fonografia collective

French blog post about Bear’s Kuna Yala Work

bear — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 04:09:17 +0000

The French photo blog, Un Oeil Sur La Photo, has a new post about Bear’s portfolio of images from our work in Kuna Yala, Panama.

New Story: “Peasant Bounty”

bear — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:54:23 +0000

Our latest photo essay and story – about young farmers and food sovereignty – is out in the July/August issue of Orion Magazine. You can read it online, as well as check out an audio slideshow.

Join Us! June 19, 2011 – San Diego’s World Refugee Day Event

bear — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:31:58 +0000

On Sunday, June 19, we’ll be participating in San Diego’s World Refugee Day Event at the Museum of Photographic Arts. Bear will be showing and talking about work from his series on Somali Bantu refugees in Boston, and participating in a panel discussion with several members of San Diego’s Bantu community about their own experiences of resettlement.

The great Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist, Don Bartletti, and local Voice of San Diego photographer and photo editor, Sam Hodgson, will also be on panel discussions about their own work (respectively) with the Iraqi and Burmese refugee communities. There will be a showing of Fady Hadid’s documentary about Iraqi refugees in El Cajon, as well as great food, performances, and more.

For more info, please visit http://refugeedayevent.org. You can also watch the promo video Bear made for the event below!

New Story: HIV among Migrant Farm Workers

rux — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 17:53:20 +0000

Angel is afraid to use his full name. He’s a 27 year old man from Nayarit, Mexico, who picks grapes in the fields of Southern California.

He never thought he’d get HIV, but one day, five years ago, he started getting some of the typical symptoms.

“I found out I was infected because I had a fever, my joints hurt and my appetite was suddenly gone,” said Angel.

“My family took me to clinics in Mexicali, Mexico, but they didn’t diagnose me with anything serious.”

The radio feature aired on KPBS.

New Story: “Mother of God, Child of Zeus”

bear — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:33:59 +0000

Virginia Quarterly Review recently posted “Mother of God, Child of Zeus” online - a feature story from the Fall 2010 issue with photos by Bear, and written by Jessica Benko. The high price of gold on the international market is fueling an explosion in unregulated artisanal gold mining, leading to rising tensions and environmental devastation in Peru’s southeastern Amazon basin.

Stay tuned for more work from Bear this year from the region. He’ll be returning with journalist, John Gibler, to document the early impacts of the nearly-completed, paved Transoceanic Highway. The new trade route linking the Pacific and Atlantic oceans will profoundly impact southeastern Amazon basin communities and ecosystems.

New Story: Climate Change Threatens the Kuna

bear — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 16:39:46 +0000

The Atlantic has just posted our latest essay and slideshow about climate change and Panama’s autonomous, indigenous Kuna people. Rising sea levels and more extreme weather patterns will likely force the Kuna to move from the islands along the country’s northeastern coast that they’ve inhabited for centuries.

New Story: Lost in the Valley of Excess

bear — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 02:02:27 +0000

A collaboration in the new issue of Earth Island Journal between Bear and journalist, John Gibler, about the disparities between one of California’s wealthiest farming families and the Latino farmworkers employed by them. While the Resnicks (owners of Paramount Farming, Paramount Citrus, PomWonderful, Teleflora, etc.,) have a tremendous influence over the flow of water to agribusiness in California’s San Joaquin Valley, their poor employees can’t even drink the water in their communities.

You can read the story on Earth Island Journal’s website.

Herlinda Agustín Fernandez | Shipibo Healer

bear — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 05:05:06 +0000

It is with sadness that we learned today of the passing of Shipibo matriarch and healer, Herlinda Agustín Fernandez. We spent time with the indigenous Shipibo community in San Francisco de Yarinacocha, Peru, in 2004 while shooting stills and portraits for Anna Stevens’ documentary film, Woven Songs of the Amazon. A respected village elder and shaman, Herlinda was one of the few who still possessed a deep knowledge of the Shipibo healing song tradition and the ability to read song patterns painted by hand on tapestries and other fabrics. She also dedicated herself to preserving Shipibo traditions in the face of encroaching outside influences.

For more photos and portraits from Herlinda’s village, you can visit the Shipibo feature on Bear’s website by clicking here.

There is also a CD available of Herlinda singing the traditional healing songs that Fonografia Collaborator, Luis Guerra, and Barrett Martin recorded and produced during the same 2004 trip.

New Story: Deportation Pushes Mothers Into Endless Cycle of Illegal Crossings

rux — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:23:06 +0000

A month ago, 34 year-old Veronica Vargas got into a fight with her husband. The neighbors called the police and Veronica was charged with battery. Her immigration status was checked at the local jail, and she and her husband were processed for deportation.

“There’s nothing I can do about it now,” she says. “We are here and our children are there, and they really need us.”

But as far as Vargas and other undocumented mothers are concerned, bringing their kids to Mexico is simply not an option.

The radio feature for KPBS News & Fronteras: The Changing America Desk, can be heard here.

Bolivian Farmers Harvest Coca Plant Legally

rux — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:37:46 +0000

This story, which aired as a two-part series in the Summer of 2008, recently hit the airwaves again — on Chicago’s WBEZ.

Bolivian President Evo Morales says he’s committed to fighting cocaine production and trafficking in his country. He’s instituted a drug program called “Coca si, cocaine no.”

That means it’s illegal to make cocaine. But farmers are allowed to grow the coca plant, the basis of cocaine, for traditional uses such as chewing or making tea.