Through the Lens: Robin Hammond

There once was a time when news was presented to the audience without images and even still without video. I, for one, have no recollection of such times and with the quality of photojournalism these days, can barely imagine what news must have been like without images. Today, a photo shows us the joys, desperation, tragedy and everything in-between of the human existence and allows us to get a glimpse into the lives of people so far away that without images our brains could hardly put such things together.

Robin Hammond is among such "elite" (i know....hard to say "elite" when everyone and their mamita has a camera, but as these images convey - there are still those with special powers when it comes to capturing an image) and his images from Africa tells stories of everything from gold mining in Mozambique, child labor in Egypt, to the mentally ill in Sudan and sexual violence in the DRC. Rather than portraying the "tragic" African, for me, Hammond captures real lives in all their complexities, and shows that everything we do these days are interconnected with people all over the world.

{Photos: Robin Hammond}