Arriving in Haiti less than twenty-four hours after the January 12, 2010 earthquake, photojournalist Ron Haviv made it his mission to chronicle the ensuing devastation and human suffering.

"The scars from this event are going to last several generations,” said Haviv, whose photographs will be showing at an exhibition and fundraiser on March 4, 2010 at VII Photo Agency in Brooklyn, New York. VII is also releasing a book on the Haitian disaster. All the proceeds will go to Partners in Health: http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti.

Book Cover:

This multimedia presentation was produced by telegraph21 and the VII Photo Agency.

Photography, Audio and Video: Ron Haviv

Produced and Edited by: Jeca Taudte and Mel Stern

Since the end of the Cold War, award-winning photojournalist Ron Haviv has produced images of conflict and humanitarian crises from around the globe.

Numerous museums and galleries have featured his work, including the Louvre, the United Nations, and the Council on Foreign Relations. A co-founder of VII Photo Agency, Haviv has published two critically-acclaimed collections of his photography—Blood and Honey: A Balkan War Journal and Afghanistan: On the Road to Kabul. His work is published by magazines worldwide.

Haviv was the central character in National Geographic Explorer's Freelance in a World of Risk, a film that explored the hazards inherent in combat photography, and was featured in two other films. In addition, Haviv has spoken about his work on NPR, NBC Nightly News, the Charlie Rose Show, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight and CNN.

• Haiti: January 12, Purchase the Book
  http://www.viiphoto.com/books.html
• VII Photo Agency
  http://www.viiphoto.com

Interview with Ron Haviv

By Jeca Taudte for telegraph21

t21: Tell me about your experience in Haiti. You worked there before the earthquake?

RH: I've worked in Haiti since 1990 and have probably made over fifteen trips to Haiti since then. The majority of my work has usually been political to some degree, whether it would be an election or political violence, culminating in the U.S. incursion in 1994, with the occasional natural disasters, usually being hurricanes.

t21: Describe the scene when you got to Haiti.

RH: Obviously there was a lot of destruction as we've all seen, but I think for me it was when I arrived downtown where the presidential palace was, and saw it collapse on itself. It was a building that I was so familiar with, and it was such a prominent building in Haiti, to see that destroyed was quite shocking. It looked like it was out of a movie set. There were thousands of people that had already camped outside the palace.

There was literally silence. Haiti had been a very lively, noisy, just crazy place filled with energy and color, and everybody seemed like they were in shock. As I drove around the city, that feeling just permeated everywhere. There was very little sign of outward grief, which is very unusual for Haiti because people are very emotional there.

I started to see a lot of bodies on the streets, people who didn't know what to do with victims, other people trying to rescue people, and people just wandering around. As night fell, people were living on the streets [and I] started to hear people praying and singing in pitch blackness. It was a very eerie and disconcerting feeling.

t21: What was your work purpose for going to Haiti?

RH: I'm a photojournalist. I understand the value of communication, the value of images, and what that means, especially in a disaster area. Having done numerous earthquakes before, I understand in order to galvanize world reaction, whether financial or through physical help, people need to see what's going on.

I went with no support from a publication, and by the next afternoon I had organized a relationship with People Magazine and MSNBC and various other publications around the world that were going to hopefully use my work.

t21: Do you think photos captured the essence of the disaster in a way other media might not have?

RH: I don't think there is any one photograph that can encompass the loss that people suffered. I think there comes a time when you need to have a group of images or a combination of words, of audio, video and stills to hit you on all senses for you to really appreciate what happened.

I think by the nature of still photography, and the way I was working, and my colleagues were working that we were able to take images that could connect emotionally possibly easier than video. In the end, visual images give viewers an emotional connection to what they're seeing so they can be informed, and then hopefully act to help.

t21: Did things change in terms of the mood in Haitian society?

RH: I was happy to see that after the first week or so ... the submission and the silence started to fade away, and people were talking about a chance to create a new Haiti and the benefits that could come out of this. The energy started to return and society started to get back on its feet. People were getting back to their normal life as much as they could, given that fact that they lost their homes and they were still living on the streets.

There were a lot of problems with logistics of aid, and after a couple of weeks it started to get better and it's continued to get better. But I think it's going to be a psychological seesaw of ups-and-downs for Haitians.

The scars from this event are going to last several generations.

t21: Are there photos you took in your two weeks there that stood out to you?

RH: One of the first photographs I took was of a woman. There were a number people outside of a small clinic that was closed for the night, they had run out of supplies, but people were still waiting there. A lot of them were in pain and were hurt, and there were a couple of bodies of children lying outside near these people. It was a very grim situation, and I was photographing one these women. She reached out with one of her hands to ask me for help. I think that situation was basically indicative not only of my own impotence, but the impotence of the world at the time. I had nothing to give her; there was nothing there. She was at a clinic where hopefully some medical people were going to help.

These scenes went on for weeks showing how overwhelming everything was, and that feeling of how much help Haiti needs and needed at the time.

t21: In terms of your work, what is your intention and hope for what you are doing?

RH: I think that as much attention and as much generosity that people have given towards Haiti in the last month after the earthquake, that there is always the fear that people move on. The headlines change. People's priorities change, but the situation on the ground for the Haitian people will remain the same, and so it's important to continue to remind people and push them to open up their pocketbooks and check books to support organizations that are working there to people keep alive and make their lives better.

This photo book, this exhibition and multimedia piece, these are to keep the public engaged about what happened in Haiti and what can happen in Haiti.

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