Brickyards

In my last entry I said I was going to visit the brink yards the very next day, and today was that day. Today started at 6:00 am because as soon as 10/11:00 am hits, the temperature soars to a whopping 35 degrees. Not really conditions I enjoy photographing in. When 4:00pm comes around the temperature drops to around 26 degrees. So I gathered my equipment and headed towards the center of Surkhet, veering off the side of the bridge, walking down the dried up riverbed, past the river bank communities whose shacks were a little damaged for the storm 2 days ago, over the dried up rice patty fields, next having to yield to a herd of goats and water buffalo, and finally arriving at the brick yards 45 minutes later.

This place has been the highlight of Surkhet for me personally except for maybe the children of Kopilla Valley Childrens Home & School (www.blinknow.org) and almost everyday we spend playing an hour of football (soccer) after school. The brick yards themselves are not very large but the pits they bury the clay in our massive, around 150ft. by 40 ft. For those of you that don’t know how bricks are made here is a quick run down. You dig a hole where some clay is, you shape the clay inside a rectangle piece of metal (exactly like a cookie cutter), you let that piece of clay dry out in the sun until all the moisture has evaporated. Then in a large hole you bury the dried up piece of clay covering it in fine ash, sand, and dirt where specific holes are built around this pit so you can place the hot coals inside the surrounding holes. Once everything is covered you let the dried up clay bake under ground just like your oven does to a chicken for a certain amount of time, then you dig the clay rectangles out of the pit and VWOLLA…. You have a brick!!

The brickyard employs about 40 workers to each yard and these workers range in age from 12 yrs old to 80. It was quite upsetting to see actual children working in this type of place and conditions especially when bricks randomly fall down, the narrow pathways and steep banks are very difficult to navigate through, and there is EXTREMELY HOT ASH EVERYWHERE. And to to no surprise the woman are doing all the work as the men sit around and get pissed.

As I started to shoot all I got was blank stares, lots of smiles and very shy workers. After about 20 minutes or so creating small talk by asking their name, how they are doing, can I take their picture, they didn’t even realize I was there and that’s how I like to photograph my subjects in situations like this. By gaining their trust, I like my subjects completely oblivious to my presence so that I can photograph them while  they are vulnerable but also completely comfortable with me working in and around their environment.

I hope you like what you see. If you do, tell a friend, subscribe to my BLOG via by e-mail, send me a message if you have any questions, leave a comment and have an awesome day!!

Cheers,

Jeremy

ABOVE: Sukma Katel

ABOVE: Sukma Katel

Above: Ram Bahadur

Above: Ram Bahadur

What is important

  All of the photographs in this blog entry were taken over the past 3 days. What is written below is based on the LAST TWO photographs in this blog.

My day started out at 8am walking towards the center of Surkhet with my camera in hand and an open mind to really find a story to tell. Before you hit the center of Surkhet there is a bridge and below this bridge is dried up river that leads all the way to the hills in both directions. As I veered off the main road, I started to walk down the riverbed and situated along the banks of the dried up river I notice families living in shacks that are constructed from straw, mud, plastic, old potato sacks, tree branches, and anything that can remotely used to construct a shelter. The night before there was a massive storm with fork lighting all night followed by massive amounts of rain. As I walked all I could think about was how do these people survive not just 1 night but 4 months of monsoon. (If you have never been to Asia during monsoon… It’s extremely intense and I highly recommend going during this time of year)

After about 45 min. or so into the day I came upon a little community of about 20 shacks along the banks and was greeted by almost everyone living in this tight nit community. There homes were all joined like a bunch of emperor penguins huddled together during storms in the Antarctic to keep warm…. greater chances of survival is sticking together, literally. I notice several of the local men fixing all the roofs, patching holes of the outer shack walls, and scavenging anything that could be used to help re-build about 20% of the communities roofs that had collapsed from the previous nights storm.

After about 5 min. of trying to communicate with this little community I was approached by a young Nepal university student named Pramdeep who spoke enough English for me to easily communicate with the riverbank dwellers. After about a 15 min. tour of the little river bank community he offered to be my guide for the day and take me where ever I wanted to go and in exchange I would help him with his English. Without any hesitation I agreed before he could finish with the offer.

A lot happened that day and I could write about 10 pages on what happened over the next 3 hours but I don’t want to torture you that much but I will tell you this. The last 2 photographs of this blog I feel have the most impact and say everything about what this day was and about.

The second last photograph of the old man with the beard and the scarf on his shoulder is a man by the name of Sarsursah Mohamed who is an 80 years old working in the brick kilns where they make bricks for constructing homes and huts. He was ecstatic when I approached him and asked him if I could photograph him. He sat for me willingly and laughed along as I took his photograph. After I had finished taking his picture and with a glowing grin, he shook my hand with force I never imagined could come from a man in his 80’s. I will be going back tomorrow to visit Sarsursah again.

The last photo is of a man named Gopal who is 29 years old and has TB (Tuberculosis). Gopal didn’t mind having his photo taken even when I asked him to remove his shirt to really get an idea of what this disease can do to you as I knew very little about TB. When he removed his shirt, I was shocked and speechless. It’s completely different when you see disease or distress in a photo or on the news, but when you see it 2 feet in from of you it is sensory overload and it becomes VERY REAL. The villagers say he has less than a 1 year to live.

Today was about reflection, finding what is important, discovering a voice and a story to tell. I am still trying to find my voice in my photography, but I ask you to really dig deep and ask yourself what is most important to you in your life, what would you do if everything was taken away from you? How would you cope?  How do you cope now when situations arise that you can’t predict?

I hope you enjoy the photographs and thank-you again for following.

Cheers,

Jeremy

On route to Nepal

HELLO EVERYONE, I have made it safely into Nepal and there is only one thing I can say… “It’s fricken HOT, and I never knew how much I missed Asia until I arrived”. My flight here was a very long 30 hours of travel which included flights and lay over times but I arrived safe and sound and didn’t get assaulted my first hour into my trip like I did in Vietnam back in 2008.  After arriving in Kathmandu on April 21st I spent the day figuring out my bearings, going for a walk and booking a flight to a place called Surkhet which is in the far west part of Nepal. I came here today (April 22nd) to volunteer for the next 2 weeks at Kopila Valley Childrens Home and School (www.blinknow.org) teaching English (YAH that should be interesting…HAHAHA) and also teaching some dance classes, mostly hip-hop and break dancing and then possibly put on a production with the other volunteers…. cause they have a stage at their school…I know EEEEEPIC!! When I arrived here at the Kopila I was met by Libby Doyne and given the whole tour of both the school and home, an amazing cause created by her sister Maggie Doyne. After the tour, myself and another volunteer by the name of Jake decided it was time to play soccer and that ended with a 1 hour game of school yard ball with 20 kids and literally got my A$$ handed to me by a bunch of kids… seriously I can’t run for an hour straight in 35 degree heat, I was done after 30 minutes.

Anyways I will leave you with that for now, but do watch and try to enjoy the video I made last night as I was playing with my “i-movie” software.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150580906460235&saved

Cheers everyone!!

Jeremy