This past Thursday, photojournalist Ed Kashi was a guest speaker at Newhouse. In his presentation he discussed many of his projects which include Iraqi Kurdistan, Aging in America: The Years Ahead and Niger Delta. Each of the pieces were extremely powerful pieces. Kashi discussed how he looks for things often left unnoticed and he wants to give a voice for people who don't have a voice. One of Kashi's statements was, "I feel it better to focus than drill down deep." From this statement, I felt that he was saying it is better to focus on what is right in front of you rather than looking to deep into things to find something that is not there. This is true for photography because as a photographer you have seconds to capture a shot and you can't stand there overanalyzing what you want to capture. Kashi's piece Niger Delta was about Nigeria and its oil. He captured the corrupt government and the poor lives that the people of Nigeria live. One of his photos was of a boy working and carrying a goat. The reason why I'm mentioning this photo is because after a woman saw this photo in the National Geographic she discovered the boys name and his information and began to pay for his education and he no longer works there anymore. This just proves how much a picture can capture and change someones life. I feel that Kashi message was that if you are going to capture a shot, capture its dimensions and its emotion. The simplest photo can speak a million words.
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