A Desperate Journey

It's not often that you get to re visit old work unless you are working on your portfolio. Last week I had an exhibition at the Jersey Arts Centre as part of the Amnesty International Human Rights Festival in St. Hellier, Jersey. The photos on exhibit were part of a story I did on Nicaraguan Refugees illegally migrating to the United States. I did the photos in 1989 when I was still working for the Miami Herald. It was my first real project.

Despite the passing of the years I am surprised how little the photos have aged. The people I followed were following an underground railroad that still is operating today. I have travelled many times to Guatemala and Central America since I shot these photos and I saw people still undetaking the same journey. Until there is economic justice across Latin America I doubt these journeys will end any time soon.

Photography has seen seismic changes in the past 22 years. It was odd handling the slides again, scanning them, trying to reproduce the luminous quality of the images into a digital version. It is certainly much easier shooting colour these days. Transparency film was so unforgiving. I wonder how different my photos would have looked if I had shot them with today's digital cameras. I shot the Nicaraguan Story on 2 FM2s and 4 fixed focal lenses. I carried a light meter and a big bag of film. No batteries needed except for the meter. I am not nostalgic for the old days by any means. In terms of exposing alone I am a much better colour photographer. But I probably concentrated more on the technical aspects of my medium in the past.

Regardless of the changes there is something wonderful seeing your images printed big. I think the thing I miss most in he digital age is how few times I print anything. A photograph is meant to be printed. Facebook and websites are a poor substitute.