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8 Photographs by David J. Thompson


David J. Thompson is a former prep school teacher and coach. He grew up in Hyde Park, New York, and most recently lived in the Detroit area. He has been traveling since October 2013. His poetry and photography have appeared in many journals, both in print and on-line.

His interests include postcards, jazz, and minor league baseball. Please visit his photo website at ninemilephoto.com.

Photographer's Statement: These photos are all from a recent drive from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to Dallas, Texas. Stops along the way included the graves of Ty Cobb ((Royston, Georgia) and Willie Morris (Yazoo City, Mississippi), Howard Finster's Paradise Garden (Summerville, GA), The Everything Elvis Museum (Cornelia, Georgia), The Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum (Gibsland, Louisiana), and Stanley's BBQ (Tyler, Texas).

In the last 10 years or so, I have driven all over the United States, consistently avoiding the Interstate Highway system. I am always impressed by the immensity of the agriculture I see, and often saddened by the amount rural poverty I observe. My photos come about mostly by chance. I stop and photograph whatever catches my eye along my route. I am drawn to small towns, big skies, signage (especially religious), all types of public art, and decay. I agree with Walker Evans that "sometimes ruin adds beauty."




THE LAUNDRY SERIES by Bernadette DiPietro

Bernadette DiPietro was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in a large Italian family immersed in a rich cultural tradition. She was influenced by the cooking of her mother, the love of gardening from her grandfather, the business sense of her grandmother, and the creative mind of her father.

She studied at the University of Pittsburgh and the Ivy School of Professional Art and taught art in the 1960’s with the “War on Poverty Program.” After studying textile design at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts she spent the next forty-five years using wax, dye, and watercolors as her medium creating batik on fabric and handmade paper. The result is a beautiful synthesis of ancient technique and modern art. In addition, she conducts workshops preserving the ancient art of Ukrainian egg decoration. Her newest works are abstract mixed media assemblages incorporating found materials on board or canvas. She is the author of The ABC’s Of Batik, Laundry Lines, Wild Edible and Medicinal Herbs of the Ojai Valley, and has been published in numerous publications.

In 1971 Bernadette moved to Ojai, California where she continued her long standing commitment to art education and is the recipient of the National Outstanding Art Educator Award. She has guest lectured at University of California campuses in San Diego and Santa Barbara, and in 1994 she was chosen as a Living Treasure for the Visual Arts. She has traveled extensively around the world collecting Folk Art, gathering inspiration for future works of art, teaching art on cruise ships, and photographing laundry lines.

Her art has been exhibited in museums and galleries since 1979 and is included in private collections throughout the world. Her most recent photography exhibitions have been in Los Angeles at the DNJ Gallery in Bergamot Station. She is the owner of Working ARTIST Gallery and her work can also be seen on the TV series Parenthood.

Photographer's Statement: The Laundry Series

In 1958, at age eleven, I won my first camera by selling subscriptions to magazines. It had a boxy, plastic shape and was lime green. It came packaged in a 50’s space age fashion box. I still remember the feel of the camera in my hands and the sound of the clicking shutter. It was at this age that I began to develop my eye for composition. I still love looking through that small opening and creating visual arrangements.

In 1975, I received my first automatic washer as a gift on Mother’s Day. Shortly after that I began photographing clothes hanging out to dry as my own personal statement. These were profound images because I grew up in a large, extended Italian family and laundry was a primary daily chore. It was a task that had rhythm and order. Wringer washers, clothespins, balls of white cotton twine and wicker baskets covered with floral oilcloth were everyday vocabulary words.

In 1978, I began traveling to other countries and photographing foreign clothes hanging out to dry. Colorful clotheslines are the flags of nations and are much easier to find abroad. This inspirational concept stems from my early childhood memories of my Italian mother who set me on this visual journey. In 2003 my mom passed away at age ninety-two, and my vision of her is joyfully standing outdoors on a sunny, breezy day with a bushel of clothes at her feet, a cotton clothesline above her head and a few clothespins in her hand.

In 2000, I purchased my first, used electric automatic dryer at age fifty-three and in 2002 my first brand new dryer. I do prefer hanging clothes out to dry. I like the dance with nature and the experience of the outdoors when I’m hanging clothes. I like being aware of the sky and the blowing wind. I like the smell. I like the color, design, and feel of weathered clothespins. I like creating arrangements of colors, textures, and shapes against the background of the outdoors. It’s my picture that I paint against the sky forming an instinctive, moving sculpture.

We all have our stories of hanging clothes. I hope my photographs release a few of your memories to some time or place where laundry touched your heart and that you enjoy my photographic images.




6 PHOTOGRAPHS by Susanne Wawra

Susanne Wawra is a German visual artist and poet based in Dublin, Ireland. Susanne holds Masters Degrees in English and in Communication & Media from the University of Leipzig, Germany. After an exploration of work life in an international big name company, she decided to swap a secure career for life as an artist. The human condition is a recurring theme in her work. Particularly, she investigates "Weltschmerz" through painting, collage and video. Her work has been exhibited in Ireland and the UK, Germany, Italy and the USA.

Photographer's Statement: This series of photographs shows impressions of Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin, Ireland - a place of quiet, historical depth and visual stimulation. They show mastery in stone, made for eternity and remembrance.




"THREE GALLANTS" (3 CATS / 4 PHOTOGRAPHS) by Jeffrey Krus

Jeffrey Krus lives and works in Yonkers, New York. http://theunflattered.tumblr.com/

Photographer's Statement: After four years of both commercial and fine arts study, it was my subsequent security job at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art that had the greatest influence on both my aesthetic philosophy and my technique. During my eight years working there, I learned more about the nuances and scope of art than any university education could ever imbue, owing to both the incredible work on display, and the creative, melting-pot environment among the staff.




8 PHOTOGRAPHS by Kate LaDew

Kate LaDew is a graduate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a BA in Studio Art.



HOWARD FINSTER'S PARADISE GARDENS
9 PHOTOGRAPHS by Jon Creamer


Jon Creamer is a teacher and photographer from Groton, Massachusetts, currently on sabbatical and based in Providence, Rhode Island between his travels. This is Jon's second group of photographs to appear on Anderbo. More of his work can be seen at http://joncreamer.com

Photographer's Statement: I recently spent two weeks in the South photographing, primarily landscapes, and stumbled upon Howard Finster's Paradise Gardens. I'm still not sure what to make of the place, not sure I got it right, left it questioning my own ideas about faith and religion.




DINER
A PHOTOGRAPH by Colleen Purcell


Colleen Purcell is a photographer in Santiago, Chile. Her photos have appeared in Foliate Oak, Meadowland Review, OVS, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Subliminal Interiors, and a few other publications. This is her third photograph to appear on Anderbo.



18th-CENTURY MEN
8 PHOTOGRAPHS by Sean Lotman


Sean Lotman, a native of Los Angeles, moved to Japan in 2003, living in Tokyo until last year. His writing and photography have appeared in or are forthcoming in Grey Sparrow, Fogged Clarity, Fringe, WOOF!, Reunion and Ragazine. He writes and shoots for TRANSIT, a national Japanese travel magazine and his first photo book, Wanderlust, was published by Snappp! in 2011. Sean lives in Kyoto, Japan. More of his work can be viewed at www.seanlotman.com

Photographer's Statement: Much has been made of India's high-speed development, but while 21st-century tech industries are booming in India's silicon hubs, more than 80,000 villages still don't have access to electricity, while the 20th and indeed even the 19th centuries seem to have bypassed rural India. The daily grind for men in these circumstances is monotonous and they have little reason to imagine their own livelihoods or even that of their descendants will evolve. It is impossible for many of them to foresee a time when the internal combustion engine will replace the oxen plow and bullock cart, or when the light bulb will supplant the candle. Nevertheless, they are proud and strong; they endure.

A note on the photos: all of them were shot on film, the square images being shot with a Diana f+, the 35mm shot with a Nikon f3.




RICK ROFIHE DRIVES TO WOODSTOCK

Rick Rofihe is the author of FATHER MUST, published by Farrar Straus & Giroux (Editor: Jonathan Galassi; Agent:Gail Hochman). For a free download of his book of nine New Yorker stories, BOYS who DO the BOP, go to the anderbo.com home page. Rick is the judge for Open City’s annual short story contest, the RRofihe Trophy, and was an advisor for the 2011 Vilcek Foundation prizes in the field of literature.



IF YOU SHOULD GO TO VENICE
PHOTOGRAPHS by Dirk van Nouhuys


Dirk van Nouhuys' Statement: I’m mainly a fiction writer and have been publishing things regularly in literary magazines and other places for decades. You can learn more about me at www.wandd.com . But I’ve always been a photographer too. I literally learned it at my mother’s knee, as a kid sloshing prints through developing trays in her darkroom. I've published photos occasionally in literary magazines. Last spring we received a surprising e-mail from our seven-year-old granddaughter: “Will you take me to Venice?” It seems she had become fascinated with Venice mostly through reading a book called Vendella in Venice. Her father and mother are scientists and travel quite a lot, but not to touristy places. She had been pestering them for months and finally her father had said to her, “Try your grandparents.” We have always loved Venice and certainly this was a request one could not refuse. For practical reasons we went in August in the height of the tourist season. The light, the surfaces, and the buildings of Venice speak to the camera, but some of the time I tried to go with the flow and take pictures of the tourists themselves. The shot of the tired tourists was taken from the balcony of St. Marks looking down on the group collapsed against the wall of a construction project in the square. People who are restoring buildings in Venice are now allowed to put up advertising signs on the tarps that shelter the construction, whereas advertising signs are otherwise forbidden. That accounts for the glamorous model who is being saved by St. George, who has been standing on a pillar by the grand canal, waiting for her for hundreds of years, and it also accounts for the watch advertisements bracketing the Bridge of Sighs, which leads symbolically from the Doge’s palace to the state prison, both here hidden in canvas clouds. Many people are deeply offended by these giant ads, but, considering they are temporary, and in these cases oddly apt, I found them meaningful and attractive. The face on the Ca’ d’Oro has to do with an exhibit going on there. The Ca’ d’Oro is now a civic art gallery. The rule about signage is lifted in more modest ways on some public buildings. The name of that wonderful building and the graffito about Obama bring up the question of the Venetian language, which is really not a dialect but a sister language more related to French and Catalan than to standard Italian. It has survived with a few million speakers in the Veneto through the centuries, but is now rapidly succumbing to television. “Ca d’Oro’ is Venetian for what would be in Italian “la casa di oro.” I have consulted several people knowledgeable in Italian and tried to investigate Venetian, and so far the meaning the graffito about Obama remains enigmatic.



NEW ORLEANS
A PHOTOGRAPH by Meg Eden


Meg Eden has been published in various magazines and anthologies, including The Claremont Review, The Science Creative Quarterly, The Rune, Gloom Cupboard, and Crucible. She owns Confused Narwhal?, a commission-based woodworking, photography, and illustrative business. To see more of her work, visit: http://artemisagain.wordpress.com/



SOUTH DAKOTA BADLANDS
TWO PHOTOGRAPHS by Teresa Blough


Teresa Blough is currently a pre-medical student at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. She enjoys being outdoors and shooting photographs of nature. Photography is one of her hobbies that she pursues during her free time. With this being her first publication, she hopes to find more time for her photography as she further grows as a photographer.



COLD
A PHOTOGRAPH by Colleen Purcell


Colleen Purcell has lived in the United States since 2003, and currently resides in Colorado. Colleen comes from Chile where she photographed guests in a ski resort and did portraiture off-season. She was especially interested in photographing religious festivities in the Atacama. Her photos have appeared in Wind Magazine, Primavera, Rag Mag, Animal Sheltering, Skipping Stones and a few others. This is her second photograph on Anderbo.



COPENHAGEN SUBWAY
A PHOTOGRAPH by Edward F. Palm


Edward F. Palm, originally from New Castle, Delaware, is a former enlisted Marine, a Vietnam veteran and retired U.S. Marine officer turned academic (Ph.D., Pennsylvania). He has taught at the U.S. Naval Academy and Glenville State College and has held dean appointments at Maryville University of St. Louis and Olympic College, in Bremerton, Washington. Palm is also a lifelong serious amateur photographer and an occasional freelance writer who considers photojournalism to be his "road not taken." He lives in Bremerton, Washington.



KITES IN GASWORKS PARK, SEATTLE
9 PHOTOGRAPHS by Jon Creamer


Jon Creamer lives in Groton, Massachussetts and works there at the Groton School, primarily as a mathematics teacher, every once in a while as a literature teacher. He is a graduate of Brown University and has an MFA in Photography from Bard College. See his photos at http://jonanoj.blogspot.com/

Photographer's Statement: I have been visiting Gasworks Park in Seattle for about ten years now; on my most recent trip I concentrated mostly on people who visit to fly kites, and I focused on one kite in particular.




NIAGARA FALLS
A PHOTOGRAPH by Colleen Purcell


Colleen Purcell has lived in the United States since 2003, and currently resides in Colorado. Colleen comes from Chile where she photographed guests in a ski resort and did portraiture off-season. She was especially interested in photographing religious festivities in the Atacama. Her photos have appeared in Wind Magazine, Primavera, Rag Mag, Animal Sheltering, Skipping Stones and a few others.



PACKARD PLANT, 1899-1958 (-20??), DETROIT, MICHIGAN USA
SIX PHOTOGRAPHS by Erin O'Brien


Erin O'Brien is a photographer and writer from Michigan who lives in Brooklyn, New York and is completing her MFA in poetry at Columbia University. She also lived in Seattle for two years teaching at a Montessori pre-school and playing in an electro-pop band. Her written work has appeared in The Oleander Review, Xylem, and Georgetown University Critical Theory Journal.This is her first published series of photos.

Photographer's Statement: Three years ago I visited the legendary and defunct Packard automobile plant for the first time. Amidst the rubble, I stumbled upon animal-suit costumes abandoned at raves during the 1990s, a shattered grand piano, 50-year old blueprints, and two startled men in leather chaps videotaping a low-budget porn film at the end of one of Packard's football-field-length rooms. Though much of its interiors have now been gutted, I revisited the over-three-million-square-foot industrial relic recently and photographed the crumbling remains, discovering underground tunnels and a bomb shelter designed during World War II when the plant was used to manufacture P-51 Mustang jet engines for the military.Today, massive piles of decaying shoes (dumped by thrift stores) surround the entrance of the shelter located on the first floor, making it eerily reminiscent of a Holocaust museum. Other than photos, the only thing I took away with me was a large gold-colored tin of 70-year old "Survival Crackers".




ROLL AWAY
A PHOTOGRAPH by Rob Shore


Rob Shore is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker. His writing and photography has been featured in Fifth Wednesday Journal, Juked, and on The Best American Poetry Blog. His essay “Time Travel” is forthcoming in the book Resident Aliens (Harvard University Press). He wrote and directed the documentary film And Many More. Rob Currently lives in Washington, D.C., where he does New Media for the FrameWorks Institute— http://frameworksinstitute.org . Rob blogs at http://www.thedandybird.com/ .



LOVE THY LEMON AS THYSELF
A PHOTOGRAPH by Christopher Woods


Christopher Woods is the author of a prose collection, Under a Riverbed Sky, and a collection of stage monologues for actors, Heart Speak. His play, Moonbirds, received its NYC premiere by Personal Space Theatrics. Other photographs of his can be seen in a gallery he shares with his wife:
http://www.texanareviewgallery.com/photos/chris_and_linda_woods/
He lives in Houston and in Chappell Hill, Texas. This is his second photograph on anderbo.com.




SIX PHOTOGRAPHS by Charles Rammelkamp    

Charles Rammelkamp lives in Baltimore. His most recent books include a full-length collection of poetry, The Book of Life, published by March Street Press, and Castleman in the Academy, a collection of short fiction from the same publisher. A Charles Rammelkamp photograph, "Dog Day Afternoon", is on the title page of the Spring 2010 Main Street Rag.



JAMES FREY'S DOGS: SIX VIEWS
PHOTOGRAPHS by Rick Rofihe


James Frey's novel, Bright Shiny Morning, was published in 2008
by HarperCollins.
(Agent: Eric Simonoff. Editor: Jonathan Burnham.)
Rick Rofihe's story collection, Father Must, was published in 1991
by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
(Agent: Gail Hochman. Editor: Jonathan Galassi.)
Photographer's Statement: "The dogs were clean and friendly, and so was James."



LAST STOP
The Paintings of Fred Franco, July 4th, 2004 



NEW PHOTOGRAPHY: 7 by Kelly Piersanti 

Kelly Piersanti is a Masters Student in Environmental Science & Policy. She lives and works in New York City.



AMERICAN ROAD: Six Photographs by Silvia Gheorghita    

Silvia Gheorghita comes from Eastern Europe; for the past two years she's been studying in the United States. She will soon receive her B.A. degree in Communication and Photography from Wesleyan, a small women’s college in Macon, Georgia. Her days bear the obsession of images, while her nights show a love of words—some of Silvia's stories have appeared in Paradigm Journal and The Visionary, while her photography appears in PANK and Prick of the Spindle. She recycles the rest of her thoughts at http://thegrumpysmurf.blogspot.com .



LONE STAR CONDO BEER: Five Photographs by Brandon Lingle

Brandon Lingle's photography and writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The North American Review, Narrative, Mississippi Review, War, Literature & the Arts, CutBank, Redivider, Juked, Drunken Boat, Crash, Platte Valley Review, and Airman Magazine, among others. A series of his photographs recently won the 2009 CutBank online contest. He teaches in Colorado, and is currently the Art Director of War, Literature & the Arts. You can see more of his work at: www.blingle.info .

Photographer's Statement: In June 2006, I trespassed to photograph the abandoned Lone Star Brewery in San Antonio, Texas, a 1930s post-prohibition temple once called the “World’s Most Beautiful Brewery.” Deserted for ten years after a succession of owners—Olympia, Heileman, Stroh's and Pabst—the brew house’s smokestacks still dominated the San Antonio River’s skyline. The Texas-sized red-and-white buildings—former nest of the “National Beer of Texas”—struck me as a decaying treasure of Americana, gutted and sublime.

But not long after my visit, condo developers purged desolation from the Lone Star site. Now, in 2010, a more genteel crowd roams the gated grounds—new owners of upscale lofts and condos. These nouveau residents enjoy a spring-fed Olympic pool, a beer garden, coffee house, gym, spa, and six acres of green-space with mature oak and pecan trees. The developer’s website brags: “The new Lone Star Brewery will have no equivalent. Super hip. Super hot. An incredible place to Live. Play. Dream.” The factory’s cisterns, however, though now converted to capture rainwater, still hint at the past. The warehouses now boast sophisticated arrays of photovoltaic cells, producing solar power. And the developer sometimes hosts indie band-concerts sponsored by... Lone Star Beer.



EMPTY RESTAURANT, MALL HOCKEY and SUN ON RYE by Ruth Hill

Ruth Hill was raised in upstate New York , and has traveled North America extensively. She is now a Certified Design Engineer in northern British Columbia. Her works have been chosen for publication by The Litchfield Review, Level 4 Press, Ocean Magazine, Hastings International Poetry, Utmost Christian Writers, Lucidity, G. P. S. Langston Hughes Award, Tom Howard, Word Catalyst, MODOC Forum, Sr. Poets Laureate, Northern Writers Ink, Dancing Poetry, Arc Poetry, About.com, League of Minnesota Poets, Detroit Writers Guild, and Ascent Aspirations. One of her poems even appeared in the British Bryological Society. Ruth craves e-mail from other writers at ruthhill@joiedevivregardens.ca .



COWBOY; SWAN LAKE by Debi Blankenship

Debi Blankenship lives in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area. She believes an artist should bring people an awareness of unique insights out of the most ordinary of views and objects—the simple becomes complex, and the mundane, exciting. As an artist, her journey takes her through the spectrum of tools, ideas, and experiences which she shares with others in the hope of awakening their creative natures.

She received her Fine Arts training in Houston, Texas at Dominican College. She also received a Bachelor of Science degree in Education at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, where she taught pastel instruction at the city's MultiArts Center, and showed and sold many pieces at their gallery. She helped increase an awareness of the arts in that city by holding several positions, such as president of the Stillwater Arts Council, (increasing its membership by 50%) and program director, (bringing in a larger range of artists and styles) for the area's art groups. She has been in numerous shows and festivals in that vicinity, including "Run for the Arts", showing her work in acrylics, pen and ink, and pastels. She also had her own studio working with custom airbrushing, and has painted several murals for a local business. Her interests now lie in photography and digital art.



ARMADILLO, BUDDY'S and PEGASUS
by Nancy Ryan Keeling


Nancy Ryan Keeling is a multi-media and collage artist. "As a teen living in Itazuke, Japan, I developed a love of photography. I think it's a language thing—the audience doesn't have to speak the same language to appreciate the universal message being conveyed in the photo." Her photography has appeared in Calyx; she's the author of Estrogen Power (a poetry collection) and has won best new Houston playwright for her 3- act play Rooster/Rooster.



Kristen Spickard: HELLO AND GOODBYE

Kristen Spickard: "I am currently a senior at the University of Central Arkansas, pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in photography. I photograph in 35 mm film and digitally, and have been known to use a Polaroid once in a while. Besides photography, I have dabbled in graphic design, sewing, ceramics, fiber arts, and printmaking. I also believe in drawing a little every day. While photography is my number one love, I am drawn to many kinds of art and I believe that having a hand in many media is especially good for the creative mind. My work is affected most by everyday occurrences in life—we spend much of our time in the everyday, and I believe there is something beautiful to be found in that."

About Hello and Goodbye: "In the series Hello and Goodbye, I was inspired by the American photographer Kenneth Josephson to create a series using images on instant film within each photograph. In the photograph Hello and Goodbye, titled after the entire series, a male and a female figure are shown, holding images of each other. The male and the female in the photograph hold on to each other in two ways — literally, with their arms holding onto one another, and figuratively, as they hold the images of each other in their hands. Though the literal embrace is temporary, the instant photographs remain with each other, even after the two figures have said goodbye. I chose to show no faces in this series because I wanted the photographs to be conceptual rather than literal. I intended for the figures in Hello and Goodbye not to be specific characters, but to be a sort of abstract representation of the idea of missing someone dear."




Rowland Miller: FIVE PHOTOGRAPHS

Rowland Miller is a Brooklyn-based photographer and writer. He currently works with Open City Magazine and has shown his photos in New York. He was born in 1982 and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. He enjoys photographing strangers on the street, as well as taking pictures of nature reclaiming industrial objects through urban decay.



ICE CREAM
A PHOTOGRAPH by Christopher Woods


Christopher Woods is the author of a prose collection, Under a Riverbed Sky, and a collection of stage monologues for actors, Heart Speak. His play, Moonbirds, received its NYC premiere by Personal Space Theatrics. Other photographs of his can be seen in a gallery he shares with his wife:
http://www.texanareviewgallery.com/photos/chris_and_linda_woods/
He lives in Houston and in Chappell Hill, Texas.




VIETNAM IN VIEW:
PHOTOGRAPHS by Carrie Crow


Carrie Crow's photographs have appeared in numerous international magazines. She lives and works in Paris.

Personal Statement: I am interested in the notion of exoticism as a necessary escape from an existence far too often forced into confinement. The exotic could be a person, a destination or a state of mind—anything that edges one ever closer to the sublime.




AFGHANISTAN BLUES:
PHOTOGRAPHS by Lisa Schnellinger


Lisa Schnellinger worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Ohio and Seattle before becoming an overseas journalism trainer. She worked with journalists in 18 countries, beginning with a year in China in 1991-92. She and her husband Tom Willard launched an independent news agency in Afghanistan, Pajhwok Afghan News [www.Pajhwok.com], and a nationwide training program for Afghan journalists, in 2002-05.

Lisa’s work overseas also included projects in the Egypt, Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, Timor-Leste, and the Caucasus, as well as a freelance tour of Africa, and training in the Middle East while based in Dubai. She conducted workshops on elections, social issues, daily news coverage, ethics, photography and layout, and coached reporters and editors in their own offices as well as designing and managing special coverage and hands-on training projects.

The work “was deeply rewarding, but took a toll on us over time,” Lisa says. She her husband returned to the US and settled in North Georgia in June 2007. Since then Lisa has turned full-time to photography, a life-long interest that till now was secondary to writing and editing.

Her work is divided between fine-arts nature photography of the Appalachians and image memoirs of her life overseas such as “Afghanistan Blues.” Galleries of this work can be seen at her web site, www.BarakaPhotos.com. Some of her architectural photos are housed at the University of Washington’s Cities and Buildings Database: http://www.washington.edu/ark2/ .

Lisa established the Baraka Foundation to distribute profits from her business, to further education and information services wherever there is need. Currently, Baraka is focused on supporting these causes in Afghanistan with donations to Pajhwok and to a girls school in rural Logar Province. She and her husband continue to work with Afghans long-distance and give public presentations about Afghanistan.

About “Afghanistan Blues”

I laughed more in Afghanistan than at most any other time in my life, and I felt that my gender mattered less there than any other place I’ve worked, including the US. The Afghans we worked with in developing an independent media were some of the most gifted and hardworking people I’ve ever known. They taught me so much about loyalty, identity, and honor – and they have a terrific sense of humor. I didn’t think much about any of the dangers there because it was worth the risk, and they were very protective of us.

Afghanistan’s scenery and people make it one of the most visually stunning places on the planet. I only regret that I didn’t take more time to make photographs there. After leaving Afghanistan I was busy working in the Middle East, but I never stopped feeling homesick for it. “Afghanistan Blues” was a chance to look again at pieces of what I miss: the land, the faces, the strength that wells up from the depth and height and breadth of it.



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