As an adult I’ve lived and worked abroad in Kenya and SE Asia, and have traveled extensively around India and Mexico. Incidentally, when I was in college I wanted to be a foreign correspondent; I was drawn to the idea of helping break down cultural stereotypes through storytelling and imagery. Though I didn’t end up pursuing this career path I still strive to be a cultural ambassador of sorts through writing and photography.
Mt. Pleasant, DC
Formerly abandoned police and fire call boxes are restored as community art around DC. The ones in Mt. Pleasant feature stirring bronze sculptures by artist and former resident Michael Ross and represent scenes from the community’s history.
-Sept 2021
Yangon, Myanmar
Yangon, in a flurry to develop, is a city under siege: high land values tempt landlords to sell their single-story heritage structures to make way for new towers in an unregulated legal environment. To offer the community a heritage-friendly alternative, @turquoisemountainmyanmar has been nurturing community-led development projects across the city where people can participate in the planning of works. This means of "restoration by consensus" where all members must create a shared vision for the building is truly inspiring when you consider Myanmar's war-torn autocratic past; it's been a democracy for barely 7 years..
Even more impressive is the local workforce they've developed, trained in restoration technical skills. Because ultimately heritage is not just about saving one-off buildings, it's about people and their shared responsibility and ownership of heritage that will make this a Sustained Movement.
-June 2019
Nairobi, Kenya
Subtle notices for peace during elections seen around Kibera from Solomon Muyundi aka #solo7
-August 2017
Oaxaca, Mexico
-March 2014
Zanzibar, Tanzania
-January 2013
Nairobi, Kenya
Buses here have style.
-April 2014
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
"Imagination is a battlefield, an input and output of technology and social order.
In fact, we should acknowledge that most people are forced to live inside someone else’s imagination. And one of the things we have to come to grips with is how the nightmares that many people are forced to endure are the underside of an elite fantasy about efficiency, profit, and social control.
Racism, among other axes of domination, helps to produce this fragmented imagination. Misery for some, monopoly for others. This means that for those of us who want to construct a different social reality, one grounded in justice and joy, we can’t only critique the underside, but we also have to wrestle with the deep investments that many people have for social domination.” -Ruha Benjamin @ruha9
The @wholefoods in Fort Greene / Downtown Brooklyn is one of the last in NYC to turn into a dystopian Bezosworld of Prime Shoppers. The anguish is palpable as you walk through the clogged aisles of mostly minority shoppers searching for speciality foods. I hope you can see There is nothing impressive about a company and industry that is re-segregating grocery stores and retail spaces, effectively making Americans less empathetic and more ignorant in the process.
-Dec 2019
Bangok, Thailand
Meet Khun Pariya and her magical home! Pariya's grandparents built the main house in 1942 during WWII. Her great grandfather was an English engineer who came to Thailand during the reign of King Rama V, naturally he married a Thai lady. Her grandfather was also an engineer and was sent abroad by the King to learn advanced civil engineering. Upon his return from UC Berkeley he became Dean at the engineering university (at 27); he was named and is respected as the father of modern Thai engineering. Pariya is a landscape architect and art consultant, and with her English hotelier husband developed the family's heritage home into the most beautiful hotel. As you might expect, we are now friends
-Aug 2019
Auroville, India
No, this is not a bling-ed out Epcot ball. It's called the Matrimandir and is the emblematic soul of the city/township of Auroville. I'd only heard about Auroville a month or so ago, though I wish I'd found it sooner.
In a nutshell, Auroville is a universal township in the making where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. It was started by The Mother, an Egyptian/Turkish/French woman, and Sri Aurobindo, one of India's freedom fighters, 50 years ago as an experiment to realize human unity in diversity. There's nearly 3000 people living there today from 52 countries.
Auroville is a real life world without the sovereign lord i.e. money, where work is not a way to earn a living but rather a way to express oneself while being of service to the community. There's art and culture and social enterprise, and it's not Burning Man.
-February 2018
Calcutta, India
-April 2015
Mumbai, India
You don't need to be an architecture or design expert to appreciate the inherent and contextual beauty of 100+ year old bungalows superbly maintained like this one in South Mumbai. The owner could most definitely have made a fortune tearing it down and building up, and in not doing so has left the city and tourists like me something preciously nostalgic to long after.
-February 2018
Kurum, India
This rickety old house, built by my great grandfather, has seen better days but was once the cornerstone of the city. What's more, it holds more than a century of memories precariously preserved in its creaking doors and sagging foundation; the stories can (and often do, depending on who you ask) go on forever. And while the concept of preservation is foreign to most Indians (new is new and old is.. old) I would love to see this gem restored to it's former glory!
-November 2017