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The Snapshot - streets of Haiti

I found this minute and a half piece of footage in my video camera while searching for something else, this one caugth my eye because it was shot while we were driving out of the center of Port-au-Prince, at around 5:45pm on the 12th day of January; This day marked the one year anniversary of the massive earthquake that rattled the island nation.
What I did with this video is quite simple; I wanted to recreate the way photographers tend to look for the "Decisive Moment" (as Cartier-Bresson used to call it), and grab the "snapshot". I chopped the original soundtrack off the video and added the "hypnotic" ambient sounds of Brian Eno's "Music for Airports", while slowing down the footage speed by 50%. The result I got is a microcosm of what to expect to see when you drive around Port-au-Prince, but this one is from a passenger's point of view. The slow flow of the images let's you appreciate more closely what happens on top those sidewalks.
Silent Grace Foundation is the humanitarian relief organization I travel with. Please help and let's not forget Haiti.

Children of Haiti

Here's a collection of pictures I took while in Haiti from January 11th to the 18th. The photos were taken  at the "Eglise Evangelique des Pelerins", (the same building our crew used as our base during that visit), in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, amid a Sunday mass. The crowd was so large that a good part of the faithful had to sit outside the temple and just listen in silence while most of the kids were running around,  just being genuine children. I don't consider myself a believer of religions but I am a believer of God and faith, and at that very moment I deeply appreciated the fervor, resilience, strength and faith of the Haitian people. This was not only something touching for me but also fascinating to look at, considering the hardships these human beings are going through.

I took my Canon 7D along with a couple of Holgas, and with a big grin in my face I started sneaking around,  inviting the children to just look at the lens; the results were touching as you can see, the children? so humble and sweet! - so happy to pose for the camera while looking at the results immediately, what a joy!. God bless them!

Three Sisters

The eyes can speak.

Just listening...

"All smiles"

For a complete review of my portfolio of the Children of Haiti please visit: www.mauriciojimenezphotography.com

Don't forget to keep helping Haiti! Please make a donation to: www.silentgracefoundation.org

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Haiti, one year earthquake anniversary

"Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work."- Mother Teresa



Sure time flies, and I was lucky enough to be in Port-au-Prince the day all Haitians were remembering their one year anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake that rattled their beloved country leaving a quarter of a million people dead. The mood? sad for the most part, although it was a sunny beautiful day weather-wise. I was traveling around the city since the early hours of the morning with my four member crew; Andrea (the official driver) and founder of the humanitarian relief organization www.silentgracefoundation.org, Rafael, the guy holding the audio and video equipment and Makenton Jean Baptiste, our constant companion during the whole week we stayed in Haiti, he's also the main representative of the humanitarian group in Haiti.
I expected a big conglomerate of newscasters that day but was surprised to see only a handful; seems like there were more important news during that day...
We walked around the mile corridor in front of the (destroyed) government palace quite a few times, here you were able to see every human condition and behavior you could imagine; the extreme poor, the deranged, the drunk, the well dressed, the religious and so on. Looking at the extreme west end of the boulevard I couldn't help but notice what I perceived as a "huge eyesore"; I quickly asked: what is that? -"oh, nothing really it's just an incomplete Aristide monument", Makenton quickly answered. For the most part people looked at us and many other foreign looking folks with much intrigued of why we were there in the first place? -Ezquize mwen! is the first thing this young, well dressed man says while he's tapping on my shoulder; "You speak English?" he asks:
-well sure, yes! I respond.
-Why are you here? he asks
-To help, I respond
Then he proceeds to ask the same question again but adds: "What made you come all the way to my country to help us?"
I guess I looked quite puzzled at that very moment, and to be honest I didn't expect such a profound inquiry at that juncture in time, so my knee-jerk reaction was one that I even felt absolutely surprised coming from a person not widely known as a "juggernaut" for displays of emotion and affection, and yet I did clutched my right fist and held it close to my heart, with words that effortlessly slipped through my lips that slurred: "because we love you guys".

Ayiti Lives!

Government Palace in Port-au-Prince

Makenton Jean Baptiste and Aristide's incomplete eyesore.

Public performance of Voodoo rituals.

*Images captured with a Canon 7D and a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 IS USM


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Getting Started

Hello friends!
This blog is nothing fancy, it's just me writing about my passion about photography. I'm a documentary photographer who does a little of everything. Hope you join me and enjoy my work and related stories.

Blessings to all!

Mauricio