Updates & Transitions.

A Palestinian activist waves his peace sign to passing vehicles, some who are attending the Hebron Aid Flotilla fundraiser by the Hebron Fund @ Chelsea Piers last night, November 16, 2010.

I have skipped two seasons somehow, and now find myself at the tail end of 2010. Oops. I first began the blog as a way to document my ventures as a photojournalist but as I've gotten more involved the core of intention has somewhat changed. I intend on keeping up with this blog as a way to archive my work, but my work as a photographer/activist has changed. I haven't figured out how to articulate the transition, but I will find the words.

Last night I photographed the protest against the Hebron Fund, which is an Israeli non-profit organization, that raises funds to continue the Jewish settlements in Hebron, a city located in the West Bank, inhabited by 160,000 Palestinians, 500 Jewish settlers, and thousands of IDF soldiers. This little bit from Wikipedia paints a dim picture of what Palestinians are going through in Hebron:

Palestinian control of Hebron is limited to the 20 or 30 square kiliometers of H1, which contains around 120,000 Palestinians. In H2, where more than 500 Jewish settlers live among 30,000 Palestinians, the Palestinian populations' movements are heavily restricted whilst the Jewish settlers are allowed total freedom of movement and protected by the IDF.^[13] Palestinians are not allowed to use Shuhada street, which is one of the main thoroughfares of Hebron, which is restricted to settlers. Shuhada street has received millions of dollars of renovations funded by the United States.^[13]

As a result of these restrictions, about half the shops in H2 have gone out of business since 1994, in spite of UN efforts to pay shopkeepers to stay in business. Palestinians cannot approach near where the settlers live without special permits from the IDF. Palestinian criminals come to H2 to flee the Palestinian police.^{[13] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebron)}

(My photos were featured on Adalah-NY's website, a Boycott Divestment Sanctions organization. You can also view the whole set here as a slideshow.)

Now to articulate my transition...The collective I started at the tail end of last year, called the Alliance of Conscious Documentarians (ACD), has been materializing over the course of the last few months. My first attempt at organizing ACD was at the annual antiwar march in Washington, DC, March 20th, 2010 and the May Day Rally here in NYC. The photos were taken by myself and 4 other photographers (Pete Pin, Johanna Galvis, Bill Hackwell, & Gabi Lazaro) and can be seen here.  It was a great experience working with these talented photographers, and we were able to put together a comprehensive set of the March 20th protest.  


In the summertime, I continued my project of documenting the after-effects of Police Brutality on victim's families, and joined forces with Oja, who is mainly known for being a spectacular NYC DJ, but is also an incredible human encyclopedia and aural historian.  Together, we've been continuing the work of documenting and broadcasting cases of Police Brutality, and also covering other struggles, like the Lynne Stewart case and the Palestinian right to return.  The union has been most fruitful, as now ACD has the crucial component of sound adding a whole new dimension to photographic storytelling.  


We are in the middle of putting together a blog:  http://acdmedia.wordpress.com , and a youtube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/acdmediachannel which will log our work.  We have recently completed our first international ACD trip to Haiti to document the condition of the earthquake displacement camps.  


As we continue our work, I will utilize this blog as a means of documenting my personal experiences, giving space for myself to process and continue the documenting of my experiences as a photographer.  


Thanks for reading, and stay tuned.