Culture...glimpses, and the photographers behind the lens.

This video is one of my favorites, these striking and amazingly beautiful pictures of people around the world. I have ambitions for furthering this video series with personal interviews and travel, but for now I dabble here and there as time allows as I have outside work and children at home. The next best thing is travelling vicariously through the wonderful images from photographers to select photos for the video series.



Part of the process includes obtaining permission for usage, and along the way I have made many 'social network friends', mostly through the photography website Flickr.

Hours go by quickly browsing through all of these Incredible images from around the world, taken by brilliantly talented photographers. Many of these people are not only talented with the camera but tend to be curious, open-minded, adventurous, compassionate, encouraging, and all around life-lovers. I've contacted over a hundred of these photographers for the video series, and along the way I've become friends with some of them, learned from many of them, and have been inspired by all of them.

So for this post I wanted to share about some of the contributing photographers to the Humanity Project Video Series (I'm sure I will have to do at least a second edition posting as there are so many wonderful contributors and counting). :

One of the photographers who always comes to mind first is Gregory Smith. He founded CARF (Children at Risk Foundation), first in Norway and then in Brazil. He has essentially dedicated his life to street children. Mr. Smith granted usage of a photo that I used in the video "Eat Pray Love Humanity".

The photo was of a Brazilian boy resting his head next to his dinner plate with a dreamy look on his face. Mr. Smith suggested an additional photo of the same boy displaying a peace sign with his fingers. As I learned about the boy in the picture my heart was captivated. His name was Roney. The dinner shot was taken when Mr. Smith took Roney in from the streets and served him a meal, after a few bites Roney rested his head on the table with that dreamy look. Roney and his brother Claudinet came to the Hummingbird Center (run by CARF). After time, Roney and Claudinet began alternating between the streets and the center. Shockingly, I learned that this little boy whose picture I chose to use in a cultural video, was brutally murdered on the streets, and months later his brother Claudinet died in a road/vehicle incident.

Brutality in many forms is a part of the lives for these children on the streets of Brasil, but the Hummingbird Center has seen many success and community growth (though they are always in need of more help).

 I also became a social network friend of one of the kids from the Hummingbird Center. His name is Gerson and he is a member of a dance group called Afrobreak that was started at the center.

There are more stories behind the photographers to come. Click here to see more of Gregory Smith's photos of the children of Brazil and stories to go with.

Fathers to Humanity

The world is quickly changing. Between the continually sprouting access to the internet across the globe, and ever-increasing numbers of people travelling, new understandings are happening by the minute.

The human population (with few exception) is one of fundamentally common concerns. Food, water, shelter, safety, health, love. The majority of the human population, in every country and on any land, are working families. Grandparents, parents, young adults and teenagers, children, grandbabies. We work to provide for our needs; earning wages, cooking meals, caring for our small children and our elders.

Fathers are providers, protectors, teachers. Fathers gather over concerns of their communities, and sit with friends to speak of life. Every good father has a dream for his family.

Besides the relentless focus of media on the hardships and tradgedies in life, amazing things are happening every day. Imagination is being put to use. Foundations are considering the new frontiers of humanity. Elders of Nations are seeking one another out. As science is now proving; we create what we place our attention on. Our communities are closer than ever before in history. We are learning. We are shaping our future.

Lessons on the Nature of Humanity

Having children of my own, my understanding of humanity tapped into the roots of nature itself. Upon the birth of my first child, I was enraptured with the tiny, perfect, new human. I was also amazed at the connection I felt to every other woman around the globe who had become a mother before me. I had become a member of an orchestration that was much larger, encompassing, and omniscient than my Self.

Instinct stretched beyond food, warmth, and safety. My nervous system reacted to any sign of distress or pain in this little human.  Not only to devote my time, attention, and resources to survival and health, but to answer to calls of counfusion or unbalance. The experiences that life was worthy of became moments of laughter, shared wonder, and honoring what is sacred. I became hardwired to care for my part in humanity.

The greatest lessons, perhaps, of my life came unexpectedly; losing my son. Our third born child died in his sleep when he was 4 months old. Beyond the shock and despair from our loss, beyond the magnitude of the bond exposed and my spiritual journey of grief, came a new awareness.

Some months later, as I sat in silent reflection, I had a vision. In two lines wrapping around the earth were all of the mothers on the planet. One line consisted of mothers with living children. The other formed from mothers who had lost a child. Again, I had been initiated by wisdom of nature. I understood that mothers who have lost a child carry the knowledge of our profound connection as humans. Whatever the meaning of existence, our experience of human connection is important in a way that transcends our individual selves.

~This post is a portion of the story on the seeds of The Humanity Project.
View video "Mother Shapes Humanity" below, or visit the Humanity Project on YouTube.~

Curiosity of Cultures -Humanity Project-

My interest in cultures developed early in childhood; probably somewhere inbetween the experience of my first beaded Navajo bracelet and seeing the colorfully clad village children of "It's a Small World" at Disneyland. Well- these are my fond memories of childhood wonderment, but come to think of it, my interests were most likely more a product of my environment.


My parents had both been in the Navy. Periodically, stories of faraway people made their way home with the sailors after months at sea. Exotic details of squid, sake, kimonos, kasalans, cameos, and stringed rababas. We moved every other year being stationed to a new base, travelled deserts, mountains, and plains to the oceans. Each new home location had it's own climate, it's own rythym of dialect, but Navy Housing tied the experiences together.

Picture I drew of people in their roots.

Even so, with the codes of uniformness, many neighbors carried distinct cultural heritage. Filippino, Mexican, Jamaican, Swedish. The cultures of the states themselves were noticable; California, Connecticut, Washington, South Carolina (the North, South, East and West subcultures of America).

As a young adult I delighted in the experience of coming to know people who were from other countries. Lerato, a young woman from South Africa, was boarding a Portland Greyhound bus to travel to another state, to stay with relatives. Her father was with her to see her off. Serendipitously, her father overheard my conversation with my parents, who were also waiting in line to see me off. I was going to the same city that Lerato was travelling to. Her father told me that she was here recently from Africa, did not speak English, and asked me if would look after her on our travels. I ordered the meal that she pointed at the picture of in McDonald's on a layover, and wondered while we ate if she liked the chicken sandwich. On the road, we both pointed to a glowing rainbow outside of the bus window and smiled at each other.

Picture I drew of woman working in cactus fields.

Siani, a Chinese singer on tour, stayed in our home one night. Even though she took the American name of 'Sunny' while touring, she did not speak English, nor I Chinese, so we drew pictures to each other through the evening. I envied the gardens she drew surrounding the picture of her house, and she wondered at the sky reaching evergreen trees surrounding mine.

Syed had emigrated from Iran many years before he stayed with our family for a month. I listened with full senses to his stories from his homeland and his anxieties over war which placed his relatives in danger. There was nothing more important to him than his daughter, Miriam; and he delighted in making my children laugh as well.

My 2 year old added to this piece I was working on.

Of course with time many opportunities arrived to meet people from other lands; Dawn and Lynn, sisters from Great Britain. Halim from Lebanon, Alejandro and Anna from Guatalajara, Shavir from Fiji, Renan from Brazil, and so on....each friendship a jewel of life experience for me.

As I had children of my own, my understanding of humanity tapped into the very roots of nature itself.

(continued in following post).

This post is the story from the seeds of the Humanity Project video series at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/streetinspired
View a Humanity Project video below: Eat Pray Love Humanity