Whether traveling through Ethiopia, North Korea, or any other of the long list of remote countries she has visited, writer and photographer Wendy E. Simmons finds nothing builds bridges quite like the act of taking a picture.
It was as if joy had somehow managed to come full circle. I was sitting in my New York apartment, smiling at photos of a family smiling at photos I had taken of them outside their home in Maputo, Mozambique, two months earlier.
Like all of my most treasured travel images, the picture was born out of a chance encounter. I had asked my guide for the day, Miguel, to show me where he’d grown up, and he’d graciously taken me to see Maputo’s sprawling bairros, or slums. We had just entered Bairro de Laulane, high above the city, when a young girl caught my eye. She was dressed in yellow and sitting in front of a bright blue door, and she appeared to be crying.
Miguel assured me she wasn’t hurt or in danger, just upset about a missing toy. I offered to cheer her up by taking her picture, but her family was suspicious. Why would an outsider want to photograph a total stranger? Miguel explained that recording new people and places was a hobby of mine—adding, at my suggestion, that I would be happy to shoot a family portrait and give them a copy.
That changed everything. Like most residents of Maputo’s “poverty belt,” the family lives in a makeshift home with very few material possessions, and had never had their picture taken together. It was clear that, for them, the prospect of owning a portrait was a big deal. So they posed for me and then, together, we came up with a plan to get them a copy. When I got home to the U.S., I would send the images to their local check-cashing store, which had a tenuous Internet connection and a general e-mail address. Having extracted Miguel’s solemn promise to help make it all happen, I left him with a thumb drive to transfer the files to a photo printing store, and money for the prints.
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Worth Flying For
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The France They Loved
Before Julia Child became Julia Child, she and her husband, Paul, a career diplomat, lived from 1948 until 1954 in Paris and Marseille. In addition to his work in the civil service, Paul was an accomplished photographer who continually documented his surroundings. In this exclusive excerpt from France Is a Feast, a book of Paul’s work, out October 24, ALEXPRUD’ HOMME—the Childs’ great nephew—captures the bygone world the couple inhabited.
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My Photographic Education Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Shoot A Giraffe
The Emakoko, a luxury safari lodge, stands by the Mbagathi River on the edge of Nairobi National Park, in Kenya. Although barely 45 minutes from the airport, it’s a place of serenity and wide-open spaces.
Land Of Pain And Promise
The photographer ANDREW MOORE has spent the past half-decade documenting the wounds, traditions, and haunting beauty of the Deep South. For the author KIESE LAYMON, who was born and raised in the region and recently returned home, this is the emotional landscape that helped make him who he is today.
My City, My Self
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Giving The World A Human Face
Whether traveling through Ethiopia, North Korea, or any other of the long list of remote countries she has visited, writer and photographer Wendy E. Simmons finds nothing builds bridges quite like the act of taking a picture.
A Day In The Life
Photographer Stephen Wilkes—who shot this month’s cover—documents the passage of time at landmarks around the world in his series “Day to Night,” currently on view.
Le Grand Musée Du Parfum in Paris, France
A new Xanadu for fragrance lovers sits on Paris’s Rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré, across the street from the famed Le Bristol hotel, in an 18th-century hôtel particulier previously owned by Christian Lacroix (and before that, Louis Roederer).
Surroundings
Artists Miguel Peidro and Jesus Navarro both turn to the outside world for their painting inspirations.
DYNAMIC DUO
HUMANS AND EARTH ARE OFTEN AT ODDS, BUT WHEN DISASTER STRIKES, THEY CAN COMBINE THEIR POWERS TO BRING NEW LIFE TO LANDSCAPES.
Night Sky
Spend evenings under the stars in San Miguel de Allende.
Turning to the “Other” Tourmaline Crystals
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Non-Zeolite Minerals
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Misiones Mundiales
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Rosario Ibarra y su indoblegable lucha
La desaparición del estudiante de medicina Jesús Piedra Ibarra en abril de 1975 –y de decenas de jóvenes durante la Guerra Sucia del régimen echeverrista– dio origen a una lucha colectiva y personal de sus familiares por encontrarlos. Sobresalió por su esfuerzo y valentía Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, quien encaró a presidentes e incluso buscó a su hijo en las fauces de la bestia: le exigió datos sobre su hijo a Miguel Nazar, el torturador que dirigía la DFS. Tras varias décadas de denunciar el autoritarismo, la complicidad y la indiferencia de sucesivos gobiernos ante esos crímenes, el Estado mexicano finalmente reconoce los valores de su lucha indoblegable: la activista recibirá la medalla Belisario Domínguez del Senado de la República.
El compromiso de León -Portilla
No podía haber mayor consenso en la despedida al historiador: Era el sabio de la tribu, el último de los grandes humanistas mexicanos… Pero también el que ahondó como nadie en el mundo azteca, al grado de rescatar su pensamiento filosófico y su grandeza avasallada. León-Portilla abrevó en fuentes múltiples y se formó impecablemente. Dos influencias, entre muchas otras, son definitivas: Su paso por el seminario de los jesuitas –prácticamente desconocido– y su cercanía con el arqueólogo Manuel Gamio, su tío. Esos momentos los contó a la reportera Columba Vértiz para el libro inédito que él mismo calificó como “biografía periodística”, y que Proceso publicará próximamente. El trabajo surgió a finales de 2015, cuando el historiador aceptó una serie de entrevistas con un telón de fondo: el reto de ser “el portavoz de la palabra indígena”. Le gustó el título tentativo: Miguel León-Portilla: Revela todo por su pasión a los indígenas vivos y muertos.