Since my return from Uganda I’ve been engrossed in post production and recuperating from the suffer fest of mud and snow. To say the climb was hard would be an understatement but to say it was amazing would be as well.

Working with Jake Norton of Challenge 21 and the rest of the team I was able to get everything we could have hoped for in these challenging conditions. I plan to update here as images are pulled together and the edit takes shape. For now I’ll tap into the I phone photos I shot as we visited villages in rural Uganda in route to the climb.

The photograph was shot in the chamber with my iPhone.

As part of the Smithsonian Museum’s Design for the Other 90% (D90) exhibit, Tim Ryan Pictures and Project Exposure have collaborated with Redline Gallery to produce an exhibit, lecture series/panel discussion that explores the concept of “The Other 90%”.

Project Exposure selected four photographers whose work focuses on the people and places where the products in the D90 exhibit are used. Each photographer’s work is projected in the gallery to give visitors a better sense of who the “Other 90%” constitutes.

Tonight at 7Pm I will be presenting my work and thoughts on the state of the global water crisis as well as the role photographers can play in advancing issues and solutions by collaborating with NGO’s.

Bolivia has long been one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America, with an average annual income in rural areas of just US $150.  Bolivia also has the largest proportion of indigenous people, comprising about two-thirds of the total population. According to Bolivian government-supplied statistics, the percentage of people with access to safe water is only 68%.

The statistics never paint a pretty picture and sometimes it’s hard to see progress from the hard work of the local governments, NGO’s and international NGO’s like the ones I often work with. But it’s the job of the photographer/filmmaker to see the opportunities when they present themselves. This was one of those cases. We were working in a small remote village, which is often the case, and it was getting late in the day. We decided to walk up a faint dirt road to a household nestled up against the cliffs that reminded me of the desert Southwest in the US. When we arrived a woman with the most amazing smile was drying grain she had recently harvested. With the light slipping behind the ridge I quickly began shooting as she filled the sack with the days’ work.

So much of the imagery associated with development work focuses on the problem and not on the solution. But often times the solution is a much more powerful image, as this photograph demonstrates. It’s not difficult to shoot the worst case scenario, but most potential donors want to know that the cause they’re contributing to has some positive impact. That’s not to say that the problem should be ignored, but rather framed in a larger context that shows problems in conjunction with solutions. The organizations I work with embrace this approach. They work to tell the whole story, one of challenges and solutions. And as a photographer/filmmaker I strive to convey that balance in the photographs and videos I create by acknowledging the challenges and demonstrating the solutions, which sometimes can be truly beautiful.

For most of us the act of washing clothes is a pretty easy task given the machines we have that do nearly all the work for us. But for many people in the Cuchumuela district of Bolivia that simple act is a time consuming burden where access to water for washing clothes usually means walking long distances to a nearby stream or hauling jugs weighing up to 40 pounds back to your home.

That was the scenario before my client, Water for People, and their local governmental and NGO partners worked together to create a sustainable solution to this issue. While the solution may not be what we would consider significant progress given our way of life, it’s a huge time saver for these people who don’t have the same level of lifestyle we have, yet.

As a photographer/filmmaker my challenge was to convey the improvement that this system provides to the life of this woman. I’ll have to be honest, at first she was a little hesitant when she saw the cameras. But with some reassurance that we were there to portray her with dignity rather than pity, she quickly agreed to allow us to work while she went about her chores. What we ended up with, went beyond our expectations and proves that in the right hands, a camera can be a powerful tool.

Lajas is a small remote Bolivian village where the people live simply and close to the land. Water access has always been a challenge so collectively they decided to change that. With help from the local municipality and Water for People they were able to raise the funds and build beautiful blue water tanks that serve the households. When we saw these tanks from a distance we knew that would be the visual thread for the still and motion images we were creating for the annual report. With that in mind, I set out to create a series of portraits and stories with those beautiful blue tank playing the supporting role.

One of our days in Bolivia included shooting stills and video of a local entrepreneur harvesting mushrooms near the small village of Villa Victoria in the district of Cuchumuela. The village has a fairly sophisticated water delivery and monitoring system that allocates water for pine seedling growth that they plant in a nearby forest. After a few years when the seedlings have grown  taller they create a perfect environment for growing these amazing mushrooms. My challenge was to capture the images that tell the story in the most compelling way. This wasn’t a “how-to” type shoot or purely documentary in nature. We were going after the type of imagery that makes the viewer stop and look. The video portion of the shoot is a bit more process driven but the shot selection and editing work to weave together a short story of successful and sustainable outcomes.