpick 

and load the boat during low tide on 

Duxbury Bay, Massachusetts in July. Scientists 

say ocean water has grown 30 percent more 

acidic since the Industrial Revolution and is 

on track to get worse in coming decades as 

it soaks up excess carbon dioxide from air. 

Although climate change poses challenges 

such as ocean acidification and increasing 

coastal storm intensity, the shellfish industry in 

Massachusetts is one of the fastest growing 

in the state. Shellfish such as oysters, scallops 

and mussels are not only a good source for 

local food, but because they are filter feeders, 

they also help clean the ocean. 




Photo by Michael O. Snyder 

Jason Jones and Wade Murphy III raise 

the sails at dawn on the Rebecca T. 

Ruark, that, since 1886, has dredged 

oysters from the Chesapeake Bay of 

Maryland using only power from the 

wind. Oysters, once the cornerstone of 

the regional economy, have declined 

by more than 98% since colonial times. 

Despite a recent comeback, the oyster 

stocks, and the watermen who depend 

on them, remain threatened by changing 

temperatures and rising tides. 



Photo by Sean Gallagher 

Fallen trees in the shallows of 

Funafuti Atoll, Tuvalu. Erosion 

of land is an inevitable consequence 

of life in a coral atoll 

nation. As sea levels rise and 

increased threats from storm 

surges and extreme weather 

events occur, the land of Tuvalu 

will increasingly become fragile 

and prone to erosion. 


Photo by Sean Gallagher 

Children play in an abandoned 

home in central Funafuti. The 

Pacific island nation has seen 

an exodus of people who have 

already fled to countries such 

as New Zealand and Australia 

in search of better economic 

opportunities and less environmental 

threats. 



Photo by Lauren Owens 

Lambert 

Communities developed on 

barrier beaches such as Plum 

Island, on the north shore of 

Massachusetts, are particularly 

vulnerable to coastal erosion 

and major flooding from storm 

surges and will continue to 

face the challenges of climate 

change. “Don’t build here if 

you’re afraid of losing your 

house,” says longtime resident 

Verne Fisher. 



Photo by Lauren Owens 

Lambert 

In June 2016, community 

organizer Magdalena Ayed, a 

resident in East Boston, looks 

out over her neighborhood 

that is at risk of flooding from 

the effects of climate change. 

She says she’s happy that city 

officials and some developers 

are starting to take climate 

change seriously. 



By Tammy Danan 

“We used to be able 

to catch fish right from 

under our houses,” says 

Rogelio Alburo, a local 

fisherman from Davao 

City. 

Photos, L to R: 

Arka Dutta, from Evanescing Waters, 

Whisking Water. 

Lauren Owens Lambert, from Along 

the Waters Edge 

David Verberckt, from Source of Life 

Saud A. Faisal, from Water Prisoners 

RISINGTIDES 

Located on the southern part 

of the Philippines, most 

houses in the country’s 

coastal communities are on 

wooden stilts. I was sitting 

outside his neighbor’s house 

joined by other fisherfolks and 

their wives, and as Rogelio 

reminisced about the 1970s 

when the sea was still rich, 

he also noted how today’s 

conditions are hurting fishermen. 

“I don’t remember exactly 

when the water started rising, 

but there was a time when we 

were getting fewer and fewer 

fish,” he said. 

Today, coastal road development 

in the city that swept 

away hundreds of houses adds 

to the burden. Now, fishermen 

like Rogelio juggle multiple jobs 

to provide basic needs for their 

families. And for a country with 

over 7,000 islands, Rogelio 

and his neighbors are not the 

only ones changing their livelihood 

as the country’s coastal 

communities experience the 

rising waters. 

Clear As Can Be 

A report published by NASA 

in 2018 shows that the rate of 

global sea level rise has been 

accelerating in recent decades. 

The melting of sea ice in Antarctica 

and Greenland due to 

climate change is among the 

culprits. 

Dr. Simon Engelhart, an 

associate professor at the 

University of Rhode Island 

Geosciences Department, said 

that the distribution of water 

on the surface of the earth also 

plays a part. “Features such 

as ocean currents (e.g. the 

Gulf Stream) and multi-year to 

decadal variability within the 

system (e.g., El Niño/La Niña) 

can change the distribution of 

water and cause increasing or 

decreasing sea levels.” That 

said, if the Gulf Stream off the 

coast of the US slows down, 

then more water flows towards 

the US East Coast and there 

will be faster rising sea levels. 

And during El Niño/La Niña, 

water levels in the Pacific can 

change in the space of months 

to years by nearly a foot. 

Land, Water, and 

Climate Refugees 

As a result, many countries 

in the Pacific region are now 

feeling the impact. And those 

in coastal communities are the 

first to take the heat. 

Lawrence Nodua is a 


esident of Reef Islands in the 

Solomon Islands. “Life in the 

coastal communities are more 

[reliant] on fishing and few on 

gardening,” he shared. But 

because of the water’s rising 

temperatures, the fish could 

hardly survive as hot water 

holds less oxygen. Add to that 

the fact that the current has 

become more confusing than 

ever, fishermen can no longer 

predict the best time to set 

sail. As a result, they spend 

more time in the sea than ever 

before. Coral reefs in Solomon 

Islands are also affected, and 

as corals die, the fish lose their 

breeding ground. 

In a 2010 study conducted 

by Nodua, it appeared that 

internal migration in Solomon 

Islands has increased in the past 

two decades. Residents from 

smaller islands such as Tikopia 

and Duff move to larger islands 

like Utupua, Santa Cruz, and 

Vanikoro. But even this is not a 

permanent solution. Nodua’s 

research revealed that the 

Solomon Islands has a much 

bigger problem — a problem 

shared by other nations like 

Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, 

and Maldives — coastal erosion. 

Dr. Engelhart has an explanation 

for this. He says, “when 

we talk about rising water levels, 

we use the term ‘relative sea 

level’ because we can change 

the level of the sea that people 

experience by either changing 

the volume/distribution of water 

or by changing the elevation 

of the land with respect to the 

ocean. Therefore, if the land is 

subsiding, sea level will rise in 

the eyes of an observer on that 

subsiding land even if the ocean 

volume isn’t changing.” 

And while most people think 

coastal erosion is simply caused 

by waves and tides washing 

away the land, Dr. Engelhart 

highlighted the role of tectonics, 

saying it’s one of the long-term 

processes that can alter the land 

level. “Earth’s tectonic plates 

moving past each other and 

getting stuck and then releasing 

make the land elevation change. 

These land-level changes can be 

slow and happen over hundreds 

to thousands of years but also 

can happen quickly where as 

much as a couple of meters 

elevation change can happen 

in seconds to minutes when a 

large earthquake occurs such as 

occurred in Sumatra in 2004 or 

Japan in 2011.” 

Health at Risk 

While conducting his study, 

Nodua found out that the 

climate crisis does have massive 

effects on food security. 

Residents of the Tuo village in 

Reef Islands have seen how the 

prolonged dry weather causes 

root crops and fruit trees to 

bear less. In late 2004 to early 

2005, Reef Islanders’ staple 

food ran low. The rising waters 

cause swamps to become more 

saline, making it difficult to 

grow swamp taro, a common 

food in most countries in 

Southeast Asia. 

As a domino effect, this 

problem further affects the 

health of islanders not only in 

Solomon Islands but coastal 

communities in Southeast Asia 

and globally. The challenge of 

harvesting fruits due to unstable 

weather patterns, and the 

decline of food sources puts 

children at risk of health and 

nutritional problems. 

Today, We Think. And 

Think Better. 

Islanders from different parts of 

the globe may have historically 

learned to embrace their 

environment. They may have 

learned how to understand 

the waters and everything it 

brings and takes. But now it 

seems the rising waters and the 

global climate have changed 

its language. 

Crosses and bones are 

being washed away, leaving 

people in Solomon Islands with 

no decent place to bury their 

dead. Nodua, who now works 

closely with Oceans Watch 

Solomon Islands, also found 

that the rising sea is affecting 

the access to fresh water in villages 

like Tuo; their well water 

started tasting saltier in the 

early 1990s. 

In the Philippines, the wives 

of fisherfolks have their own 

battle. Jenelyn Caro Quintalla 

comes from a family of 16. Her 

parents raised them all through 

fishing. Today, Jenelyn is a 

mother to six and her husband 

is also a fisherman. But as 

coastal road development eats 

through their community, and 

the waters continue to change 

temperature, Jenelyn sometimes 

finds herself wide awake at 

night. “It’s not easy. I feel like 

our life is in limbo. We can’t 

fish anymore so my husband 

works part-time at a construction 

site; budgeting is always a 

challenge,” she shared. 

RESOURCES 

Oceans Watch Solomon Islands 

www.oceanswatch.org/oceanswatchsolomon-islands 

Mother Nature Cambodia 

www.mothernaturecambodia.org 

Pacific Climate Warriors 

www.350pacific.org/pacific-climate-warriors 

Greenpeace 

www.greenpeace.org 

Pacific Community 

www.spc.int 

National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration 

https://coast.noaa.gov 


Aesthetics of DOCUM 

Why good pictures of bad things matter 

Why is it that the documentary 

photography community 

is obsessed with 

seeking really good photographs 

about really bad 

things that the human race 

brings upon each other? It is the core principal 

of the Social Documentary Network 

(SDN), ZEKE magazine and other similar 

organizations. While we are driven to 

defend victims of human rights abuses (an 

admirable goal), why do we place such 

a premium on images that present such 

abuse, or in some cases solutions, in a 

highly aestheticized manner? 

With SDN, we have competitions 

with respected jurors, all whom pour 

over visual stories of the human condition 

to select the one that is the most 

40 / ZEKE FALL 2019 

original, well-crafted, thoughtfully 

composed, and addressing something 

that the public deserves to know more 

about and possibly act on. But it is those 

photographs that are most aesthetically 

successful that win the awards. 

Much has been written by me and 

others about photographers giving voice 

to the voiceless, using powerful photography 

to inspire action, shining a light 

in dark places and other similar noble, 

if not canned, responses. Perhaps it is 

that artists (in this case documentary 

photographers) use their strengths to 

challenge injustices in the same way 

writers, poets, playwrights, and activists 

use the strengths they have to achieve 

similar outcomes. But I believe there is 

more to it. 

Photo by Maryam Ashrafi from her SDN exhibit, Mourning 

Kobané. A YPJ fighter looks over the wreckage left by 

fighting on a street in Kobané, Syria, March 2015. 

An Obsession with Aesthetics 

Why are we obsessed with aesthetics 

when aesthetics really has little to do 

with the problem or solution? Would all 

these resources be better spent if instead 

we were out on the streets demanding 

action? 

I believe the answer to our obsession 

with, or commitment to, aesthetics lies 

somewhere in the following explanations. 

One is that the media knows that to 

gain readers and viewers, they must 

provide interesting and complex images 

that only an inspired photographer can 

deliver. Otherwise what remains is a 

dense page of grey type that will neither 

sell content nor attract advertisers. But

ENTARY 

WHY GOOD PICTURES OF 

BAD THINGS MATTER 

By Glenn Ruga 

more significantly, a text-heavy factual 

account will only draw the scholarly, 

intellectually curious, or the activist 

and not the ubiquitous everyman/ 

everywoman with a job, children, rent/ 

mortgage, and driven towards stability 

for themselves and their family. The 

majority of people on our planet don’t 

have the time nor the mental capacity to 

engage, but might pay attention when 

their sensibility is stopped in its tracks by 

a photo such as the Syrian child Aylan 

Kurdi dead on a beach in Turkey. 

The second reason I believe gets to 

a more fundamental issue. The human 

race is capable of the basest and ugliest 

actions as evidenced by the many genocides 

(loosely defined) committed just in 

the last hundred years (the Holocaust, 

Armenia, Rwanda, Cambodia, 

Indonesia, Sudan, Darfur, Bosnia, Syria, 

DRC, Rohingya, etc.) But the human race 

is also capable of great heights of intellectual, 

emotional, physical, cultural, and 

magical achievements such as love, birth, 

Mozart, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, 

NASA, Pablo Picasso, Pablo Casals, 

Billie Holiday, Nelson Mandela, Vincent 

Van Gough, Serena and Venus Williams, 

Henri Cartier Bresson, Toni Morrison 

as well as the drawings of children the 

world over. 

Acts of Defiance 

For all who strive for beauty in the face 

of suffering, it is an act of defiance 

against those who bring misery on 

this planet, and what is a more perfect 

example than an artist striving for perfection 

where misery abounds. 

In her exhibit on SDN titled Mourning 

Kobané, Paris-based Iranian photographer 

Maryam Ashrafi made this stunning 

photograph of a young woman who, 

along with members of YPJ (Women’s 

Protection Units), “mourn during the 

ceremony for Ageri, their fellow fighter, 

who was killed during clashes with 

Islamic State in Eastern frontline of 

Kobané, Syria.” This photograph is not 

of dead comrades or headless victims of 

the despicable Islamic State. Rather it is 

a stunning portrait shot not in a studio 

with lights and assistants but rather 

under challenging conditions during a 

funeral wrought with intense emotions 

and under constant fear of attack. The 

young woman’s eyes, her gaze, her colorful 

scarf and military fatigues, the soft 

blue sky and horizon line so thoughtfully 

placed, the woman on the left side of the 

frame, possibly injured in battle, all create 

a stunning work of art. How can one 

not be moved by this? What happened? 

Who are the YPJ (a heroic story unto 

itself)? The photo is a weapon against 

the horrors of the Islamic State. Its secondary 

target is all who say that women 

cannot engage and triumph in battle. 

The power of this beautiful photo of a 

Kurdish warrior I hope has launched a 

thousand people to join her struggle to 

save the Kurdish and other residents of 

Kobané from ISIS. (nb. Sarina, the subject 

of this photo, was martyred in battle 

in the fall of 2018.) 

Kurdish photographer Younes 

Mohammad has extensively photographed 

the wars and carnage in Iraq 

Photo by Younes Mohammad. Mosul, Iraq: A man from 

the Ghadesiya neighborhood was wounded during the battle 

for Mosul by a suicide ISIS car bomb. He was rescued and 

treated by medics of the Iraqi army in a field clinic. 

and Syria. His portfolio includes some 

very graphic images of bodily destruction 

caused by war. But it is not the gore 

that makes him a great photographer, 

rather it is his photographs of the passion, 

tenacity, and emotional depths of 

his subjects amidst such horrible conditions 

that have lasting value. His photograph 

in his SDN exhibit on the battle 

for Mosul, In Less than an Hour, of a 

man from the Ghadesiya neighborhood 

wounded during the battle for Mosul by 

a suicide ISIS car bomb, is a stunning 

example of a great photo made during 

battle. The young man (by the caption 

we assume he survives) has the look of 

calmness while medics are rushing into 

action. The photograph makes interesting 

use of color (blue latex gloves, blue 

jacket liner, and contrasting yellow plastic 

stretcher) and strong linear elements 

of the medics’ arms and the aluminum 

frame of the gurney, all pointing toward 

the central subject—the wounded soldier 

who lays calm amid chaos. Younes reassures 

us that although chaos reigns on 

the battlefield, it has not destroyed our 

soul as a species. 

Turning to other parts of the world 

and other issues, the SDN website has 



Photo by David Verberckt. from his SDN exhibit, Waiting for the Rain. One of the 4,500 displaced persons living near 

the capital of Somaliland. Tens of thousands of pastoralists have lost all their livestock during the past drought and became 

fully dependent on humanitarian aid for their subsistence. Most have abandoned their nomadic way of life and settled into 

makeshift camps where aid and food can reach them. 

hundreds of exhibits of stunning photographs 

that focus our attention on 

challenging situations. David Verberckt 

is a Belgium photographer whose interest 

is to document and work closely with 

people whose destinies are marred by 

social and political injustices. His recent 

exhibit on SDN, Waiting for Rain, is 

about climate refugees from Somaliland 

who have lost their livestock due to a 

drought made worse by a changing 

climate. The opening photo is one of 

the 4,500 displaced persons living near 

the capital of Somaliland, now fully 

dependent on humanitarian aid for their 

subsistence. Most have abandoned their 

nomadic way of life and have settled 

in makeshift camps where aid and 

food can reach them. This is a powerful 

frontal portrait of a woman looking 

intensely in our eyes. There is no question 

of her disappointment in her current 

situation as a refugee. But she is not a 

faceless victim. She is wearing a beautiful 

turquoise scarf and earth-colored 

head covering. Her expression is not of 

pathos but rather the expression we may 

see in our own mothers the world over, 

an expression of familiarity, compassion, 

and fate. Verberckt uses the simple but 

effective visual tool of selective focus— 

the woman’s face is in sharp focus while 

the background recedes into blur. This 

may be a textbook example of how to 

make a good portrait, but combined 

with the colors, the intense lighting 

across the woman’s face, how her head 

and shoulders so perfectly fill the frame, 

the sweep and rhythms of shadows starting 

in the lower left and ending with her 

black headband, the bokeh (Google the 

term if you are unfamiliar with it) of the 

shadows, makes this a lasting comment 

on how the human species has defiled 

our planet yet how we resist by being 

responsible stewards and take decisive 

action to remedy the situation. It is also 

a statement on how the human soul 

(both the subject’s and Verberckt’s) lives, 

struggles, and perseveres. 

Meaning Can Heal 

Humanity does not always win. In some 

cases, the horrors are so great, the 

perpetrators so debased, the victims so 

broken, that it is not clear if the species 

will survive. There are no comforting 

photographs from the Holocaust, from 

Rwanda, nor from other existential genocides 

in history. During the Holocaust, 

there was much art created by inmates 

of concentration camps, but it doesn’t 

reassure us. Rather the images makes us 

question if God, or the human species 

as we know it, can continue to exist 

following the Holocaust? Viktor Frankl, 

an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist 

who lost his whole family during the 

Nazis’ attempt to exterminate the Jews, 

counseled his fellow prisoners with a 

philosophy that argued that striving 

for meaning, not pleasure nor power, 

is what keeps us alive. Frankl was not 

an artist, but in the throes of the worst 

horrors faced by humanity, he invoked 

the only thing left to camp prisoners facing 

a near-certain death—a belief that 

finding meaning can heal. Is that not 

what artists the world over, and certainly 

photographers, are always striving to 

insist on? That amidst chaos, meaning 

can prevail. 

I can go on with equally as powerful 

photographs on SDN and elsewhere 

addressing equally as critical global 

situations, but the question remains 

“so what?” What effect does David 

Verberckt’s photos have on either global 

climate change or the specific situation 

of displaced pastoralists in Somaliland? 

What effect does Maryam Ashrafi’s 

photos from Kurdistan have on defeating 

ISIS? I hope their photos appear in venues 

with greater readership than either 

SDN or ZEKE magazine. I hope people 

will see these images and perhaps gain 

greater insight and empathy for victims 

of climate change or ISIS, and perhaps 

be driven to action. But I also believe 

that David Verberckt, Maryam Ashrafi, 

Younes Mohammad, and tens of thousands 

of photographers the world over 

who have made great personal sacrifices 

and have worked tirelessly to make 

great photos, have themselves taken a 

stand against complacency because 

they have been anything but complacent. 

They, as any artist does, make 

us confront a basic fact that amid so 

much suffering in the world, there is also 

beauty. But beauty is not separate from 

suffering. On the contrary, perfection 

and beauty gives us hope that things 

can be different and better, that we can 

rally, we are an intelligent species, and 

we can rise from the ashes to heal. 


Contributors 

Photographers 

Carol Allen-Storey, based in the UK, is 

an award-winning documentary photographer 

chronicling humanitarian and social 

issues. In 2009, Storey was appointed as a 

UNICEF ambassador for photography. She 

sits on the boards of the AOP (Association 

of Photographers), and the BPPA (British 

Professional Press Association). She is a 

founding member of the World Photography 

Academy for the SONY Award. Some of her 

clients include: UNICEF, Save The Children, 

The Elton John AIDS Foundation, WWF, 

International Alert, Comic Relief, Royal British 

Legion, The Global Fund for Children. 

Toby Binder was born in Germany and studied 

at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and 

Design. He focuses his photography on social, 

environmental and political topics. Now based 

in Argentina and Germany, he works on projects 

on post-war and crisis situations as well as 

the daily life of people. He has been awarded 

internationally the Nannen-Preis in 2017, the 

Sony World Photo Awards in 2017 and 2019, 

and the Philip-Jones-Griffiths-Award in 2018. 

The same year he received an Honorable 

Mention at the UNICEF Photo of the Year. 

Rory Doyle is based in Cleveland, 

Mississippi. Born and raised in Maine, he 

moved to the South in 2009 and has remained 

committed to the region ever since. His work 

often highlights unique Southern subcultures 

commonly overlooked. Doyle is a 2018 

Mississippi Visual Artist Fellow through the 

Mississippi Arts Commission and National 

Endowment for the Arts for “Delta Hill Riders.” 

He won the 16th Annual Smithsonian Photo 

Contest for the project in 2019 and the 

Southern Prize from South Arts organization. He 

was also recognized for the project by winning 

the 2019 Zeiss Photography Award, and the 

photojournalism category at the 2018 Eye Em 

Awards in Berlin, Germany. 

Sean Gallagher is a British photographer 

and filmmaker now based in Asia. His work 

focuses on highlighting environmental issues 

in the Asia-Pacific region. With a degree in 

zoology, his background in science has led 

to communicating ecological issues through 

visual storytelling. He is a 7-time recipient of 

the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting travel 

grant and his images are represented by the 

National Geographic Image Collection. He is a 

Fellow of the UK Royal Geographical Society, 

the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute 

Science Journalism Program and the Resilience 

Journalism Fellowship at the Craig Newmark 

Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. 

Lauren Owens Lambert is a photojournalist 

based in the Boston area focusing on 

documenting the human aspect of conservation, 

climate change, and ocean science. She 

is an International League of Conservation 

Photographer - Emerging League and a contributing 

photographer with Everyday Extinction 

and a Blue Earth Alliance project photographer. 

She has curated and shown in exhibitions at 

Photoville and has presented work at the UN on 

the importance of visual storytelling under the 

Sustainable Development Goal 14 – Life Below 

Water. 

Michael O. Snyder is a photographer and 

filmmaker whose work sits at the intersection 

of environmental sustainability and social 

justice. He has spent the past 15 years working 

on projects in the Amazon, the Arctic, the 

Himalaya, Asia, East Africa, and his home in 

rural Appalachia. His work features intimate 

portraiture of cultures affected by environmental 

issues, with a focus on empowerment and 

community-driven solutions. 

Writers 

Barbara Ayotte has served as a senior 

strategic communications strategist, writer 

and activist for leading global health, human 

rights and public media nonprofit organizations, 

including the Nobel Peace Prize- winning 

Physicians for Human Rights and International 

Campaign to Ban Landmines. Barbara is SDN’s 

Communications Director and is Editor of ZEKE 

magazine. 

Alessandra Bergamin is an Australian 

freelance journalist whose work focuses on 

immigration, public health, and environmental 

justice. She has been published in National 

Geographic, The New Yorker, Harper’s, and 

Literary Hub, among others. She also produces 

short documentaries and often photographs her 

stories. She is a 2019 UC Berkeley Food and 

Farming Fellow. 

Caterina Clerici is an Italian freelance 

journalist and producer based in New York. She 

was awarded three Innovation in Development 

Reporting Grants from the European Journalism 

Centre for her multimedia work in Haiti, Ghana 

and Rwanda, published in TIME, The Guardian, 

Al Jazeera English and Marie Claire, among 

others. She worked as a freelance photo editor 

and producer for VR at TIME, and as an executive 

video producer at Blink.la. 

Tammy Danan is a freelance storyteller 

based in the Philippines. While a generalist, 

she aims to better focus on social issues and 

humanitarian crises, with a stress on the plight 

of the Filipino indigenous people. In constant 

collaboration with photographers, her words 

have appeared in Al Jazeera, VICE, Audubon. 

org, OZY and others. 

Lori Grinker is a photographer, filmmaker, 

artist, and educator. Author of Afterwar; 

Veterans from a World in Conflict; co-author, 

The Invisible Thread; Mike Tyson; and Six 

Days From Forty (in progress). Her work is 

represented by the Nailya Alexander Gallery 

in NYC, and is in many private and public 

collections including the ICP; Museum of Fine 

Arts, Houston; and the Museum of Modern 

Art. Awards include a New York Foundation 

for the Arts Grant; W. Eugene Smith Memorial 

Fellowship; Ernst Hass Grant; Open Society 

Community Engagement Grant; and the World 

Press Foundation. She is an Ochberg Fellow of 

the Dart Center on Journalism and Trauma, and 

a senior member of Contact Press Images. 

Zeb Larson is a writer and researcher based 

in Columbus, OH. He recently finished a PhD 

in History at Ohio State University. His research 

deals with the global anti-apartheid movement, 

and he has begun working on adapting his dissertation 

into a book. 

Glenn Ruga is the Executive Editor of ZEKE 

magazine and founder and director of the 

Social Documentary Network (SDN). From 

2010-2013, he was the Executive Director of 

the Photographic Resource Center. From 1995- 

2007 he was the Director, and then President, 

of the Center for Balkan Development. Ruga is 

also the owner and creative director of Visual 

Communications, a graphic design firm located 

in Concord, MA. 

J. Sybylla Smith is an independent curator 

with more than 25 solo or group exhibitions 

featuring over 80 international photographers 

exhibited in the US, Mexico, and South 

America. An adjunct professor, guest lecturer, 

and thesis advisor, Sybylla has worked with the 

School of Visual Arts, the School of the Museum 

of Fine Arts, Wellesley College, and Harvard 

University. 

Frank Ward is a professor of visual art at 

Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, MA. In 

2016, Ward received a National Endowment 

for the Humanities grant and a Mass Humanities 

grant for his photography of Holyoke, MA. In 

2012, he went to Central Asia as the Cultural 

Envoy in Photography for the US Department 

of State. In 2011, he was awarded an Artist 

Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural 

Council for his photography in the former Soviet 

Union. He has also received support for his 

work in the former Yugoslavia, Tibet and India. 

He is represented by Photo Eye Gallery in Santa 

Fe, NM. 



Out of the Shadows 

Shamed Teen Mothers in Rwanda 

By Carol Allen-Storey 

An epidemic of teen pregnancies is 

permeating the population in Rwanda. 

Vulnerable girls as young as 13 

find themselves in this unwarranted 

circumstance. Many as a result of 

rape and others through ignorance of 

engaging in sexual activities without protection, 

nor any knowledge of the responsibility 

of motherhood. The fathers run away. The 

young mothers bring shame to the family, are 

isolated and abandoned. These emotionally 

damaged adolescents have assumed the awesome 

responsibility of being mothers when 

they are still children. The aim of this essay 

is to give voice to these damaged girls and 

attract wider support for them to live their lives 

with dignity. Hope for Rwanda, a local charity, 

is providing support through counselling, 

legal aid and skills training. 

“I was finishing my last year in school 

and became pregnant. I was horrified, 

I wanted to abort, as I would 

be forced to leave school. My future 

would be dim. After I could not raise 

the fees for abortion, I felt my only 

option was to commit suicide. My 

friend told my mother of my situation 

and she said; ‘Since I sinned once 

by getting pregnant I should not sin 

again’. After the baby was born I 

initially felt a deep sense of loneliness, 

but as I fell into my role I also learned 

to be responsible and strong.” 

Olive, 20. Daughter Giselle, 2. 

Carol Allen-Storey, based in the UK, is an 

award-winning photojournalist specializing in 

chronicling complex humanitarian and social 

issues. Her imagery illuminating people’s 

dignity and quest for survival reflects the 

unique trust and respect she engenders with 

her subjects. 

Storey’s work has been exhibited and 

published extensively. Installations of her photography 

appear in corporate headquarters 

and commercial premises. In October 2009, 

she was appointed a UNICEF ambassador for 

photography. Her recent prize money for winning 

gold in the Act of Kindness Award was 

donated to a small AIDS charity in Uganda 

because she believes it was morally responsible 

to donate the money back to those most 

in need. 




“I became pregnant when I was 15 in 

a rush of passion with my boyfriend. I 

then thought about the fate of my life, I 

was not prepared for parenting, I lost 

hope. I told my boyfriend, he said he 

would support me, but soon after he 

vanished. I returned to my studies with 

the support of Hope for Rwanda, a 

local charity that has taught me to be a 

strong woman and built my confidence. 

Recently I became a mentor to other 

silly girls like me, who learn about the 

perils of being fooled by men when 

they request sexual favors and take 

no responsibility. When I complete my 

studies, my aim is to become a journalist 

on radio and TV.” 

Florence, 19. Brian William, 3 


“When I was a 17, I dated a 

man a lot older than me. Soon 

after a short affair I fell pregnant. 

When I confronted the father of 

the child, he said he had no interest 

in taking responsibility and knew 

I couldn’t afford the DNA test to prove 

his paternity. I wanted to commit suicide 

because I couldn’t see a future. Now I 

dream of being a journalist to give a 

voice to girls like me that have brought 

shame to their family and fall into depression 

as they feel their lives have been crushed 

by becoming pregnant and raising a child as 

a single mother.” 

Sandrine Murekatete, 19 

Son, Jesse Johnson, 7 months 


“I met my boyfriend in church, we got 

close and ended up making love, it was 

spontaneous. I missed my period and 

suspected I was pregnant. At the clinic they 

confirmed my status. I thought I only met 

this guy a few weeks ago, now I find myself 

pregnant. I didn’t even know who he is, how 

could I have been so stupid? After a few 

weeks when I told him, he asked me to marry 

him and I said a big NO. We broke up and I 

haven’t seen him since. I am a member of the 

‘Hope for Rwanda’ program where I have the 

opportunity of meeting other girls in exactly 

my situation, a single mother who has had 

to abandon their dreams. We gain strength 

being together and supporting each other.” 

Florette Ishimwe, 19 

Son, La vie, 2 


Neslathe breastfeeds her small daughter 

Lenatha. “Becoming a mother was a 

wake-up call, the added chores and 

responsibilities being a mother; the work 

is doubled, and exhaustion takes over.” 

—Neslathe 



Interview 

WITH LEKGETHO MAKOLA 

by Caterina Clerici 

Lekgetho Makola is the Head of Market 

Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, South 

Africa. He sits on the International Advisory 

Committee to the Board of CatchLight, and 

was on the Curatorial Advisory Committee 

of the 2017 Bamako Encounters. Over the 

past few years, he has been on the judging 

panels for various national and international 

photography and arts awards, 

including World Press Photo 2019. 

Caterina Clerici: How did you get into 

photography? 

Lekgetho Makola: My background is 

fine arts, painting and sculpture but also 

multimedia and the theory of photography. 

I worked in museums in Durban, in 

post-apartheid South Africa, from 1999, 

supporting the collections and archival 

units. I also worked as a photographer for 

the museums, photographing the artworks 

for preservation but also documenting 

the events. I was also involved in curation. 

Three years later I moved to Cape 

Town where I started working as an 

exhibition manager at the Robben Island 

Museum. That’s where I began working 

with photographic archives but also 

documenting stories of people who had 

been imprisoned on Robben Island since 

the 1960s. So that’s when I started really 

working with the medium to tell stories. 

Later, I got awarded a Ford Foundation 

scholarship to go to Howard University 

in Washington, D.C. and do an MFA in 

Film Studies. I chose that because there 

is a lot more work done in film theory 

about black filmmaking, especially in the 

United States and South America. I think 

in those ten years I established my interest 

Patrick Selemani 

in images, focusing on activism around 

images, especially on the (African) 

Continent and in the context of post-colonial 

South Africa. 

CC: What motivated your interest in 

images? 

LM: Images are carriers of information, but 

also more than any other artistic practice, 

they reach a very wide audience and have 

the potential to impact perceptions. Images 

can become an integral part of education: 

carrying historic memories, but also helping 

people to think creatively or critically 

from a younger age. They also help us 

understand the context of our country, at a 

time when we are trying to find ourselves 

outside of the divisions of apartheid. 

CC: How did you end up at Market Photo 

Workshop? 

LM: After completing my studies at 

Howard University, I came to the Market 

Photo Workshop (MPW) because I had a 

very strong background in exhibitions, programming, 

and curating. I joined MPW as 

their Program and Projects Manager, overseeing 

the curriculum and creating synergy 

with the public programming side. When 

my predecessor, John Fleetwood, resigned 

four years ago I took over as the Head of 

the school. For me, the school is one of 

the most instrumental spaces for learning 

and teaching photography, and one that 

prioritizes its critical nature — photography 

for social change and advocacy. It 

aligned with what I’ve been doing since 

I completed my undergraduate studies in 

1994. I regard myself as an image activist: 

I’m thinking about the process of making 

an image, and the impact of that image in 

society. 

CC: What are the themes at the core of the 

School’s curriculum? 

LM: We believe that all the students who 

come into our space — usually 12 per educator 

— come in with a particular perspective 

or idea that inspires them, and our role 

is not to overload them with information, 

but to collaborate and bring the photographic 

resources and know-how for them 

to engage and better tell their own stories. 

During apartheid, photography focused 

on society and what was happening, documenting 

our lives collectively. Post-apartheid, 

people want to talk about themselves; 

self-reflection, the relationship with the 

environment they live in, their home, their 

livelihoods, issues of identity: “I’m black in 

post-apartheid South Africa. It’s a democracy. 

How does it relate to me?” They use 

images to explore those questions. One of 

the biggest outcomes from our space has 

been issues of representation on gender, 

sexuality, and non-conforming communities, 

and our space has now become what they 

regard as a safe space. The focus is on 

issues around transgender communities and 

acceptance, how people from these communities 

photograph themselves. Our public 

programming begins to create a platform 

for these kinds of discussions, using the 

students to lead them. 

CC: You mentioned images are also a tool 

for social change; have you seen photographic 

work translate into a change in the 

public’s perception of these issues? 

LM: Zanele Muholi (who joined MPW 

in 2000) shocked the classrooms and 

many male students. One of the issues she 

became interested in while in class was 

menstruation: she wanted to demystify this 

fear males have, but also to confront patriarchy, 

and through that process establish 

her own definition of gender and how she 

wants to be seen. Since then, not only has 

she created platforms for people to talk 

publicly about gender identity and sexuality, 

but she runs schools that help people 

from those communities find safe spaces— 

not only in South Africa but all over the 

world. That’s one example of something 

that started in our program but ended up 

being quite global. Lolo Veleko also had a 

huge impact on young photographers. She 

began teaching in the classroom about the 

relationship between fashion, space, and 

identity. We started seeing a lot of photographers 

borrowing from her style, and 

some of her work is now studied in relation 

to urban development and how to think of 

young people in urban settings. 

CC: Have you seen any new trends in the 

visual language that the new generations 

of artists have chosen to express themselves? 

LM: In the past three to four years, we’ve 

begun to see a change in the texture of 

images: people are much more experimental, 

they’re going beyond just photographing 

what’s happening around them; they’re 


CC: Are similar dynamics happening 

across the African continent? 

Lekgetho Makola viewing the Photo Incubator exhibition at the Photo Workshop Gallery. 

Photo by Siphosihle Mkhwanazi. 

beginning to author their work and stage 

their images to tell a very particular story. 

We still have a traditional documentary 

photography practice, but overall we’re 

seeing images going more toward fine arts. 

People are redefining what an image is — 

for example, introducing moving images, 

because smartphone cameras or DSLRs 

all have video functions. We see a lot of 

experimentation, a beautiful mix of ideas, 

still within the critical narrative space. 

CC: The photo industry seems to be finally 

diversifying. The more voices are let in, the 

more the practice is questioned, and, with 

it, who has the right to tell a story. Given 

its roots, can there be photojournalism 

without a Western filter? 

LM: The practice of photography in the 

continent is growing and people are 

beginning to document themselves in their 

own communities. A person who goes into 

their township and knows the dynamics 

of their home is able to photograph it in a 

particular way, unlike for instance AFP or 

Reuters photographers who parachute into 

a village, photograph the story and leave. 

We are hoping to host the 2019 World 

Press Photo Awards here at the MPW, and 

I was telling the people in Amsterdam that 

it’s important for them to know there is this 

reluctance to accept the World Press Photo 

as the space that every year decides what 

a good photograph is. It becomes difficult 

for these juries to questions themselves 

and their idea of photography, since 

they already believe they are the leading 

authorities in deciding what a good image 

actually is. 

There are many photographers from 

outside Africa coming to the Continent 

and photographing it, and their work gets 

accepted to many festivals and biennales 

in Europe, but it’s hard to find somebody 

from the Continent, who photographs the 

same issues, accepted in those spaces. 

This is problematic. The question is: 

what stories are being told, and for what 

purpose? I think we are still living in a 

residual colonial phase and it’s going to 

take a bit to redefine the understanding 

of photography, possibly through spaces 

like ours, or others in Rwanda, Nigeria, 

Ethiopia, Egypt. Currently, the challenge is 

that what we teach in universities is based 

on theories written from the perspective of 

Europe, rather than of the continent or the 

Global South. 

CC: What can be done to diversify things 

from within, in the Global North? 

LM: I believe the answer can be in smaller 

spaces where global partnerships can 

happen more easily, grassroot-type of 

places like the Bronx Documentary Center, 

or smaller festivals where people can 

interact with a crowd that thinks differently. 

Any change that is going to happen 

will be because of people who are in a 

developmental stage right now, the new 

generations. To begin to engage The New 

York Times or National Geographic at this 

stage won’t get us anywhere, because they 

have the commercial obligations to keep 

providing the sales they are providing to 

their market. But there has to be focus on 

online collaboration and curation of works 

that can be shared and distributed widely 

digitally. That’s one of the changes that can 

have a much larger impact, because now 

you don’t have to move physically from one 

space to another. 

LM: We’ve begun to share ideas across 

the continent, using platforms such as 

WhatsApp to engage but also to decide 

on what type of programs to do. We have 

the Centers of Learning for Photography in 

Africa, and the main aim is for us across 

the continent to share what are we doing, 

what are the challenges we are facing, 

and how do we support each other. Some 

of us are quite long-running independent 

institutions, like the MPW, compared to the 

new photographic space in Kigali, which 

just started a year ago. 

We can share some of the successful 

ways to find grants, how to do your balance 

sheets, ensure that your photographic 

hub runs and bring some type of infrastructure. 

That is the basis of creating a healthy 

photographic community. 

We do understand that the dynamics 

across the continent are different. 

For example, at the Center of Learning 

for Photography in Sudan, they have 

challenges photographing in their own 

communities because of censorship around 

the practice, which is different if compared 

to Nigeria, where they’re free, or to us 

in South Africa, where photography is a 

commodity and people can actually make 

a living out of the practice. In Sudan it’s a 

more conscious decision you take going 

into the practice. There’s also the Center 

in Egypt, where the online space and the 

use of images actually created the revolution. 

These are beautiful dynamics in the 

Continent that continually inspire us to think 

collaboratively around the practice. 

CC: What are some of the emerging challenges? 

LM: We need to begin to talk about 

diversity within the Continent. It’s been 

a male-dominated practice and it still is. 

It’s still dangerous and hard for women 

photographers to navigate the space to 

photograph by themselves freely, because 

of the violent nature of our spaces. These 

are conversations that are continual, and 

also have an impact on the type and style 

of photography that is produced. 



BOOK 

REVIEWS 

NO PLACE ON EARTH 

Photographs by Patrick Brown, 

text by Jason Motlagh and 

Matthew Smith 

FotoEvidence Press, 2019 

208 pages | $60 

In August 2017, 

Myanmar’s army 

attacked hundreds 

of thousands 

of ethnic Rohingya 

Muslims in northern 

Rakhine State, 

killing civilians, 

raping women and 

burning villages. Hundreds of thousands 

fled across the Naf River to neighboring 

Bangladesh. The violence against the 

Rohingya had been percolating since 

the 1970s in one of the longest planned 

genocides in human history. 

After the Bosnian and Rwandan genocides 

of the 1990s, the world proclaimed 

“never again.” Once again, genocide has 

been perpetrated on civilians, but this time 

there has been no Truth and Reconciliation 

Commission nor International Criminal 

Court prosecutions. None of the perpetrators 

have been held accountable. The 

Rohingya lost their citizenship in Myanmar 

and have lived in protracted statelessness 

and displacement, living in internment 

camps in Myanmar or sprawling camp settlements 

across the border in Cox’s Bazar 

in Bangladesh, denser than Manhattan. 

Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu 

Kyi’s administration oversaw the genocide 

and has done nothing to help the survivors. 

But this doesn’t mean that the Rohingya 

don’t have a voice. 

Photographer Patrick Brown was living 

in Thailand in 2017 and was able to 

immediately travel to Bangladesh as the 

first survivors arrived there. This book is a 

powerful account of what he saw, serving 

as important evidence and required reading 

for policymakers who have turned a 

blind eye to this war crime. 

“Genocide is about the survivors—the 

living. The survivors in these pages bear 

witness to the horror ..they are a testament 

of the enduring will to live and the 

resilience of life” says Matthew Smith, 

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of 

Fortify Rights, in a moving opening essay. 

Many of the photographs in No Place 

on Earth are dark—both in tone and in 

subject matter. As one survivor, Nazmal 

Islam said “we don’t have any light in 

our life, everything is dark.” The opening 

pages depict ominous and thick monsoon 

clouds over dark seas. These are followed 

by spreads of buried shrouds, women in 

veils, brightly colored parasols against 

the night sky, candlelight gatherings in the 

camps and moonlight shadows. Despite 

the grimness, Patrick’s photos still manage 

to find beauty. (One criticism: the captions 

carrying vital background information 

come pages after the photographs, causing 

the reader to have to flip back and 

forth to get the context.) 

Telling the stark truth of the Rohingya 

survivors today, Brown includes devastating 

children’s drawings of the violence, 

blood, fires, and helicopters flying over 

their villages. Veteran human rights 

investigator, Peter Bouckhaert, writes how 

the children will forever be afflicted by the 

severity of their trauma. “We confront the 

depths of human depravity towards fellow 

human beings. What these children have 

witnessed will leave them forever haunted. 

But it should haunt us as well.” 

Then, there are the riveting testimonies 

and stories of survivors that each read 

like a thriller, accompanied by Brown’s 

stunning portraits. Rajuma Begum from 

the village of Tula Toli recounts how she 

was separated from her husband (later 

reunited), her son thrown into a fire, how 

she was raped, but managed to escape. 

These harrowing and very detailed 

accounts were collected by Jason Motlagh, 

writer and director at Blackbeard Media. 

The darkness lifts a bit and the images 

turn to skies awash with beautiful sunsets. 

A peaceful portrait of a baby resting on his 

father’s chest as they recline in the camp. 

Children play on a makeshift ferris wheel 

celebrating Eid after Ramadan. 

Unexpectedly, Brown includes full-page 

portraits of machetes, sickles, axes, and 

hoes--the handmade tools of the Rohingya 

that were used to farm their lands and harvest 

their gardens that were taken from them 

by the military and wielded against them as 

weapons of war. Today, these tools resume 

their original purpose: helping clear trees, 

build bamboo shacks, till small vegetable 

plots and rice paddies and bury the dead. 

Returning to Myanmar is not an option 

for Rohingya unless they renounce their ethnicity. 

As one survivor says, “We have no 

place on earth where we can find peace.” 

But Brown says, “Photography forces 

a confrontation, a reckoning by putting a 

face to the cruelty. These were witnesses 

and they live on.” It is also an attempt to 

show that the oppressors haven’t won. 

—Barbara Ayotte 


TE AHI KA – : THE FIRES OF 

OCCUPATION 

By Martin Toft 

Dewi Lewis, 2018 

200 pages | £35.00 

“New Zealand’s Whanganui River 

granted legal status as a person 

after 170-year battle.” 

This extraordinary headline was 

published in ABC Australia online, 

March 2017. This is the history at 

the root of photographer Martin Toft’s 

unique book, Te Ahi Ka – : The Fires of 

Occupation. 

According to Martin Toft, the 

Whanganui River has been “a source of 

material and spiritual sustenance” of the 

Ma – ori and is the first body of water in the 

world to be recognized as a living being. 

The Ma – ori of New Zealand signed a treaty 

in 1840 in order to protect their rights when 

the British Crown and its overseas companies 

began to colonize the region in the 

mid-nineteenth century. However, through 

misinterpretation of language (and what 

I will assume was greed) the treaty was 

not honored as understood by the tribes of 

Whanganui. The Ma – ori look to this river, 

which flows from the mountains of central 

North Island, New Zealand to the Tasman 

Sea, as their ancestor, their lifeblood. 

While it is not a well-known story, it is not a 

surprising one as it mirrors much of native 

peoples’ stories throughout periods of colonization, 

and the abuse and struggles that 

still exist for them today, around the world. 

Photo books are for me akin to small 

films or portable exhibitions that you hold 

in your hand, spend time with at your 

leisure, while exploring new worlds, histories 

and ideas as you journey through the 

pages. Leafing back and forth, making discoveries 

while seeing through the author’s 

eyes, and often with another layer of 

storytelling that comes through the design, 

and then another with text and interviews. 

That is my experience of Te Ahi Ka – . 

In 1996, Toft, then an amateur photographer, 

spent six months in King Country, 

New Zealand which lies between the middle 

and upper region of the Whanganui 

River. He learned of their struggle and 

work towards reversing the colonization of 

their people and returning to their ancestral 

land. Twenty years later, Toft returned to 

explore more of the physical and metaphysical 

relationship the Ma – ori have to the 

river, and his own spiritual awakening. The 

book takes its narrative from the agreement 

known as the “Whanganui River Deed of 

Settlement.” The Ma – ori have fought for 

this recognition for so long, for the need to 

bring the health and wellbeing of the river, 

and consequently the people, back to its 

natural flow. This book, a true collaboration, 

has found a way to tell that story 

through these photographs and text. 

The book is a collaboration between the 

designers, interpreters, and local people 

who share their stories in interviews and 

conversations with each other. It is through 

their conversations that we learn about 

their struggles, their relationship to the 

river, and their hopes for the future. 

The book concept is by Toft and Ania 

Natecka-Milaj of Tapir Book Design. The 

editing and sequencing are done by Rafat 

Milach. The text is by Toft. There are two 

different covers—a green cloth (female 

cover) and orange cloth (male cover)— 

each with their own design motif. No 

explanation is given about the symbolism 

of these colors or the design. At the back 

of the book is what looks like a postcard 

with a group portrait in front of a meeting 

house; upon opening this foldout you find 

several photographs of people in front of 

the building and on the back—scroll-like— 

is a dictionary with translations of Ma – ori 

words and phrases. 

The book begins with pages of black 

and white images of the forest and river 

made by Toft during his six-month trip in 

1996, followed by a foldout page with 

a color image hidden on the inside from 

his more recent work. The foldout page 

is sandwiched with another and between 

them are pages of interviews followed by 

poetry. The book flows like this throughout, 

like a river snaking around its terrain 

revealing the lifeblood of the river and its 

peoples, their history and culture. 

The color images from his recent trip 

are a mix of portraits, still lifes, landscapes, 

historic images and scenes of contemporary 

life. The book ends with text of the 2017 

Crown’s Apology as acknowledgement of 

the integral relationship of the river to the 

people who live along its flow. I wish there 

was a bit more explanation to help guide 

us through the chapters. Although the book 

itself — the object — is a treasure to hold 

and what it brings us is of great import. 

Photography books have been one of 

my passions since I was a college student 

(long ago). Today, there is no shortage of 

wonderful books of all genres, subject matter 

and prices. Many of these books have 

the ability to raise awareness and bring 

change. This particular history has been 

resolved and my hope is that this wonderful 

book can influence others to recognize 

what was taken from the natives of their 

lands and help restore the rights of other (if 

not all) native peoples. 

—Lori Grinker 



HOLY 

By Donna Ferrato 

powerHouse Books, 2019 

172 pages | $45.00 

International photojournalist Donna 

Ferrato has spent her career documenting 

domestic terror. Her book 

and series, Living With the Enemy 

is seminal. Her image, Bengt Hits 

Elisabeth,1982, taken while on assignment 

for Playboy Japan, was recognized 

by TIME magazine as one of the 

100 Most Influential Pictures of All Time. 

Taken in their New Jersey suburban 

home it captures the brutal beating of a 

wife by her husband in response to what 

he reports was her disobedience. This 

experience changed Ferrato’s life and 

began her crusade to reveal the truth 

of domestic violence for what it is —a 

war of terror waged against women, 

worldwide. 

Holy, Ferrato’s fourth book, is a retrospective 

of her photographic documentation 

of violence against women. Startling 

black and white images span decades and 

continents. The raw impact of Ferrato’s 

witness sears. Her images’ sheer ferocity 

brands the viewer while validating the 

reality of the victim. The invisible shields of 

denial and secrecy are stripped from the 

perpetrator. Ferrato uncovers and chronicles 

myriad forms of male abuse, from the 

familial to the societal. 

Complied as a family photo album, 

Holy, chronicles moments of viciousness 

and abuses of power. Each image is cloyingly 

framed by white scalloped edges and 

fabric bric-a-brac, a nostalgic nod to the 

innocence of scrapbooks, holders of wishes, 

dreams and cherished moments. Rough 

hewn black marker outlines each photo with 

handwritten text scrawled below. 

Under a portrait taken of Ferrato’s 

56 / ZEKE FALL 2019 

parents in Virginia in 1994, she writes 

in bold script; Road Trip. Lies Kill Love. 

Mom Always Gave Him Her Best. Gutwrenching, 

it freezes the cumulative emotions 

carved into her mother’s distressed 

face and the crisp, in-control authority 

of her map-holding father barely able 

to contain his disdain. She speaks in an 

interview of the years of manipulation and 

psychological abuse her father perpetuated 

on her mother. He was bi-polar, unfaithful, 

and wore the family down emotionally. 

A self-portrait taken in an Ohio bathroom 

when she was freshly divorced at 28 

was a recent discovery by Ferrato. Shot 

on film, she stands with bare shoulders 

and dyed hair swept back in her attempt 

to look older and taken more seriously. 

Decades later she finds one frame with 

black streaks seemingly exploding out of 

her head, a graphic signifying an expulsion 

of all she has seen and excavated. 

Scribbled across this image she writes: 

”Bolts of rage altered by age — postmenopausal 

power.” In the book, this image is 

surrounded by furious script listing the vernacular 

of hate directed at women: Crone, 

Dyke, Slut, Twat, Cunt, Pussy, Bitch, Tramp, 

Man Hater, Ghost, Babykiller, Ho, Whore, 

Mother of God, Punta, Virgin, Prude, 

Feminist, 2nd Sex, Old Maid, Butch, Hag 

In the time it takes to read this review, 

over 60 women will have made a call into 

a domestic violence hotline in the United 

States. Femicide is the killing of women 

by men because they are female, a term 

published by author Diana E. H. Russell 

at the International Tribunal on Crimes 

Against Women in 1976. A majority 

of these deaths are by gunshot and not 

coincidentally are within states with the 

least restrictive gun laws. Pregnancy is a 

leading contributing risk factor to violence 

against women in the US. Intentional sexbased 

hate crime kills 50,000 woman a 

year, globally. 

Women’s reproductive rights are currently 

under sustained attack in the United 

States. The ability to receive pregnancy 

prevention services and/or to terminate 

a pregnancy is being curtailed on a state 

level. A goal of conservative legislators 

is to repeal the landmark Supreme Court 

decision, Roe vs. Wade, which presently 

provides a wide-range of health care 

services for the 23 million women of 

reproductive age in the US. Consistently, 

women have had to defend their choices

of how to use their bodies. A bedrock foundation 

of patriarchy is the historic societal 

expectation (read obligation) for all 

women to bear children. Author Rebecca 

Solnit challenges this restrictive definition 

of womanhood in her book, The Mother 

of All Questions, when she spotlights this 

implicit mandate put upon the female 

gender; “Woman, who must marry, must 

breed, must let men in and babies out, like 

some elevator for the species…Brains are 

individual phenomena producing wildly 

varying products: uteruses bring forth one 

kind of creation.” 

Donna Ferrato has changed the universal 

landscape for all victims of domestic 

violence, the millions of women, men and 

children affected on a daily basis. The state 

of Massachusetts claimed intimate-partner 

violence as a public health emergency 

in 2008, noting it’s correlation to, and 

creation of, a complex matrix of related 

social, psychological and medical crises. 

Mental health, incarceration, family and 

children services buckle under the staggering 

numbers of people affected by domestic 

violence. Ferrato established the Domestic 

Abuse Project in 1979 with a mission to 

eradicate domestic violence and create 

communities where families experience 

healthy, safe and equal relationships. In 

2014 she launched a campaign for women 

who left abusers called, I Am Unbeatable. 

Two bodies of work from Holy are 

currently being exhibited as part of Photo 

Espana. At seventy years of age, Ferrato is 

as driven to create positive societal change 

today as when she began forty years ago. 

She has heard and amplified the collective 

voices of women internationally. She 

photographs the contemporary reality of 

women demanding equal representation 

in, and protection by, governmental law 

in multiple countries. Author Ursula K. Le 

Guin succinctly states the power of such 

fundamental change. “We are volcanoes. 

When we women offer our experience as 

our truth, all the maps change. There are 

new mountains.” Ferrato’s dedication to 

create a true visual narrative contributed 

to our current explosion which is altering 

our communal landscape. Ferrato knew 

what was real all along—woman, on her 

own is sacred and wholly. Individually and 

collectively we are unbeatable. 

—J. Sybylla Smith 

A FIELD GUIDE TO 

ASBESTOS 

By Louie Palu 

Essay by Alison Nordström 

Yoffy 

72 pages | $25.00 

Often the 

goal of 

writing 

a book review is 

to comment on 

the contents of a 

book. The book 

as an object is 

invisible — a 

container for the 

contents, such as a shoebox holding a 

pair of ruby slippers. Louie Palu turns 

this on its head with A Field Guide to 

Asbestos. This is certainly not a book 

of Palu’s photographs, although his 

photos are used in the book. A Field 

Guide to Asbestos is performance art. It 

nominally takes the form of a field guide 

where we might expect to see images of 

plants and insects, but instead he pours 

in content of all types relating to the 

destructive consequences to the soft tissues 

of the human body when exposed 

to the silicate asbestos, most often used 

in building materials as a shield for fire, 

and most tragically resulting in slow 

death as a result of long-term exposure. 

Palu is no longer in his comfort zone 

here. In the past, he has made a career of 

making extraordinary images of mine workers 

and soldiers to tell complex stories about 

the heroic and dangerous work that people 

must do to survive. Now he has entered the 

world of conceptual art, creating an object, 

a book, to tell a story of asbestos, no less 

dangerous and no less destructive than war 

or deep underground mining. 

For most of the history of photography, 

a photo book began with the rectangular 

photograph that would impart meaning by 

a combination of its representational and 

formal qualities. The representational qualities 

might be the face of a US Marine in 

Afghanistan or a miner in Quebec—both 

subjects of Louie Palu’s earlier work. The 

formal qualities might be contrast, use of 

color (or not), scale, perspective, focus—all 

of which Palu has shown mastery of with 

his previous work. 

Enter the photo book of today. Now, the 

rather limited variables available to a photographer 

are exponentially expanded by 

the choices available to a book designer- 

-sequence, typography, paper stock, binding, 

concept, etc. While in the past, these 

elements were subservient to the content, 

today they are the content. 

The first impression of A Field Guide 

to Asbestos is the size and materials. It 

is small—it can almost fit in the palm of 

one’s hand. The cover is stiff paper without 

a photo, as if it was an industrial field 

manual. The book begins with a snapshot, 

clearly not by Palu, taken in 1952 of youthful 

Harold and Blayne Kinart at their home 

in Ontario, Canada. Turning the page, 

the next photo is of a skeletal Blayne, 52 

years later having pain medication patches 

applied on his back by his wife Sandy. 

(Blayne died in 2004 of mesothelioma 

from exposure to asbestos — the process of 

which Palu powerfully documents.) 

On page 3 begins the most traditional 

element of a photo book — the essay. In 

this case it is a smart and informative one 

by Alison Nordström who does a brilliant 

job dissecting the tragedy of asbestos in 

recent human history and critiquing the 

book as an object. 

The book progresses with photos by Palu 

of people who have been exposed to, and 

in many cases devastated by asbestos in 

Canada, the US, and in India; remarkable 

images of asbestos mining waste; interviews 

with experts on asbestos; historical 

photos of asbestos in use; an essay by the 

photographer; and closes with a series of 

color snapshots (not by Palu) of people who 

eventually died from exposure to asbestos. 

The closing sentence of Palu’s essay, the 


crux of his argument, is “We aren’t talking 

about a faceless disease or an industrial 

material—we’re talking about human lives.” 

The question I am left with: Does 

this book bring more to our understanding 

of asbestos and of its victims than a 

traditionally-bound photo book with large 

photos by the photographer, an essay by a 

renowned expert, and a statement by the 

photographer? 

I think not. I think of another book that 

has explored disease of the human body 

-— Nick Nixon’s People with Aids (David 

R. Godine, 1991) — because in both 

cases the subjects are mostly men at late 

stages of their lives with loved ones nearby. 

Nixon plays no tricks with his book. He is 

confident that the stuff within his rectangles 

are what matters and that he is a virtuoso 

in his compositions. Nixon also has no 

qualms understanding that his images are 

less important than the people he photographs, 

and that the disease is bigger than 

both. Palu’s endpoint is the same, but in 

A Field Guide to Asbestos, he display less 

confidence that his photographs will get 

us there. Instead he explores other visual 

devices, goes into tangents, and leaves us 

with something that has the questionable 

authority of a pamphlet, or in this case, a 

field guide. 

This is not to say the book design is not 

important. But as the margins are pushed, 

the risks are increased. Few photo books 

today are as traditional as Nick Nixon’s 

People with Aids, but most skew closer to 

thoughtful use of traditional book design 

elements of size, scale, paper stock, and 

typography. In Palu’s case, he reaches by 

re-inventing the concept. This isn’t a book, 

it is a field guide. But where are the Jackin-the-Pulpits 

and Ruby Throated Sparrows? 

There is only one technical illustration 

showing how lungs are affected by asbestos 

particles credited to Stanford School of 

Medicine, and one canned definition of the 

type you might find in a field guide titled 

“Asbestos-Related Diseases” by the Centers 

for Disease Control. 

I commend Palu for experimenting with 

the boundaries of the photo book and 

exploring how to make a photograph more 

meaningful and politically affective than 

what it usually can do. I am just at a loss 

because I know what a good photographer 

he is I and I have more faith in the 

power of those rectangles than he allows 

us with this book. 

—Glenn Ruga 

CASPIAN: THE ELEMENTS 

Photographs by Chloe Dewe 

Mathews, Essays by Morad 

Montazami, Sean O’Hagan, and 

Arnold van Bruggen 

Co-published by Aperture and Peabody 

Museum Press, 2018 

216 pages | $65 

In Caspian: 

The Elements, 

British photographer 

Chloe Dewe 

Mathews offers her 

five-year encounter 

with the five countries 

bordering the 

Caspian Sea: Iran, 

Russia, Azerbaijan, 

Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. She 

selects her pictures based on the elements: 

fire, earth, air, and water. The first 

chapter in this systematic approach is 

titled “Oil Gas Fire.” Her story begins in 

the sanatoriums of Naftalan, Azerbaijan 

where individuals are seen resting in tubs 

filled with “miracle oil.” Azeris believe 

that soaking in this thick crude oil is 

medicinal. The abundance of black crude 

oil gives the countries of this region their 

geopolitical and economic heft. 

Mathews moves on from crude oil 

therapy to witness Zoroastrian fire rituals in 

Iran. Her continuing revelation of Caspian 

life and culture loses some momentum 

when she focuses on oil production in 

Azerbaijan, the industrial component of 

her natural elements theme. These images 

are not as beguiling as jumping through 

fire, yet they express her articulate clarity 

of vision. The photographer regains her 

storytelling momentum later in the chapter 

when she memorably documents Uzbek 

cemetery workers in Kazakhstan building 

mausoleums for the rich and dying. 

In the second chapter, “Rock Salt 

Uranium,” she explores underground 

mosques in Kazakhstan, travels with 

shamans to sacred sites in Azerbaijan and 

visits sulfur and salt lakes in Turkmenistan 

and Russia respectively. The most incredible 

pictures are of radioactive hot springs in 

Ramsar, Iran. Mathews could have ended 

the book here, where radioactive spas seem 

to pulsate on the page, but she has yet to 

portray the final element of her story. 

“Water,” the closing chapter, is a 

bucolic thank you to the Caspian Sea for 

all it has revealed to her. The highlight of 

this last chapter is her pictures of the Volga 

River and Delta where Russians live and 

play with a passion best observed when 

they are swimming and fishing in icy holes 

on great frozen expanses. 

Chloe Dewe Mathews’ one hundred 

plus visual studies of beauty and grace 

amount to a substantial achievement. 

Caspian also includes three insightful 

essays starting with Sean O’Hagan’s commentary, 

which was recently excerpted 

in The New Yorker. O’Hagan talks about 

Mathews’ “metaphorical documentary 

photography” stimulating his childhood 

memories. This is a result that many 

photographers aspire to. Mathews succeeds 

through her desire to search out the 

metaphysical as well as the physical in her 

Caspian world. 

—Frank Ward 


LEICA M10 

THE ART OF THE DECISIVE MOMENT 

www.leicacamerausa.com | Follow us: 

@LeicaCameraUSA | #LeicaCameraUSA 


AWARD WINNERS 

HONORABLE MENTIONS 

ZEKE AWARD FOR 

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY 

Paula Bronstein 

Elderly Lives from a 

Frozen Conflict: 

Ukraine’s War 

Paula Bronstein’s images tell a 

story about the effects of war in 

Ukraine on the fragile elderly 

who are isolated, vulnerable 

and whose lives are frozen in 

conflict trapped by a static war. 

Ukraine has the highest proportion 

of elderly affected by war 

in the world. Nearly a third 

of the country’s 3.4 million 

people in need of assistance 

are over 60 years of age. In 

2014, when violence broke 

out, many young people left the 

region while the elderly stayed 

behind just barely surviving. 

The elderly are often reluctant 

to leave their homes and 

the last to flee from danger, 

abandoned without resources 

or family care. Their isolated 

villages are dangerously close 

to the fighting. The stress is 

overwhelming for these pensioners, 

listening to the daily 

bursts of shooting and shelling 

that often damage their homes. 

They have exhausted resources 

and many have lost access to 

their pensions. 

This project was made possible 

with grant funding from 

Getty Images, the Pulitzer 

Center, and the Yunghi Kim 

grant. 


ZEKE AWARD 

JURORS 

Dimitri Beck 

Chloe Coleman 

Erin Clark 

I am All of Creation 

Russell Willier was hard 

to miss with his bright red 

jacket emblazoned with a 

Sucker Creek Cree Elders 

patch and his tall, muddy, 

rubber boots. He greeted 

his community with a smile, 

his mustache stained yellow 

from the cigarettes that 

regularly dangled from his 

mouth. Russell is known 

across western Canada 

and parts of the US as a 

powerful Cree medicine 

man, having been taught 

by elders throughout the 

provinces. But in recent 

months, cancer had spread 

throughout his body. 

Doctors told the 68-year-old 

that his chances of surviving 

were slim, but Russell 

continued to treat himself 

with his traditional medicine 

practices, which he 

had learned from his greatgrandfather. 

“He’s healed 

thousands of people,” 

Russell’s niece said through 

tears. “He’s a medicine 

man. But he can’t heal himself.” 

Russell’s death was 

a massive loss to the Cree 

community as not many 

traditional healers remain. 

Russell’s story is one about 

a powerful Cree healer 

epitomized by a man, railing 

against our common 

mortality. 

Lou Jones 

Olivia Kestin 

Lekgetho Makola 

Kathrin Mueller 

Molly Roberts 

Fiona Shields 


AWARD WINNERS (Continued) 

Showkat Nanda 

The Endless Wait 

In November 2015, Hajra 

Begum, a 74-year-old widow 

from a small frontier hamlet in 

Kashmir, received a fist-sized 

bag of soil. It was from the 

grave of her only son who 

had disappeared in 1997. 

Now, her 18-year-long wait 

was over. 

Most women are not as 

‘lucky’ as Hajra. 

In the past 28 years,the 

humanitarian cost of the 

conflict in Kashmir has been 

huge. Aside from nearly 

90,000 deaths, thousands 

have gone missing after they 

were picked up by the Indian 

forces. 

There are hundreds of 

women who have been carrying 

the burden of Kashmir’s 

enforced disappearances. 

Mothers and wives of missing 

men spend their entire 

life and all their possessions, 

often in abject poverty, 

searching for their loved ones 

in jails, police stations, army 

camps, and torture centers. 

Human rights groups place 

the number of missing at 

8,000 and in recent years 

have found nearly 2,700 

unmarked graves. Most 

families have never found 

their loved ones, so even with 

the occasional news of more 

graves, they continue to hold 

out hope. 


Angelos Tzortzinis 

Trapped in Greece 

“As a Greek, I have myself 

lived through the unprecedented 

and painful transformation 

the country has 

undergone, either as a result 

of the economic crisis or the 

refugee crisis. The process 

has profoundly affected me 

as well, as I am a part of this 

change. 

“It brought to mind memories 

from my childhood, 

growing up in a poor neighborhood 

of Athens, where 

dozens of Iraqi refugees had 

also set up their homes in the 

1990s. They lived in cramped 

basement apartments, often 

five or six in one room, in 

squalid conditions. We’d play 

basketball in the streets and 

do the usual things children 

that age do, but I always 

wondered how these people 

ended up in Greece and 

what they left behind — their 

families, their lives. 

“I have been photographing 

the trapped refugees 

in Greece for the past four 

years. Since 2016, some 

90,000 refugees and 

migrants have been trapped 

in Greece since countries 

in the Balkans closed their 

borders.” 

“I have been trying to 

focus beyond the obvious 

problem and help these welldeserved 

stories be told.” 


A Home for Global Documentary 

Photo by Phillippe Geslin from his SDN exhibit, Water Gatherers, Tanzania. 

SDN Website: A web portal for 

documentary photographers to 

create online galleries and make 

them available to anyone with an 

internet connection. Since 2008, 

we have presented more than 

3,300 documentary stories from 

all parts of the world 

ZEKE Magazine: This biannual 

publication allows us to 

present visual stories in print 

form with in-depth writing about 

the themes of the photography 

projects. 

Exhibits: SDN has presented 

nine major exhibitions showcasing 

the work of more than 

100 photographers. We have 

presented exhibits in the Bronx; 

Brooklyn; Chicago; Boston; Portland, 

Maine; and Milan. 

Education: SDN has organized 

and participated in panel discussions, 

conferences, portfolio reviews, 

and photography festivals 

in New York, Houston, Berkeley, 

Milan, Boston, Baku, and many 

other cities around the world. 

ZEKE Award for Documentary 

Photography: A new 

award program juried by a distinguished 

panel of international 

media professionals. Award winners 

are exhibited at Photoville in 

Brooklyn and featured in ZEKE. 

Photo Fellowship: SDN has 

partnered with Management 

Sciences for Health to offer six 

Photo Fellowships, providing a 

$4,000 stipend to a photographer 

to document MSH’s public 

health work in Africa, Asia, and 

South America. 

Documentary Matters: 

A place for Boston-area photographers 

and the public to meet 

with others involved with or 

interested in documentary 

photography and discuss 

ongoing or completed projects. 

Join us! 

www.socialdocumentary.net 


ZEKETHE MAGAZINE 

OF GLOBAL 

DOCUMENTARY 

www.zekemagazine.com 



FALL 

THE MAGAZINE OF GLOBAL DOCUMENTARY 

Published by Social Documentary Network 

Donors to SDN’s Tenth Anniversary 

Campaign 

ZEKE magazine and SDN would like to thank the following 

donors to our Tenth Anniversary Campaign. Support from private 

individuals is essential for ZEKE and SDN to continue publishing. 

If you would like to support the campaign, please visit 

www.socialdocumentary.net/cms/support-us 

Founding Sponsor 

Roree Iris Williams 

Benefactor 

Anonymous donors 

Isa and Bill Aron 

Robert and Judy Ayotte 

Edward Boches 

Rudi Dundas 

Susan Mazer 

Mariette Pathy Allen 

Jamey Stillings 

Sustainer 


Julien Ayotte 

Michael Sellberg 

Amy Yenkin 

Supporter 


Lee Cott 

Susi Eggenberger 

Connie Frisbee Houde 

Morrie Gasser 

Vivien Goldman 

Janet Hunkel 

Michael Hyatt 

Michael Kane 

Mary Ellen Keough 

Joan Lobis Brown 

John Parisi 

Bruce Rosen 

Bob & Janet Winston 

Donor 


Liane Brandon 

Florence Gallez 

Robert Hansen 

Rusty Leffel 

Brian Page 

Andrea Zocchi 

Michele Zousmer 

2019 Vol. 5/No. 2 

$10.00 US/$11.00 Canada 

ZEKE is published by Social Documentary Network (SDN), an 

organization promoting visual storytelling about global themes. 

Started as a website in 2008, today SDN works with thousands 

of photographers around the world to tell important stories 

through the visual medium of photography and multimedia. Since 

2008, SDN has featured more than 3,300 exhibits on its website 

and has had gallery exhibitions in major cities around the world. 

All the work featured in ZEKE first appeared on the SDN website, 

www.socialdocumentary.net. 


Executive Editor: Glenn Ruga 

Editor: Barbara Ayotte 

Social Documentary 

Network 

Founder & Director: 

Glenn Ruga 

Communications Director: 

Barbara Ayotte 

SDN Advisory Committee 

Lori Grinker, New York, NY 

Independent Photographer and 

Educator 

Catherine Karnow, San Francisco, CA 

Independent Photographer and 

Educator 

Ed Kashi, Montclair, NJ 

Member of VII photo agency 

Photographer, Filmmaker, Educator 

Eric Luden, Cambridge, MA 

Founder/Owner 

Digital Silver Imaging 

Molly Roberts, Washington, DC 

Senior Photography Editor, 

National Geographic 

Jeffrey D. Smith, New York NY 

Director, Contact Press Images 

ZEKE is published twice a year by 

Social Documentary Network 

Copyright © 2019 

Social Documentary Network 

ISSN 2381-1390 

ZEKE does not accept unsolicited 

submissions. To be considered for 

publication in ZEKE, submit your 

work to the SDN website either as 

a standard exhibit or a submission 

to a Call for Entries. Contributing 

photographers can choose to pay 

a fee for their work to be exhibited 

on SDN for a year or they can 

choose a free trial. Free trials have 

the same opportunity to be published 

in ZEKE as paid exhibits. 

To Subscribe: 


Advertising Inquiries: 

glenn@socialdocumentary.net 

Subscribe Today! 

Jamey Stillings, Sante Fe, NM 

Independent Photographer 

Steve Walker, Danbury, CT 

Consultant and Educator 

Frank Ward, Williamsburg, MA 

Photographer and Educator 

Amy Yenkin, New York, NY 

Independent Producer and Editor 

61 Potter Street 

Concord, MA 01742 USA 

617-417-5981 

info@socialdocumentary.net 



@socdoctweets 

www.zekemagazine.com/subscribe

documentary 

SDNsocial 

network 

PUBLISHER OF ZEKE MAGAZINE 

61 Potter Street 

Concord, MA 01742 

USA 

See our prints of 2019 ZEKE Award Winners at Photoville Brooklyn 

Photograph by Toby Binder from “Youth of Belfast.” Winner of ZEKE Award for Documentary Photography. 

Real Silver Gelatin Prints DIRECTLY from your Digital File 

NEW! DSI Digital Silver Print ® Fiber MATTE • DSI Digital Silver Print ® Fiber Gloss 

Color Pigment Prints • Complete Mounting & Matting Services • Custom Framing 

Scanning & Retouching • Shipping World Wide 

digitalsilverimaging.com • 617 489-0035

ZEKE Fall 2019

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?