I found out about Esther Havens through the 6 degrees of Twitter. I’m not positive how, but I am guessing it was probably that something John tweeted out as John & his family are close friends with Esther.
Esther is a humanitarian photographer who travels the world with her camera capturing images that tell stories of the people she meets. She has traveled to Kenya, Iraq, Rwanda, Nicaragua, and Ethiopia in addition to many other countries.
Not only is she an excellent photographer, but I am equally impressed by her ability to be a true road warrior when it comes to her work.
On October 6th, she tweeted how she was ready to make the drive from her home town of Austin, TX to Atlanta, GA to check out Catalyst. I happened to see her backstage, but she had a “I just drove 16 hours to get here” look about her, so I left her alone.
The next day she went to NYC and then upstate NY for a wedding. The following day she was back in NYC. 2 more days and she was on a flight back to Austin. A few days later she was headed to Haiti. 4 days later she was back in Austin. 3 days after that, she was headed to Liberia!
Wow.
What inspires me about Esther’s work beyond the technical aspects and her vision, both of which are excellent is what her subjects express. Look at this beautiful girl:
She visits countries and photographs people who live in conditions most of us could not bear for a week. Poverty, disease and conflict are all around these people and yet you can see something in their eyes and in their facial expressions that Esther is able to capture.
While many photojournalists capture the despair and sadness of people living in these regions, Esther’s images bring another side.
Hope.
You can certainly help. Check out this collection of images from Uganda. We purchased the ‘Not Forgotten’ print as we fell in love with this young boy and his story.
Be sure to check out more of her work at her main site and also check out her blog.
Oh, and she’s also been featured recently in National Geographic. She’s got skills to pay the bills!
Blane Young says
I knew she was going to be at Catalyst but I hadn’t seen her work (I attended Catalyst Backstage for a few hours).
Wow.
I want to tell stories with images like she does.
JayCaruso says
Me too!
Marcus Williamson says
um…too awesome ๐
Eric Dye says
That first photo is AMAZING!