Capturing the View

A young Cambodian school boy.

May 2009

This is one of my all time favorite photos. I took this just outside of San Pedro Sula, Honduras in December 2007, while on a medical missions trip with my father and sister. This was my second missions trip to this beautiful, yet very poor country. My father is a Cardiologist and we partnered with some close friends and a local organization to bring down much needed medical supplies to their clinic which serves much of the poor community. Many families have made their home just outside the gates of the clinic and the children are always curious about the new American “gringas” that visit. After working in the clinic, we always ventured outside the gates and met with the families and children. One concept I’ve learned: Children are universal. Bring out your camera and they swill smile, ooh and ahh over their own reflections, which most have never seen before.

For this particular photo, I stuck my camera lens (this was shot with a Nikon digital camera) out through the gate and captured what appears to be morning bath time for these siblings. I love the expressions on everyone’s faces in this photograph from the somber look of the older daughter to the joyful childish grin on the face of the youngest girl. I love capturing photo’s that tell a story and for this one, about a poor family living in Honduras. They live in a shack made out of cardboard, some concrete and a few scraps of metal. Their home has no doors, but a sheet that they use at night. They have no running water in their home and sporadic electricity, yet they do have a television. It’s ironic to walk through such a poor community and notice that most homes are made of the flimsiest of materials, yet they have televisions inside!

This photo is framed in a black and white version on my wall in my bedroom. It’s a reminder to me of the places I have been and the people I have met. I will always remember the warm generosity of the Honduran people who were willing to invite us into their home and share their meager possessions with us though we were strangers. And I’ll never forget the faces of the beautiful children I was able to bring smiles to. This is why I love photography..it tells the story of someone else, someone who will never have the chance to tell their story.

This is one of my favorite photos. It was taken on a bus in Beijing, China on August 24, 2004, the day my family adopted my youngest sister Emma Grace YunNa. That day is one I will never forget, after 18 long months of waiting, she was finally placed in our arms. To say we were more excited than she was, would be an understatement. She was placed into my mother’s waiting arms and promptly started screaming for upwards of 20+ minutes! I can’t say I blamed her. For such a young child, she was quickly shoved into the arms of people who looked so different they could have been monsters, she couldn’t understand a word they spoke, the woman who was calling herself “Mama” was hysterically crying, and she had a giant camera shoved in her face as well. Probably not the most inviting welcome ever. One thing we learned about Emma was she loved food. As soon as her nanny noticed her crying, she brought over some treats and the crying instantly came to a halt. When we supplied more of that coveted treat, she began to realize we might be okay.

This photograph was taken after we had left the orphanage. She was sitting on her new mother’s lap, and laid her head down on Mom’s chest, exhausted from the life altering change she had just undergone. Her comfort mechanism: those two little fingers that once placed in her mouth made the “I Love You” sign in sign language. Though she didn’t know it yet, she was already telling us she loved us! =)

The quality is quite grainy, as this was photographed on my mother’s film camera, and had to be scanned onto the computer. The original is much clearer and better quality.