As part of journalist Jim Yardley’s ongoing series ‘India’s Way’ I had published some photos in the New York Times and International Herald Tribune on April 2-3, 2012. The assignment was in Lahore mid February covering a visting Indian trade delegation to Pakistan focusing on strengthening trade ties between the two countries. The article can be viewed here.
I recently traveled to Sindh province with New York Times journalist Declan Walsh investigating reports of forced conversions of Hindus to Islam. The article can be viewed here and was published in the New York Times on March 26, 2012. The International Herald Tribune ran it the following day. A larger edit from the shoot can be viewed on my website.
I shot a portrait for the Financial Times of British theatre practitioner Claire Pamment at an open air theatre in Bagh-e-Jinnah, Lahore. Here is the link to the article.
For The Fred Hollows Foundation, an Australian NGO who undertake life changing work in treating blindness in Australia and 18 countries worldwide, I ran a photography component of a communications workshop in Lahore with health professionals from throughout Pakistan. Then traveling to Faisalabad and Peshawar I worked alongside David Britton, Director of Public affairs from the foundation. Within the ophthalmology departments of hospitals, I documented the work that is being done in preventative blindness.
An image from the assignment, a photograph of a teenage girl who was shot through the eye near her home during protests that broke out in Afghanistan after korans were burnt by NATO service members at Bagram Airfield was published with a story in the Sydney Morning Herald on March 16, 2012.
I shot a portrait for English Observer Magazine of Imran Khan, former Pakistani cricket star turned leader of Pakistani political party Tehreek-e-Insaf. The piece written by Guardian journalist Jason Burke can be viewed here.
For the New York Times I photographed Aamna and Shehryar Taseer in Karachi to run with a story written by journalist Declan Walsh on the rise of high profile kidnappings in Pakistan.
Tensions are rising between the Pakistan civilian government and military with fears that a military coup is imminent. During an exclusive interview for Newsweek Pakistan, I shot a portrait of Prime Minister Gilani responding to questions on the current crisis. A selection of these images were published on the cover of the December issue of Newseek Pakistan and alongside the Newsweek interview. The tear sheets can be viewed here and the online interview at Newseek Pakistan.
I recently commenced another tumblr blog Islamabad Days, scenes from daily life captured on an Iphone in Islamabad as I make my way around the city. I will add photos daily when am in town.
A photo essay titled Are You So Mad at Pakistan You Can’t Feel Sorry for Them? made up of twelve images from assignments shot in September for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees covering their response to the floods in Sindh province, Pakistan. The international donor response has been dismal when taking into account how many people are still awaiting aid in the in province.
On assignment for United Nations High Commission for Refugees I produced a body of work focusing on the agency’s response to flooding in Sindh province, Pakistan during September.
Below are various links to photo galleries raising awareness of the critical situation in Sindh.
(Source: samphelps.com)
I was included in an article on the Photoshelter blog titled 14 Most Dangerous Locations for Photojournalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists recently published its 2011 Impunity Index, which ranks the perceived danger of the world’s nations based on the number of unsolved journalist murders. After the report came out, we were not surprised to find many that PhotoShelter members had photographed in these places. And we wanted to know, did they risk their lives to be there? Surprisingly, not everyone said ‘yes’, and many were quick to draw attention to the more severe danger faced by local journalists. Read below to see our photographers’ stories firsthand, in order of “most dangerous” to “least dangerous” countries.
While in Afghanistan in 2007, I spent a few weeks with one of the provincial reconstruction teams around Bagram and the Tagham Valley. I was awed the evening I entered Bagram Airfield, the centre of all northern military operations of ISAF and a virtual city given the size, infrastructure and population that is serviced and based here. I had spent the two months before arriving in Kabul, starting out in documentary photography in India and Pakistan. Three weeks with the Mumbai Fire Brigade, then two weeks in northern India, traveling through stunning Ladakh before moving south through troubled Srinagar to Amritsar where sits the Golden Temple, the most holy site for Sikhs. I then had ten days in Pakistan, crossing the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. Arriving at the Bagram Airfield in a local taxi form Kabul and being greeted at the gates and interrogated by a cleanly shaven 19 year old US soldier, smelling of flowery laundry products, I received a serious dose of culture shock. My first evening walking around this base was surreal, it was unbelievable that the majority of the materials had all been flown or driven in, through Pakistan or Central Asian countries and constructed purely for this war. Some of the military installations had the appearance of longterm permanence while others, especially at the smaller bases I visited were of a much more makeshift nature, literally giant sand bags as walls and plywood beehive huts, perhaps as easily pulled down as they were put up. With the 2014 pull out looming for ISAF, I wonder what will stay after that date and what will fall away. If an opportunity arises to travel back to Afghanistan in the coming year I will focus on further documenting these semi-permanent military installations.
A sample of recent work I produced in Balochistan province, Pakistan. Gaining access to this ship breaking yard was a little tricky, we found a taxi driver though in Karachi near the hotel who spoke urdu, pashtun, sindhi and balochi…plus a few pleasantries in english. He was able to sweet talk the guards and we moved through the checkpoints with no problems, driving there two hours and back over two days. Gadani Beach is about 70km west of Karachi just over the Baloch border. We were told by one of the local workers that there is a lovely beach with blue water popular for picnicking close by although we did not have a chance to drop in. We visited during Ramadan which made it tough for Sajjad my assistant. Running around on the beach all day, jumping through disembowed ships and translating for me…without any food or water. The taxi driver I think was ok, I left some bananas and water in the car which were all finished by the time we finished shooting, he was perhaps not so strict on his fasting days. A full edit can be viewed here on my website.
(Source: samphelps.com)
