Leprosy Mailing List – March 6 , 2013
Ref.: (LML) Leprosy Eliminated? And other stories
From: Tom Bradley, Photograher, UK
Dear Pieter,
Leprosy Eliminated? and other stories (www.isleprosyeliminated.com) is a personal photographic project of mine. I've been working on it on and off since I took up documentary photography professionally 4 years ago. My initial six week trip to Lalgadh Leprosy Services Centre in Nepal was never intended to be the start of something bigger, but the subject – the disease and those affected – intrigued and engaged me. The very fact it was a topic everyone (the general public) had heard of but few really knew about or understood made it even more compelling for me.
The website is a series of photographic (and later film) 'stories' and 'essays' that you can find by clicking on the highlighted countries. Some of the stories stand quite well on by themselves, and others work better when viewed in the context of the entire project, but it's always good to keep in mind that it's personal. I can't claim that this project is the voice of the people I'm photographing - the patients, former patients and the staff (though sometimes I will post interviews with them). This project is my exploration into leprosy, what I see, what I understand, how I feel, how I see those I photograph feeling. Sometimes the imagery is positive, others, inevitably not.
I just hope that it can engage people (including yourself) with Leprosy Eliminated? and other stories. It's very much a work-in-progress and I'm still looking for help (financial and otherwise) to continue it. Leprosy is traditionally a difficult disease for people to look at and I'm hoping in some way that this project will help point the finger at the problem.
I've attached a few photographs for you to browse for a suitable one(s) to represent the project. There are of course more on the website that you can browse. Let me know and I can send along a higher resolution version. Captions for the above are below.
Wei01: A photograph of Johnny Ampao and his family outside their home, a single room. He keeps most of his paintings outside due to storage limitations. Writing by Johnny Ampao. Weija, Ghana 2012
Datt19: Residents continue dancing into the early hours of the morning. Duttanagar, India 2012
Nige08: A man and his family on their porch in the late afternoon. Okegbala, Nigeria 2009
Nimba03: We dropped off John Kelar, a recently discharged patient from Ganta leprosy hospital at his village. The community were delighted to see him after a year away. Zuoplay, Liberia 2012
Manikro13: Old prostheses lined up at the side of the old physiotherapy unit. Manikro, Ivory Coast 2012
USA01: A patient at the National Hansen's Disease Centre in Louisiana. He is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. He didn't want to be identified. Baton Rouge, USA 2012
Please don't hesitate to contact me at info@tom-bradley.com and please pass on the weblink www.isleprosyeliminated.com.
Many thanks,
Tom Bradley
LML - S Deepak, B Naafs, S Noto and P Schreuder
LML Archives: http://www.aifo.it/english/resources/online/lml-archives/index.htm
Contact: Dr Pieter Schreuder << editorlml@gmail.com >>.
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