why do you want to...

The question comes up all the time. Why would you want to take pictures of the suffering, the impoverished, the dying, the poorest of the poor? Why do we do anything that we are not forced to do? We do it because we want to of course, and why do we want to? I can only speak for myself, but it is a compulsion. It is a feeling so strong that I wanted to follow it, that I knew I would be doing what I was here to do. A picture shows us many things, but in the context of what I have been doing, it shows us how someone lives, and no matter how difficult it may be to take the photo, to show it is important, and equally for others to observe it, because it is a truth. We only really know ourselves, both personally and as a race if we truly face ourselves and each other. So it is not because I am a voyeur, or that I want to make a living off of others' suffering, as I have been accused of, it is because I want to be aware of myself and my humanity; but really it's me, it's my life and it's my subjects' life.