Many people can look at little Ãngeles' life with prejudice because she was born in a family with seriously disabled parents and every day she must live in a difficult environment. However, entering the world of this little girl implies discovering that the strength and the bonds of love of this family have made Ãngeles a very special little girl, full of light and deep wisdom about respect for differences.
Men who join the US Military are being raped and sexually assaulted by their colleagues in record numbers. With only a 4% conviction rate, it is no wonder that only 17% of male victims report sexual assault crimes. Most male victims often take between 20-40 years to even acknowledge the crime or talk about the assault with family, friends or therapists.
I found the edit for the Retaking of Musa Qala piece quite difficult as I spent so much time with the soldiers 24/7 and had intimate photographs of the immediate troops around me. However, everything about this assignment was about a major ISAF mission and everything about this job seemed like I was in the middle of a film set as everything seemed so unreal and surreal. We would sleep in the desert and I remember one night looking up at the stars and seeing the “Milky Way†and realizing why it was so named. We ate ration packs and washed with a bottle of water every 3 days or so and the whole essence of the experience was to just stay alive. Moving in the vehicles across the desert and Afghan plains and down through the wadis, we listened to the “chatter†from the Taliban from the interpreters and discovering that the Taliban nicknamed this unit the “Warriors whom God protects†as they thought that the lightly armored vehicles that they moved in was a sign of invincibility. After we left the unit they had to go into Camp Bastion for resupplies and their Commanding Officer insisted that they all shave the weeks of beard growth off their faces. They had all become fairly superstitious and had put their survival down to their lengthening beards and lack of grooming, but to this day they still curse the Colonel who made them wash and shave as they all think it broke a spell. Just before we left the B.R.F. (Brigaid Reconnaisance Force) to go into Musa Qala with a different Commado unit and a Ghurka unit, someone walked across our desert beds, i.e., a sleeping bag on the ground. There was an etiquette about laying a bed out in the desert and everyone in the BRF knew that you didn’t walk across another man's bed as that was his space and a big “No No.†So strong words were exchanged. About a month after we left the BRF we heard that Corporal Darryl Gardiner, who had driven me around in Helmand in his wagon, was killed whilst he was taking some injured colleagues to a helicopter medical extraction after several of his colleagues had been in a landmine strike.
Jeju island, known for its characteristic basalt volcanic rock, sits off South Korea. It is the home of the renowned Haenyeo or "women of the sea" who apnea dive harvesting delicacies from the sea. Wearing thin rubber suits and old fashioned goggles, this aging group of women are celebrated as a national treasure and inscribed on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, but the tradition is slowly fading as fewer women choose this extremely hazardous profession. Today, the majority of Haenyeo are over the age of 50 and many are well over 70. Efforts by the government and local communities to preserve and promote this ecological and sustainable lifestyle have brought renewed interest among young people disappointed by urban life and eager to return to their roots. It might be a renaissance.Â
The Rio Grande Valley in Texas is the U.S. Border Patrol’s busiest sector, accounting for 40 per cent of 467,000 apprehensions of illegal crossers along the entire 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. This essay focuses on the risks and challenges of migrants trying to enter the United States illegally, but also on the hard work of the border patrol agents and the daily difficulties of the residents.
Norway is one of the richest countries in Europe. For many, it is unbelievable to hear that this wealthy Scandinavian country has a troubling serious issue with opiate abuse. Since 2006 I have been documenting drug addiction in Oslo, where several thousands of drug addicts live. My project is about addiction, how the addiction starts, the damage that drugs cause, and the fears and trauma connected to it.
Cholitas or “mujeres de polleraâ€(pollera is the name of the skirt that distinguishes them) are indigenous women, mostly from the ethnic group of Aymara. Until recent decades Cholitas used to be discriminated and marginalized, they couldn’t show up on the main square of La Paz or could be refused entry to restaurants, taxis and even public buses. “Cholitas Escaladoras†is a group of Cholitas practising hiking. They used to cook in the mountains and assist their husbands, high mountain guides, climbing peaks with tourists.
It’s been nine months since more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled ethnic violence in Myanmar. In the world’s largest refugee camp everyday life scenes emerge in the hilly, clayey landscape south-east of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. The refugees try to establish a life as ordinary as possible in this extremely densely populated area. Many separate camps, have in fact coalesced into one large camp. Here the Bangladeshi army, the UN and numerous NGOs from around the world attempt to create tolerable conditions for the refugees, half of whom are children.
In Argentina since 2012 femicide is punished by life imprisonment. Despite the tightening of legislation, murders of women are increasing in the country. Currently, according to statistics, a woman is killed every 28hours. In the spring of 2015, a protest movement against gender violence "Ni una menos" " was founded, with unprecedented success in mobilizing the masses. This report documents the phenomenon in all its aspects (psychological, physical, economic, domestic, institutional, cultural).
Polar Living showcases the life and environment of the Emperor Penguins. They survive the Antarctic winter, and they breed during the worst weather conditions on earth. Males and females make a long journey on the ice of 50-100 km to settle colonies that can include thousands of specimens. An astonishing story of survival for this species.
In one tiny rural village, poor economic and social integration is causing strong tensions among Russian Doukhobors, Muslim Georgians, and Christian Armenians who settled here after a violent earthquake in Armenia in the 80s. The Doukhobors, working in servitude in Armenian farms, have begun making their way back to Russia. The Muslims, having lost most of their farmland to Armenian settlers, look for new opportunities in bigger Georgian cities.
Since March 2015 Yemen has been locked in a civil war between the Houthi movement and the Hadi government. The UN estimates that 10,000 people have been killed as a direct consequence of the armed conflict, referred to as ‘the forgotten war’. But according to the independent organisation ACLED the number of deaths is more likely over 60,000. The UN calls it ‘the world's worst man-made humanitarian disaster.’ 

Plastic waste is decimating our world. Current projections are that the oceans will have more plastic than fish by 2050. The USA has 2% mismanaged plastic waste and Asia has 83% mismanaged plastic waste. The three main river systems pumping plastic into the oceans are in China, Indonesia and the Philippines. In third-world countries, there are millions employed in the informal-plastic-waste-industry, spending their entire lives in the pursuit of plastic – living on a plastic layer - being born into plastic and dying into plastic.
Two sisters abandoned by their father, once a year meet in a tiny village. They communicate, play, weave braids to each other, but don't know the main thing: that they are sisters. Gulshat lives in a poor family, in a small village. Alina lives in the city, studies in a prestigious school, and does ballet. Two lives that run parallel and that should not intersect never, according to the lV postulate of Euclid. And yet this happens, as in the hyperbolic geometry of Nikolai Ivanovich LobaÄevskij. In a Russian village two parallel lines meet once a year.
The festivities honouring the 70th anniversary of the creation of North Korea were celebrated with the opening ceremony of the Mass Games at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, in front of the leader, Kim Jung-un. While the country is generally off-limits to foreign media, this event was accessible to the press and tourists alike, in a completely controlled environment where you were told what to do, what to watch and what to photograph. So remember when you look at the images, as Magritte, the Belgian surrealist painter, would say: "This is not North Korea".
