Haiti’s Children

Wednesday August 31st, 2011

Several months ago, Rob Hammer was approached about a once in a lifetime assignment, one that Rob felt would give him the chance to use his photography to help others. The job would have Rob flying to Haiti—a country marked by poverty, violence, and instability that was brought to it’s knees after the 2010 earthquake—and photographing kids. The Children’s Heritage Fund wanted Rob to photograph children orphaned by the earthquake that they were trying to get sponsored.

According to Rob, “This couldn’t have been any farther from a typical assignment for me. I never photograph children, nor have I ever had a tolerance for them. Most of what I do is dramatic/gritty portraits of athletes.” However, the fact that it was such a departure from his normal work, and the fact that he would possibly be helping others, led Rob to accept the assignment. Once on board, Rob dove in and decided to keep his normal dramatic portraiture mindset when creating the children’s images.

As the travel date approached, Rob became increasingly excited about this new project, “Travel and foreign culture’s have always amazed me, so I was almost restless for this trip.” Yet, even after hearing and seeing so much of Haiti in the media, Rob was still shocked with what he found once he arrived,

There is absolutely no way that I can accurately describe Haiti to you. The first word that comes to mind is “poor,” but that would actually be a compliment. Poverty is everywhere. Trash fills the streets. Huge piles of trash right in front of peoples homes with wild pigs sifting through it. Streams that go through the towns are filled with garbage and the Haitian people bath in those same streams because most of them have no running water. The majority of homes are shacks at best with no floors, running water, or electricity.

With the multitude of depressing imagery surrounding Rob, he prepared himself for the people to match their surroundings. He visited several orphanages, all of them incredibly makeshift and dirty. The children slept on tarps and filthy mattresses, some had to sleep on the floor. Two young  men running one orphanage lived in a primitive shack out back. When Rob asked why they didn’t sleep in the room with the children, he received the response that the children stay up screaming and crying out for their parents, so they could never get any sleep. However, all of this didn’t surprise Rob, what did was the kids,

The children were incredible. Their spirit was remarkable. This is also something I couldn’t begin to describe. Despite having nothing, they never stop smiling. Literally. Everyone in Haiti plays soccer, including the children. These kids had a soccer ball that was nothing more then the rubber shell that gives the ball it’s shape. Didn’t matter. They just loved playing with it. They were always playing, laughing, and smiling.

One child in particular caught Rob’s attention, a little girl named Lily,

I will never forget her. She had no parents, no real home, electricity, water, and very little food. Yet every time I saw her, she was smiling and laughing. She has one of those infectious laughs. Every time I heard it, I couldn’t help but laugh myself. I wish I could record her laugh and use it as the ringer on my phone. She was such a character. Just one of those people who had something special. The real kicker was her missing front tooth. It went perfectly with her funny personality. Every time I took her picture, she would make me show her, which would result in the laugh. What a gem.

Lily

The portrait shoots themselves though were quite the challenge. With no electricity, shooting with strobes became complicated. He also had almost zero experience shooting children, and had the language barrier to deal with as well. On top of all this, the client requested images of Haitian culture, villages and cities,

The tough part of that is the Haitian’s really don’t want their picture taken. They feel exploited and used. Some areas were dangerous to even be in. We never really walked through the villages/cities, so 95% of the images that you see on my blog were taken from the back of a moving pick-up truck. I wasn’t able to think about shots, I was only able to get things in passing. That was frustrating and fun at the same time.

The trip opened Rob’s eyes to different avenues and directions to take his photography,

I learned a ton from this trip. Prior to visiting Haiti, I only shot things if I could use a lot of strobes. Always loved the polished look it produced. In Haiti, in the back of a pick-up truck, that wasn’t an option. I was forced to shoot using only available light. That’s not as easy as it sounds. There is definitely a different art to it.

Rob finished by stating, “I would jump at the opportunity to go back.”

- Maria