All tagged Photojournalism
I have been a photojournalist for over a decade now. My curiosity and passion for storytelling has led me to document some of the most remarkable people and places across the world. Yet for all of my memorable experiences and subjects to photograph over the years, one has eluded me.
I’m sure I’m not making a huge controversial statement when I say we’re living in a hyper polarized society today. There’s lack of trust in the media, our elected officials, and one another. It’s increasingly evident that many are just not willing to listen, let alone speak to, those on the “other side”. Similarly, I don’t think it’s too controversial to say we’re all guilty in varying degrees, myself included, of propagating toxic narratives of those who we feel stand across ideological divides than us. The faceless crowd of those who oppose our completely rational beliefs, with their completely irrational beliefs of their own.
When I graduated from SAIT with a Diploma of Journalism in 2013, my parents gave me a book, Flight of the Hummingbird. It tells a story of a raging fire threatening a forest, where animals of all shapes and sizes flee the wall of flames. Every animal, from the bear to the eagle, lamented on their helplessness in the face of such a tragedy and each proclaimed why it was hopeless to try and fight the fire. Throughout this, a single hummingbird flew from the river, carrying a bead of water in its tiny beak and dropped it on the towering inferno. The bird repeated this until the other animals asked why the hummingbird was doing this, to which it replied. “I’m doing what I can”.
