‘Unite Brighton’ Exhibition for Haiti Orphans
Felix MCing exhibition to benefit Future of Haiti Orphanage
Come to Brighton’s seafront Umi Hotel at 3pm on the 26th of June for the grand finale of the exhibition of work inspired by and produced during the relief efforts in Haiti. If you are not in the UK, view the tearsheet instead.
Felix will be MCing this event and amongst others will share some of my experiences working with the children orphaned by the earthquake in Haiti. Felix photographed all the individual orphans and provided all imagery to help The Future of Haiti orphanage gain sponsors – the orphanage is a project close to his heart. See Felix’s slideshow from his work with the orphanage by clicking here.
Several of Felix’s pieces from Haiti are on display among work by other UK artists. There’ll be live music, wine, snacks and great conversation to look forward to. Felix will be in the UK for just over 48 hours to host this event before going onto his next project.
Event:
‘Unite Brighton’ exhibition in aid of the Future of Haiti Orphanage
Location:
Umi Hotel Brighton, 64 King’s Road, Brighton, BN1 1NA
Time:
3pm, 26th of June 2010
Exhibiting Artists:
Felix Kunze
Sophie Sheinwald
Mandeep Birdy
Flora Pettitt
Guiseppi Santmaria
Angela Huang
Steve Yeates
50% of the sales of all art will go directly to the orphanage.
A giant ‘Unite Brighton’ piggybank will be on show at reception so all visitors can donate as they want, along with ‘I Helped Haiti’ T-shirts which will be for sale, all profits going to the orphanage.
Event organized and directed by Mandeep Birdy in association with Umi Hotel Brighton, ‘Unite Brighton’ and the Mayor of Brighton & Hove as well as other sponsors. Exhibition open until 30 June 2010. Pieces will be available via www.felixkunze.com – Felix is available for media interviews.
Haiti Exhibition – Felix Kunze News – mid June 2010
Felix MCing exhibition to benefit Future of Haiti Orphanage
Come to Brighton’s seafront Umi Hotel at 3pm on the 26th of June for the grand finale of the exhibition of work inspired by and produced during the relief efforts in Haiti. If you are not in the UK, view the tearsheet instead.
Felix will be MCing this event and amongst others will share some of my experiences working with the children orphaned by the earthquake in Haiti. Felix photographed all the individual orphans and provided all imagery to help The Future of Haiti orphanage gain sponsors – the orphanage is a project close to his heart. See Felix’s slideshow from his work with the orphanage by clicking here.
Several of Felix’s pieces from Haiti are on display among work by other UK artists. There’ll be live music, wine, snacks and great conversation to look forward to. Felix will be in the UK for just over 48 hours to host this event before going onto his next project.
Event:
‘Unite Brighton’ exhibition in aid of the Future of Haiti Orphanage
Location:
Umi Hotel Brighton, 64 King’s Road, Brighton, BN1 1NA
Time:
3pm, 26th of June 2010
Further details here
50% of the art proceeds will go directly to the orphanage project.
Event organized and directed by Mandeep Birdy in association with Umi Hotel Brighton, ‘Unite Brighton’ and the Mayor of Brighton & Hove as well as other sponsors. Exhibition open until 30 June 2010. Pieces will be available via www.felixkunze.com – Felix is available for media interviews.
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Felix is an international portrait and documentary photographer. He is based in London but spends most of the year on assignment across the globe. Recent projects include 2 trips to Haiti to work with the Future of Haiti orphanage as well a variety of other relief organizations. Through his work, many of the children of the Future of Haiti orphanage now have the support they need to live a full life, free from the daily struggle of Haitian street life. Felix is currently in the US and heading home for the exhibition grand finale on the 26th of June. Then he’s on his way to Denmark, with a trip to the far east in the works. His work will soon be seen in some one of the world’s largest magazines. He is available to hire on commissions internationally from mid-July.
The Future of Haiti – Help Haitian Orphans
My recent trip to Haiti was all about documenting the amazing work at the Future of Haiti Orphanage. Future of Haiti was set up shortly after the earthquake when it became apparent that there were 100s of kids roaming the streets with no one feeding them, no medical attention and no shelter.
Their work really moved me and to communicate what they have achieved and what is needed to further support this project, I put together another one of my slide-shows. This one is about 15 minutes and gives a lot of information about the lives of Haitian orphans. I appreciate the time you take to have a look through this. Feel free to link here, link to the video or embed it in your own site. I am keen to spread awareness of this amazing project.
The Future of Haiti – Help Haitian Orphans from felix kunze on Vimeo.
To sponsor a child or donate to the orphanage, please visit www.thefutureofhaiti.org – any amount helps
To see the first slideshow, go here
More Haiti images are on my Haiti preview post
To keep up to date on my work in Haiti and other socially responsible projects, join me on facebook, follow me on twitter, subscribe to the blog or get in touch by commenting below. Oh and don’t forget to go check out the rest of my work.
Recent Haiti & other media coverage
I’ve been on a media bonanza recently. I want to help spread awareness of the situation in Haiti. I feel it’s important to educate yourself on the situation in Haiti.
I’ve just gotten an interview published on the fascinating Miss Eco Glam blog. It’s a good read for anyone interested in healthy living. Check it out here.
I also did an interview on Photowalkthrough.com, a popular photography podcast: Listen to it here. It’s more Haiti than photography.
There’s also an interview coming up on www.photonetcast.com – again about Haiti.
Separately we’ve been working on our inspire meetups and Lara also mentioned it on her blog here.
On the lighter side of things, I phoned into the fun Kpod again, had an informal chat with the ladies that descended into a ridiculously fun gigglefest. Listen here.
I really should have a separate blog area for all the media coverage!
Haiti, Los Angeles & Celebrities – The Kerri Kasem Podcast
My recent trip to Haiti was concluded by a trip to LA to do a shoot with the beautiful ladies of the Kerri Kasem Podcast and to speak about my photography and work in Haiti.
We ended up recording two shows, the first was to talk about our fantastic Malibu shoot (watch this space for photos from that) and photography in general. We talked about everything from Poison Oak to Annie Leibovitz and Patti Smith. I even managed to throw in a bit of talk about my favorite subject – philosophy of photography.
Listen to it by clicking here – I think we’ll manage to make you giggle.
The second podcast was a little more serious. We got a bunch of people together that had been to Haiti and done great work out there. We had beautiful Cassandra Hepburn (from Tarantino’s ‘Hell Ride’), the fascinating Josh Hawkins who worked tirelessly to help in the Miami University Field Hospital and Jack Osborne, son of Ozzy and Sharon. He went to Haiti with Sean Penn’s group and is just a really cool down to earth adrenaline junkie. We chatted about what needed to be done to ensure the future of Haiti, what YOU can do right now to help prepare Haiti for the inevitable rainy season and the diseases it will bring and we told stories about our experiences in Haiti. A few tears were shed but we hope we communicated some of the optimism of the situation and the actions that can be taken by every one of us to help. I talked also about my work with Help for Orphans and the amazing Future of Haiti orphanage, both of which readers of this blog will be hearing more about.
To listen to the Haiti podcast, click here.
L-R Josh Hawkins, Cassandra Hepburn, Felix Kunze, Kerri Kasem, Jack Osborne
If you listen to the Haiti show, you can hear the moment when I took this picture.
If you liked this, why not check out the overview of my first Haiti trip on the blog.
Haiti Preview
I’ve just returned from Haiti on my second trip. I was there working with Help for Orphans International. I spent a lot of time at the Future of Haiti Orphanage which is where most of these images are from.
While I get all the images ready, I thought I’d provide a little preview here; incaptioned images just as a teaser. Keep connected on twitter, facebook or subscribe to the blog feed to keep updated on my images from Haiti and what’s happening with the orphans.
Haiti – February 2010
I went to Haiti within a couple of weeks of the Jan 2010 earthquake. I had gone with the intention of shooting the good being done to help the people of Haiti. I left with a feeling of pride and hoped that what I had done photographically would bring some good. The Haitian people have a special place in my heart.
The internal quarrel of how best to produce the images was eventually won by the video slideshow option – I voice annotated it. I hope you have the patience to watch it all, I felt it was a story worth telling:
<object width=”949″ height=”593″><param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” /><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always” /><param name=”movie” value=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9792694&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=121212&fullscreen=1″ /><embed src=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9792694&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=121212&fullscreen=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” width=”949″ height=”593″></embed></object><p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/9792694″>Haiti – an Overview</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/felixkunze”>felix kunze</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p><p>A voice-annotated slide-show of photographs by Photographer Felix Kunze who travelled to Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake – work shows a variety of areas including the atmosphere in Haiti, living conditions of locals as well as work being done with orphans. <br /> <br /> Felix concentrated on the good being done in Haiti, rather than taking photographs of death and despair, there is a lot of good coming out of Haiti. </p>
To get updates on my travels, follow me on twitter or check in on the blog.
Haiti – An overview
One of the biggest hurdles we photographers face is the ability or indecision of how to accurately present our work. There’s so much that goes into each photograph, so many facets to each situation and so many stories. I recently gave a couple of slide-show presentations of my work in Haiti. I had just over 100 slides picked out to tell a bit of a story. The situation in Haiti is too complex to try communicate it in a short preview of images.
Having thought long and hard about how to adequately represent my work in Haiti, I went with Thorsten Overgaard’s suggestion of turning the slide-show presentations I’ve done in person into a voice annotated slideshow and put it on my website.
I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed creating these images. Watch this in full screen if you can.
Haiti – an Overview from felix kunze on Vimeo.
A voice-annotated slide-show of photographs by Photographer Felix Kunze who travelled to Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake – work shows a variety of areas including the atmosphere in Haiti, living conditions of locals as well as work being done with orphans.
Felix concentrated on the good being done in Haiti, rather than taking photographs of death and despair, there is a lot of good coming out of Haiti.
A voice-annotated slide-show of photographs by Photographer Felix Kunze who travelled to Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake – work shows a variety of areas including the atmosphere in Haiti, living conditions of locals as well as work being done with orphans.
Felix concentrated on the good being done in Haiti, rather than taking photographs of death and despair, there is a lot of good coming out of Haiti.
Felix is leaving tomorrow (1st of March) to go on his second Haiti trip. To follow along, follow on twitter at www.twitter.com/felixkunze
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There’s a digest of the images used in the slideshow, but without captions here: http://www.felixkunze.com/cache/haiti-overview-images/
To see further posts from me regarding Haiti, click here. Be sure to check back on the blog as more content will be added from my Haiti trips.
To give, please consider donating to the orphanage I was working with: TheFutureOfHaiti.org or to help internally displaced persons survive the rainy season, go to Shelterbox.org Another fantastic organization that is also working with the Future of Haiti Orphanage is Helpfororphans.org
Anything you give will help.
Travel travel travel
The next month will see me in no less than 9 separate locations on earth.
I’m putting aside commercial work and other commitments to embark on a second photographic trip to Haiti. I will be working on several projects, this time in a more structured fashion. I’ll be out there with Help For Orphans International as well as working with some other projects – more on that after the fact. I know that I will definitely be photographing about 100 more orphans in the same style I did on my last trip.
There’s also tie-ins with media and radio.
My trip will start on Monday, 1st of March, I’m headed to New York City. There’s something really cool happening there that I can’t yet talk about, but will reveal in good time.
On Wednesday, 3rd of March I head down to Philadelphia, I’ll attend a Help for Orphans fundraiser.
On Thursday, 4th of March, we’re headed out to Haiti via the Dominican Republic. I’ll be there for about 8 days, at which point I fly to Miami to spend around 24 hours on the 13th of March in the Tampa Bay area and wrapping up edits and loose ends from my Haiti trip. Then it’s an early morning flight to LA on the 14th where I will spend about 72 hours. I’ll speak on a big radio show and podcast about my work in Haiti. I’m leaving LA on the 16th, arriving back in London on the 17th.
Meetups:
For people in New York, if you want to meet up, I want to get coffee or dinner on the 2nd. I’ll be able to tell you all about my exciting news in NY on that day, but only in person. Message me for details and to arrange coming along.
In the Tampa Bay area, I want to do a meetup after another event I’m attending on the 13th of March. It will be late night chats and drinks somewhere. Message me for details!
For LA, my idea is to have a bit of a social on the evening of the 15th. I’ll have recorded my radio segment and will want to hang out, probably in Silverlake somewhere (close friends will already know the venue). Again – message me for details.
After that I’ll be heading back home to London for just over 24 hours and then it’s back to Berlin, this time for some family engagements.
That means I’ll be back in London properly on around the 24th of March, probably feeling a fair amount more tired that I feel right now, but with great stories to tell and many many pictures to show!
Sorry for the ambiguous blog post, the details will flesh themselves out as my trip goes on – My ‘placemarkers’ right now are my 7 booked flights, everything will revolve around those and updates will come daily on my twitter page or you can head over to my Where is Felix page to get location based updates.
The Future Of Haiti
Before I left to Haiti, I promised that I would try to show the good work being done by volunteers and relief works on the ground in Haiti.
One such project was an orphanage I came across in my first couple of days in Haiti. It had been established after the earthquake, not far from Port-Au-Prince International airport. It houses over 100 children, provides basic shelter, sanitation and medical as well as education the children in Creole, French and English as well as other basic subjects. Food and water are also provided, which for some of these children is the first time they have been fed properly. The plan for the orphanage is to get each child sponsored for life, so they can be continually supported in a fashion that will enable them to live a full life, with a decent education, nourishment and happiness. The children are the future of Haiti. Helping the kids of Haiti is a long-term investment.
For me as a photographer, being part of this orphanage project was probably the most important project I could undertake on this trip. While there are lots of important actions being taken to save people’s lives in the short term and to provide immediate relief, long term actions are vital and any support of the future of this beautiful country is vital.
I took a day out of photographing all other relief efforts and took portraits of over 100 children in the orphanage. I did a portrait of each orphan and then a photo of each with a plaque showing their name and age. The purpose is to use the images on the web to help each child get sponsored. If you want to help Haiti recover from the horror of the last month, give what you can to help an orphan live a full, healthy life. These kids are absolutely amazing. Read my descriptions under the photos below for some heart-warming stories of the utter beauty and humanity evident in each and every child.
More information and more of my photos are available at the link below. Please give what you can:
TheFutureOfHaiti.org
The orphans line up to wash their hands before eating lunch.
Orphans being given their daily lunch. These kids line up like the best behaved of all British people. There's nothing quite as moving as seeing a child that has lived in a malnourished state develop physically from day to day. This is what is happening every day at the orphanage, and it's as simple as giving each kid lunch, dinner and some clean water to drink.
The kids are provided with clean drinking water, but are charged with keeping their own cups or bottles so they can keep the water as provisions have been made for locally sourced water to be purified and drunk by the kids.
An orphan drinks water in a rare spot shaded by the sun.
The orphanage is working in coordination with a variety of organizations including medical teams that provide basic medical needs, vaccinations and other relief. The effect is always immediate, kids who've had very basic medical issues are now doing a lot better.
They are also working with HelpTheOrphans.org who help support the orphans.
Local projects include showing these children soccer skills. With good nutrition, the orphans have a real chance to excel at sports projects. Malnourishment is a problem as bones of malnourished children break easily, particularly during sports.
The children are provided with a basic education, some of them for the first time. A lot of kids wish more than anything to be able to go to school and attain an education - a guarantee that they can make it in the future.
A sampling of the orphan portraits I shot:
I'll end this blog post with a somewhat tragic story that has a happy ending. This particular kid, Amateur, came to the orphanage on the day I was doing the shoot. He had been on the street for an undetermined time, without anyone to look after him. He had injuries to front and the back of his head and no-one knows how these were inflicted. He was afraid of physical contact with any adults or other kids. It was obvious he had been abused in some fashion. He did not know his own age, a fact that hit me hard. This child will never know how old he is, he will never know his birthday and most of all he will never again have parents. He was probably the 60th orphan I had photographed on the day, but when he couldn't name his age, I was truly affected. I took a break and had to wipe my eyes, something had gotten into them. He is now safe and well, being fed and relearning what it means to trust other human beings.
Again, if you want to help go to TheFutureOfHaiti.org – any donation will help.
If you are interested in other Haiti news, why not subscribe to this blog.
Haiti Day 1
Documenting relief efforts in Haiti
You’ve no doubt heard of the situation of the earthquake that has devastated large swathes of Haiti.
I’ve put this all over twitter and facebook, but I’ve just booked my flight to New York as I’ve been asked to come document relief efforts in relief. There are efforts being coordinated in NYC that I’ll be photographing as well as following a team of volunteers and medical personnel to Haiti. I will be in Haiti for about a week. Aid flights are sporadic and I don’t want to assume that I can get on the first one out. A medically trained person has priority, as do many other’s more skilled than I. My trip to New York has been set up under my own steam, I will have assistance to get out to Haiti once I am there. Accommodation will likely be in tents outside, on a camping mat and sleeping bag, all of which will be in my luggage.
While there are lot of news photographers out there, I will be concentrating on showing stories, showing how the relief work is helping the people of Haiti. There’s a lot of good being done in the area. People’s lives are being rebuilt and medical assistance is getting through to some areas. The best efforts of all the international relief cannot bring food and water to areas that are desperately inaccessible but that’s no reason not to try.
I’ve heard about a team of film-makers following a doctor around Haiti as part of some documentary footage being filmed – I am not going to be involved in anything like that. I want to come back with images that show the hope and the grace that results form someone being helped put their life back in order, similar to what I did in India.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me. I’ll have intermittent access. My work is going up to various organisations that I’m working with I’ll also be putting some stuff on twitter and facebook. To follow me on twitter go to www.twitter.com/felixkunze
My ultimate goal is to help bring the good side of what is now happening in Haiti out, to show people that there is hope, and through this encourage more people to give, more people to do something and help put the situation into perspective.
I am looking for further funding too, there’s always more I can bring to the area. We need supplies of all sorts. But even if you can’t help this trip directly, please give to the red cross or any other reputable organization in your area that is doing something to help.
Stay tuned for more.