Thursday, May 23, 2013

Meet Minara*


Bangladesh - "The small-framed girl weaves through the mass of bodies bustling along a congested sidewalk. Her dark almond-shaped eyes dart from person to person, choosing a subject. She approaches a woman and tugs on her sleeve, extending a small, dirty palm and uttering in a childish, imploring voice: 'Sister, give me two taka (2 1/2 cents).'
from Holding Out A Hand


This expression to me is Minara*. She has an impish smile, a captivating manner and a loving spirit.

A few months ago I had the privilege of meeting Minara, a 9 year-old girl, her mother Rahima* and her little baby sister Sakehna*.  They beg for a living and live in one small room in a crowded slum. They welcomed me into their home, their lives and offered me generous and gentle hospitality.


There is a love and connection between this mother and daughter that reminded me of the relationship I had with my mother. They laugh together, pull together, and Rahima’s dream is that her two girls will have a better life than she has.  


When Rahima told us that she has no dreams left for herself my heart broke. She still has hope for her two daughters.  Rahima knows the only way to change her daughters’ future is through education, but she can’t afford it. Minara still dreams of a better life — she wants to be a teacher one day (or maybe even a doctor she said).

"My hope and dream is to give a better education and environment for my children - to help them to become good women," Rahima says quietly.

For one year, Minara was able to attend the Light of Hope Learning Center — a day shelter that gives underprivileged girls education, health care, life skills and moral instruction, — but due to the center’s lack of funding, staff and resources, she and other girls under 13 can no longer attend.

As a result of the elementary school program suspension, Minara has since resumed begging with her mother.

I want to share a glimpse with you into their lives. www.commissionstories.org



*names changed

Monday, March 19, 2012

Eagle Story in the Washington Post

When an eagle dies anywhere in the United States it will probably wing its way – via FedEx – to Denver, Colorado. In Commerce City, on the outskirts of Denver, down a winding remote road is the U.S. Eagle Repository, a department of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The eagles are sent to the repository when they are found or turned in to game officials.

My assignment was to photograph a bald eagle that had made his way to the repository from Northern Virginia. A commuter spotted it on her way home near the metro tracks. When the eagle was still there the next day she called a rescue group. I met Washington Post reporter Steve Hendrix at the repository and we watched as Dennis Wiist, the wildlife specialist, evaluated the bird.

The repository is the only place that can legally take and process the eagles.

They are evaluated and distributed to Native Americans for religious ceremonies. An individual from a federally recognized tribe makes application for one of the 2,400 eagles that come into the repository each year –or for parts like feathers, talons, or the head. Some eagles are too damaged to keep whole. There is no charge to the tribes for the eagle or feathers. The repository has over 6000 applications and are filled on a first come-first serve basis.

It was a privilege to photograph this eagle. Steve quotes a cultural specialist at the National Museum of the American Indian, "The eagle is considered a messenger between human beings and our creator."

Check out the story and photo gallery at the Washington Post online.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Behind the Scenes - A Tuareg family gently sleeps

Let me set the scene: The assignment is Global Climate Change for National Geographic Magazine. We learned that vast areas of the sub-Sahara were changing due to decades of drought. Over the past 40 years lakebeds have dried up, though in some places there is still a deep water base and water can be drawn from wells. To investigate people who were living in these areas I visited a clan of Tuareg living about 80 kilometers outside of Timbuktu, Mali. They are nomadic peoples, living for centuries around a huge lake system that provided water for themselves and their animals. As nomadic herders they moved their herds constantly around this huge lake system dotted with patches of green.

I spent five days with this family, traveling out to their camp in a 4-wheel drive vehicle with an interpreter from Timbuktu named Mohammad and a grizzled Tuareg tribesman also named Mohammad. I wasn’t really surprised that the head of the clan we visited was also named Mohammad. He was a teacher and spoke his tribal language Tamasheq, as well as fluent Arabic and French. We arrived with a live goat, a case of bottled water and case of canned chicken (just in case). The goat was much appreciated since meat had become scarce due to the droughts since the 1970’s. After greetings and drinking tea several men of the family built a fire in a sand pit. When the sand pit got scorching hot they buried the slaughtered goat to roast for a number of hours. Later as we ate some goat meat in the fading light, even my interpreter Mohammed, from Timbuktu, confessed that the meat was a bit sandy and we both ate a tin of chicken later. Over dinner we discussed the reason for my visit and it was agreed that I was free to photograph whatever I liked.
One day when the men went off on a hunting expedition nearby I stayed with the women back at camp. It was a sultry afternoon and as the family took a nap in their tent, I did too. After playing with the baby and combing the youngest girl’s hair her mother Waled curled up for a nap and indicated I should do so as well. At some point I woke up and saw that everyone was asleep. I photographed the family asleep, using about a roll of film, framing each shot a little differently. The child on the right, a 12-year-old girl, shifted a bit, the mother moved her hand, but everyone stayed asleep. I napped off again too. I still have the two beaded bracelets that the twelve year-old girl pushed onto my arm as a gift. 
When I arrived back in Timbuktu a few days later to rest for a day and tour the city a young messenger from the airport came to tell me the airplane was there a day early. I had to hustle to leave so I never really got to see much of the city. Perhaps I’ll have a chance to return one day.
 This picture was first published on the cover of the National Geographic Magazine for a story on climate change (Solving the Climate Puzzle, May 1998) and later on the cover of the book Women Photographers At National Geographic. In 2011 it was named one of the 50 best pictures of National Geographic. At the same time I am offering a similar image taken at the same time that was used as part of the climate change story.



Over the years friends have asked me about purchasing prints as art to display in their homes or offices. At last I set up my website to be able to offer signed art prints for sale in several sizes!

The first prints are these pictures of the family asleep, my most requested images. I thought I 'd make my offer a little different. Each month I'll donate 10% of my sales to a cause or non-profit that I have discovered. I’ll tell you about the organization and provide a link to their website. After that month has passed you may still designate your donation to go to a past organization I have spotlighted. I will sign each photograph and include a description about the story behind each picture, about the people I met and locations traveled.

Groundwork Opportunities
 The organization I am spotlighting for February is Groundwork Opportunities  based in San Francisco. Their primary work is in Africa but also have projects in Cambodia. GO identifies and partners with local leaders in the developing world who have designed sustainable programs to address community-based issues, such as a lack of clean water, healthcare, or education. Once a partnership is established, GO provides the community with the start-up capital and guidance needed to turn their vision for a better world into a reality that will scale across multiple countries. 


The particular project I am donating the 10% of prints sales to this month is to a farming project in Uganda. 


Jo Wulffenstein and Michelle Bratt, enthusiastic supporters of this cause, are hosting a fund raiser/auction where they live in Juneau, Alaska this February 25th. I know they have a float plane ride to a lodge for dinner and a helicopter ride to a glacier and a lot of other cool stuff as part of the auction. I also donated a print for the auction. Their specific project is to raise $10,000 to build a piggery in Uganda. This farm can influence change in the lives of thousands of people, and educate them on the specifics of pig farming.


Since 2005, GO has partnered with The Uganda Rural Community Support Foundation, URCSF, in Masaka, Uganda.  to leverage local skill sets by training subsistence farmers in traditional and sustainable farming methods at a model farming cooperative.


To purchase a print go to http://joannabpinneo.photoshelter.com/gallery-list, Click on Fine Art Prints, choose a print to purchase, click on Buy Image in the upper right, and follow the instructions to shopping cart and check out.



If you see a picture on my website not listed in the Fine Art Print Gallery that you’d like to purchase as a print simply write to me and chances are I can order a print of that image for you.




Saturday, October 29, 2011

I am a lucky girl to be in Colorado!

A few months ago CBS Sunday Morning announced that Boulder, Colorado has the highest well being of any metropolitan area in the USA. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index says so. Gallup, those famous polling folks have gathered 55 aspects of well being from over 1 million people since 2008.
I am happy to live and work in Boulder.  Boulderites exercise and eat well. We live in a beautiful environment and there is very little crime here. I look out of my office window and see the flat irons - the rock formations that make Boulder distinct. I see the Rocky Mountains rising up in the west from our bedroom window snow-peaked even in the summertime. I know I am very fortunate indeed.  
The first picture is my friend Sonya at Chautauqua Park which is in Boulder - the flatirons - behind her. Great hiking and backing is less than an hour away. The second picture is the Indian Peaks Wilderness at Lake Isabelle from an August hike and and later that month we went backpacking in the James Peak Wilderness - the next two images. My husband Walt is trying out our new Hilleberg tent. 
In our research we found a great resource in the University of Montana's website called Wilderness.net which is a public wilderness information website formed in 1996 through a collaborative partnership between the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute--the federal government's wilderness training and research arms, respectively--and the College of Forestry and Conservation's Wilderness Institute at the University of Montana. Check it out to learn more about our wilderness heritage and the 109,512,959 acres of wilderness lands that are located in 44 states (not just the west!) and Puerto Rico. Most wilderness areas are managed by the Forest Service









Sunday, October 23, 2011

50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic Magazine

When I opened the mailbox today there was a package from National Geographic and inside was the print edition of the 50 Greatest Pictures from the pages of National Geographic Magazine. The ipad version was launched in March of this year and I was beyond thrilled to have an image included – and # 1 in the upper left hand corner no less! My image of the mother and child sleeping in Mali in their tent is an image I am very proud of. In the 50 greatest National Geographic included many of my most favorite photographs from it’s pages: David Alan Harvey’s  sudsy party at Ibiza,  Bill Allard’s portrait of a cattle rancher, Sam Abell’s iconic pears lined up on a windowsill in Moscow in the light of the afternoon sun and of course Steve McCurry’s famous image of the girl with the haunting green eyes from Afghanistan. There are many more, images by editor Chris Johns and naturalist Jim Brandenburg and Randy Olson. There are too many photographers - well all 50 - that I admire so much. I can’t quite believe I am in this company. If you have an ipad check out the app and learn the stories behind these striking images.