I have finished up a long commercial project (will be posting that in a couple of months) and have been starting to prepare for 2011 in Vietnam. 2010 was an amazing year for me in both photography and film making and I know that 2011 will be even better. I started organizing all my photos into a massive lightroom archive so that they are more easily referenced when I need them.

Through this process I have come across some photos from Van Mon leprosy village that I like but didn’t make the cut in telling the story of the place. Storytelling isn’t always about showing your favorite photos, but to…. tell a story. These photos are more like singles, but moments that I liked when I came across them again.

When I look at these photos, it reminds me how alone and isolated the people at Van Mon lived. It also reminds me that I need to go see them for Tet this year and see how they are doing.

Normally I would leave these on my hard drive as the project has been finished for over 3 years now, but I found inspiration to show them from fellow photographers Aaron Joel Santos and Julian Abram Wainwright who have also been reminiscing on their older work and it inspired me to do the same. Hope you kind gentlemen don’t mind?

It is really good for me to look at my old work, see my mistakes and think about how you would do something different today. Thus is the process of continual growth. Never be content and always look to improve.

Thanks for looking.

After months of meeting different organizations, officials and documenting my 2 stories about leprosy in Vietnam, my work is done. You can see my finished work at http://www.ehrinmacksey.com/Multimedia.html

I have asked a couple of people who are considered experts in the industry to review my work and i happy to receive that they thought very highly of my work.

When you spend so much time both emotionally and physically on a project like this you hope that it truly touches people and makes them want to help or understand more.

Here are some of my reviews below and thanks again to everyone for their support:

Multimedia Shooter

Duck Rabbit – where photography, art, audio and journalism collide

Multimedia Muse

Slug & Lede – Review 1 / Review 2

28mm

Visual Journalist

So tomorrow I’m back to work on my project. Above you can see where I eat lunch and dinner everyday when I’m there. Like I posted before it is …. rural. I’m really excited to go back since now i feel very confident with my new video equipment and I got some addons to my video equipment from my friend Justin. God Bless his little heart as getting electronics and video equipment in Vietnam is quite difficult, at least good equipment.

So I’m out in the sticks again to work more on my epic Multimedia/film. Next week i have to conduct a couple of interviews so I hope I will be able to post more about my trip to Sapa, Vietnam.

I truely can’t wait to go back and start working on my video ideas for this project.

Wish me luck.

Well, I have been working like crazy to get my new websites up. I’m designing one for photography and another one for web design.

On top of that I have finished a new website for a group of talented journalists who I have joined in our quest for freelance multimedia. The website is http://www.ontheroadmedia.com

I very happy with the work I did on this website, it looks simple but is advanced in the navigation and operation.

Besides that I got some crazy skin things happening to me lately. I got smacked in the face with something while driving on the road (motorbike). Then I got some strange rash under my arm. Well things like this are kind of normal when your living in a developing country and should go away soon, I hope.

I attached a photo of my apartment. Nothing crazy or anything just so you can see that I’m not living in a hole.

I’m going to go out for more shooting next week so I will hopefully post some new stuff soon.

Last week I went to the countryside to do some more research into a personal project i’m working on. The setting for the place was beautiful as the newly planted rice was growing and was a lush green. The birds and insects clamor away as the people of this nearly sustainable community work next to them. They grow all their own vegetables, rice and meat and work together to help build houses or to work on other community projects.

I met the director for the community, a jolly, stained and crooked tooth man. He has a kind heart and has worked as a doctor/director for the community for more than half of his life.

He told me about how they had come to receive two more rejections from the outside world. A pair of 9 year old twins who were born with a horrible skin disease called Lamellar ichthyosis or fish scale disease. Their parents had kept them hidden in a dark area of a dirt floor house for most of their lives. The parents must have thought that the skin disease would later go away, but at the age of nine they found themselves abandoning their children at the front gates of this community. The twins were accepted here and treated as normal. Probably one of the few places in the world they would ever feel like that. More than likely they will live out their lives in this community.

The people in this community have lived lives of persecution. Not for something they did or that they could control, but for how they look.

As I listened to the stories and poems of their lives, it immediately breaks down my emotional barrier protecting me and keeping me objective. Their lives were full of isolation, rejection, murder and suicidal tendencies. Only recently in the last 5 years have they felt happiness or that people might care for them.

I spent two days there gathering resources, listening to stories and observing the daily lives and needs of these people. They were so kind to me, a stranger, they are all open and willing to share their life.

On the second day I met up with the poetry club. They read some poems they had written. They were not harsh poems about the hardships they had endured in their life, but poems welcoming me as a friend. After they were finished telling me their poems I was expected to address them. I almost lost it and nearly cried. After 2 days of being consumed by this place, feeling its kindness towards me and seeing the living conditions and deformities of these people, it finally caught up to me. I was emotionally drained. As I’m sure others would be if they listened and saw the same things.

I will go back every week from now until I finish the project. I hope to share more stories later with you.

Thanks for reading.