Samuelsson Pictured

Love the coloring in these photographs of Ethiopian-Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson.

{Photo: Bullett}

Shoes to Safety

Beautiful photo by Shannon Jensen of shoes worn by Sudanese fleeing the Blue Nile State into South Sudan for safety.

{Photo: The Lightbox}

Through the Lens: Chloe Sells

 

Based on the earlier photo posted this morning, I was so intrigued by the type of photography done by Chloe Sells, I decided to share a few more that she took in various parts of Africa...

{Photos: Chloe Sells}

Zanzibar: Another look

A very cool "view" of Zanzibar by photographer Chloe Sells.

{Photo: Lightbox}

Simply Egypt

Over the past year almost all the images from Egypt have been...urgh...is the only word I can think to describe them. So here are two simple and beautiful images that say something else about that African country.

{Photos: (a) and (b)}

This Building....

Love the colors and scenery in this shot. My love for abandoned spaces (this one in Southern Africa) knows no end....Can you imagine what this building must have looked like when it was originally finished?

{photo: barefoot traveller}

On Travel: This Pink Unit

I'm not sure why, but something about this soft pink unit in Monrovia kept grabbing my attention. I could see it from the office window the entire time I was there so, maybe it's consistent presence is what stood out the most....

{Photo: Brandie Tendai}

On Travel: Iron Ore & Rubber

One of the interesting things about visiting a place like Liberia is that one cannot run or hide from the blessing (and definitely curse) of the abundant natural resources that are available. It's something that I never even thought about as a kid but it's literally all around you here! While there is obviously the whole diamond opportunity, one cannot forget good ol' gold, timber, hydropower, iron ore, rubber and most recently oil.

As a kid rubber and iron ore were the main resources that held any meaning in my world and coming back here has brought back memories while also allowing me to see the extraction of natural resources through adult eyes. While I was in Buchanan, it was very interesting to a glimpse of the iron ore business in action. As a kid, this was done by the Liberia-American Swedish Minerals Company or LAMCO as everyone called it. The company started in Liberia in the late 1950s and ran operations straight through the early 1990s when it had to stop operations because of the war.

This company was at the very root of why I grew up in Buchanan in the the first place (i.e. my mom worked for the company) and why my entire sense of Buchanan is linked to the company (e.g. we lived in company residential housing, went to the company school, etc.). My friends were all children whose parents worked for the company and came from many places already Sweden was heavily represented.

As a kid, I had no clue as to why the company was there nor could I link iron ore to just about every aspect of how we live our lives (ummm just a reminder: iron ore is the main component in good ol' steel so imagine how much steel is including in the construction of just buildings around the world...not to mention all your old ships, etc.), but I did know that it was important. Today the company ArcelorMittal has taken over operations in this area while other companies that are known for their work in natural resource extraction and producing are also staking their presences here.

Equally important as iron ore, rubber and particularly Firestone, has a very salient place in my memory. If you have ever had to buy tires for a car, you'll know that Firestone tires was always an option. The company has been around just about forever, forging a close relationship with Henry Ford back in the day. Their presence in Liberia started in the 1920s and the company continues to have a major presence here today.

One always knew when you were approaching Firestone (and therefore were close to Monrovia) because you could smell the processing of rubber (which really stinks). What I had forgotten and was reminded off on this trip, was just how much of a plantation it really is. As you approach Firestone, you pass a gated area and the entire landscape in front of you changes. The grass is no longer wild and looks even greener than outside the plantation, rubber trees are all properly lined with their cups attached to capture the dripping sap, the road is paved and there are even sidewalks (clearly a rarity in this native land of mine)! There are housing units for the rubber tappers, schools, a hospital, grocery store and more. In fact, the whole operation makes the LAMCO area appear like they are only "playing" in the game while Firestone has clearly mastered the game! As we drove along, my nose was on full alert for the smell, and while it wasn't as overwhelming as I remember it, as we passed the processing area the stench of rubber was hard to miss, bringing back more nostalgia.

As an adult, what now stands out is how much the presence of these companies tell about the other side of the story. In U.S. history, I learned about the various American tycoons who made their fortunes on railroads, steel factories, etc. In the news, American communities continue to lament the bygone era of manufacturing where, just like here, everyone they knew worked for one or two factories (not to mention the simple fact that these companies provided jobs for low skilled workers). Well, just like those communities, Liberian communities (and those communities in so many parts of the world where natural resources are extracted) also have a long tale to tell about life on their end of that value chain. While communities on both side of the chain may not always be able to relate to each other, their fates are always linked.

On Travel: The Sandpit, Buchanan

These kids were having blast in a pile of sand and it was just too cute....

{Photo: Brandie Tendai}

On Travel: Buchanan, Liberia

Local Buchanan Beach

Some of you may remember that I grew up in Buchanan, Liberia until about a year before the war started. This is one of the main places I remember (or thought I remembered...) from my childhood. I have talked about this place with the sense of nostalgia that most people have when they remember a pleasant childhood including posts such as this.

A few days after arriving in Monrovia, I learned that I would get the opportunity to go to Buchanan for the first time in over 23 years. Needless to say I was dying with curiosity. It isn't often that one gets to visit their childhood home, especially when that area is far away in a war-torn country.

As we drove along the highway, I tried to see if I would recognize anything but besides Firestone (more on that later), the scenery was just a beautiful blur to me. Lush tropical trees hugged the paved highway and then the highway turned into a red dirt, pot-holed road bumping us along to our destination

Almost three hours after leaving Monrovia, the driver annouced that we were in Buchanan. Whatever sense of "aha...'home'" I was expecting to feel most certainly did not hit me! In fact, there was nothing about Buchanan that felt even remotely familiar! The streets were packed with the typical vision of markets lining the street and people, dogs, motorcycles, trucks, gutters, trash and everything in between all meshing into one mega chaotic blur. In my memory, "Buchanan" was a clean quite area where I ran along between housing to visit friends and this version most certainly was not measuring up.

I told the driver that I use to live in the old mining community area and he promised that we would pass the area known as "The Loop" - on our way to a local community that we had come to visit. As we approached the area (now run by a new mining community), the "Buchanan" that I knew started to take shape. The guards at the check-point to enter the Loop seemed familiar, or maybe it was just having the check-point there in the first place that triggered familiarity.

As we drove along, things became even more "normal looking" with neat little signs popping up and most importantly, everything related to the mining and the transportation of iron ore coming into view including rail cars loaded with sparkly black dirt, helmeted workers and most importantly, the port where ships awaited their precious cargo. This is clearly a community owned and managed by foreigners who are strictly here for business - big business - and the chaos of the real Buchanan has no place in this area!

We passed the main area and started to bump along some back roads and before I knew it, the beaches appeared just to my right. We would sink into one pot-hole and upon coming out would sneak another look at the coconut tree-lined beach front. Imagine miles and miles of untouched beaches with the Atlantic crashing unto the shores and coconuts awaiting for anyone with a panga! One meeting later, we were taken to this beautiful area where a river protecting a mangrove forest clashes with the Atlantic ocean (a place were some serious fish, sea turtles business takes place). While of course I couldn't remember this specific beach, just being on the coastline brought back memories of weekends spent in similar nearby beaches.

As we drove through "The Loop" again on our way back to "downtown" Buchanan, I noticed the sign for the residential areas. I knew that behind that second "inner loop" laid my old house, my old school, the old tennis courts, and more. A huge part of me was dying to see that inner "loop" (translation: I wanted to bust the second layer and run around people's private homes and lives to see my past), and was slightly heartbroken when we turned left toward Monrovia instead of right toward that area with the driver taunting "you'll see it the next time you come back!" Of course the "next time" is much easier said than done.

Nevertheless, the experience was brilliant, most of all because it really hit me that my memory of Buchanan was so completely limited to "The Loop" which had nothing to do with how those from the area really lived. Of course as an adult I knew it was a secluded experience, but the reality could never have hit me any way other than seeing the real town, and getting to speak to some of the local people and hear their experiences. Back then, I knew my experience as "the norm" and I was amazingly lucky enough to live a childhood where I could literally run around in blissful ignorance of the poverty surrounding me. While the reality does not taint the memory of my experience, getting to visit Buchanan today has put that memory into a more realistic context, allowing me to see so many things that I was too young to understand back then....

{Photos: Brandie Tendai}

Just Dance

This is how kids in Senegal do it as captured by Abby Ross. How do you?

Tobacco

On Saturday, a friend and I were sitting at a bar, staring at folks on the street. A guy stood outside the bar smoking and my friend turned to me and said "I don't understand why people still smoke." I tried to come up with a few lame excuses (stress?), but eventually had to give in to my own cluelessness.

A million miles away, thousands of small-holder farmers in Zimbabwe send their kids to school, provide shelter and food for loved ones and more based solely on income derived from the sale of tobacco. The same tobacco that eventually makes it to the dude standing outside a bar smoking. These images and their story, captured for this article, highlight just what tobacco means for some.....

{Photo: NYTimes}

Industrialized in Jersey

Everyone who has driven into NYC from New Jersey knows this scene. Just on the outskirts, this industrialized zone offers visions of machines, colors, smells, and views that seem completely out of another era. Some times I feel so accustomed to the view and other times, like on this recent trip to/from NYC, I just found this area of New Jersey so beautiful. Moments when I which I could jump out of the car to capture the scene more carefully and when I which I had more photomaking skills....

{Photos: Brandie Tendai}

On Travel: Lower Manhattan

{Photo: Brandie Tendai}

On Travel: NYC

Late last week and over the weekend, I travelled up to New York to spend a few days with my sister(s) and catching up with friends. Honestly, I would love to feign nonchalance toward that city, but every time I visit my heart can't pretend. How I manage to feel this way and feel equally the same in an abandoned countryside is really a lifelong mystery to me. This trip, for the first time, I bypassed Manhattan completely (except for traveling in and out) and stayed completely in Brooklyn, specifically Clinton Hills and Bed-Stuy. It was the sort of weekend where one almost feels at home because the people I spent time with are family even if not always by blood. Favorite moments included lounging on a two seater chaise with one of my closest friends on my sister's rooftop as the sun was going down; chilling on my sister's patio late one night while we both read together without the need for speaking, brunch with friends where we laughed while telling brutal tales of airport immigration; moving around slack-jawed in my dream loft (more about that later) while my friend made fish stew for me (honestly just thinking about it makes me miss her immensely); three mornings of watching Tour de France to the point where my sister was trying to school me on rules by the 3rd day; one morning a "sampling" my sister's jollof rice which I tease takes her too long to make but in reality is "just right" every time; and just being in Brooklyn. Needless to say I need to return sooner rather than later! 

{Photo: Brandie Tendai}

Hantam, South Africa

This is exactly the kind of photography I'm currently loving! These images shot in Hantam, South Africa by Dillon Marsh give a wonderful sense of abandonment....that combined with just plain cool structures and I'm sold!

{Photo: Dillon Marsh}

Adjaye in D.C. Pt.1

A few days ago I saw this article and nearly died! Two D.C. public libraries had been designed by ultra cool architect David Adjaye, whom I've blogged about before, and had recently been opened to the public. Clearly not up-to-date on my D.C. news, I didn't even know that these libraries were been re-constructed, let alone by Adjaye! While I knew that Adjaye is also the mastermind behind the upcoming African-American museum, I was just excited that there was already not one, but two, pieces of his work on hand to view right here in the here and now.

On Saturday, after nearly 7 hours on the road driving up from N.C., I convinced by friends to go completely out of our way to the other side of D.C. where none of us had ever been to check on one of the two libraries. Upon arrival at the Francis A. Gregory Library, we were all floored just by the outside of the building and got even more impressed throughout ever section of the interior. In addition, to being structurally beautiful, the whole space just felt so calm and relaxing just like a library should be. It's totally the kind of space where one wants to linger around just because you can! While I am totally jealous of the folks who get to call this their local library, I'm also so proud that my city decided to make such a beautiful investment in such a public space.

I also can't wait to eventually check out the other library that Adjaye did and will share pictures as soon as I can!

{Photo: Brandie Tendai}

Into the Marrakesh Light

mid-morning. marrakesh. easy rider.

{Photo: John Barnhardt/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest via}

African Dream in Turkey

Imagine you are a young Nigerian guy looking for an opportunity to play football on any European team. Now imagine someone gives you the promise to do all that, but in the city of Istanbul. Now imagine you get there only to find yourself bamboozled, broke, and clearly without an opportunity to actually play football because you've been HAD. Well that's the tale behind this very cool photographic journey guided by Jason Andrew. Check out more of the shots here and the story here.

{Photo: Jason Andrew}

On Travel: Philippines

I remember seeing this woman selling goods and I found her so fascinating and beautiful. She was a tiny little thing and her eyes were so calm. I kept snapping, taking as many angles as I could to make sure I captured her "right." I still don't know if this image does her justice, but I'm glad she allowed me to try.
{Photo: Brandie Tendai}