A photo From Daniel Morel:
A Mix:
Some background on Daniel Morel, Haiti, and the photograph that I included in my email for this mix. Life is wild and weird and can be wonderful:
"I went to Haiti This past November. I had found some relatively cheap first-class tickets due to a mistake fares being posted online. I bought a ticket right away, thinking I could convince someone to go with me.
Nope.
So I boarded a plaine to Port-au-Prince with a very slim plan as to what I would do when I would arrive, all by myself. A friend of a friend from church, Emmanuel (a true savior to me) met me there with his friend and a motor cycle. All three of us managed to fit on it, I don't know how. Another miracle for the day. They took me half an hour to Hotel Olaffson where I was planning to spend the night. It is walled off from the rest of the city, but a sort of ramshackle refuge. The cobblestone driveways was littered with broken glass and beer bottles from the previous All Souls Day celebrations. No lights were on. No guests around. Dogs roaming around. You would think it was abandoned. I got a room that had a plaque on the door saying that Barry Goldwater had stayed there once. I felt very uneasy and wondering why I was there.
Later that afternoon I sat on the patio of the Hotel trying to access wifi. Daniel Morel was sitting there, and invited me to sit next to him. I learned that he was a photographer, and this is one of the photos he showed me.
It was also from the celebrations the previous day. I learned that he was the first person who captured images from the 2010 earthquake. He described taking photo after photo, holding onto the wall as the ground was shaking. He captured all those early terrifying moments as long as he could, until it started getting dark. Night time in Haiti is different from anywhere I have ever been. And after the earthquake there was no electricity. An even darker night, I cannot imagine. But there was electricity at the Oloffson, where he had friends. Daniel got there quickly as he could and posted his photos online. They spread like wildfire, leaving him uncredited. It became a huge law suit that was recently settled. You can read more about it here:
Later that night, Daniel introduced me to Catherine Porter who was working on a story about death for the New York Times. We discovered that we were taking the same flight out of Haiti, and she offered to pick me up on the way out. A true kindness.
I forgot about the article she was working on, and just found it. Today. This minute.
It is incredible:
I haven't been able to get through all of it because it makes me cry. But I can't think of a more fitting thing to reflect on for this coming Memorial Day weekend. From remembering those we've lost to the incredible service of others who try to ease some of that suffering.
One little photo can hold so much. Can't it?
I tried to capture all those feelings in my mix this month. I'll let you be the judge as to whether I succeeded or not."
