FINAL COUNT DOWN!!

Thanks everyone for your support so far. I have a few more thank you's to add! Here's to Christopher Rikli and Brett Sillers for their generous support!

To help get me over the line in these last few days I've decided to add my previous works for sale in the $500 or over contributions. Prints from my series "The Salton Sea Landscapes" "Slab City" and "The Downtown East Side" are for sale as limited edition archival prints at this reduced price. Check out my website to see these works.


http://clairemartinphotography.com/



I'm getting really anxious to develop this film now! I've been shooting pretty intensely and have been sleeping at the camp, trying to get some more intimate shots and trying to understand the real way of life here. I can visualize in my head some of the shots I've taken and I can't wait to see if they've turned out as I expect. The lighting situation are pretty challenging, candle light, low shutter speeds, high grain, photographing in the dark using flash and hoping I've guessed my distance ratio for my focus and winged some compositions, but for me this is the beauty of shooting film. The great surprises you get at the end. I just love doing this. It is so rewarding when you meet people who let you in to their lives and share everything they have with a stranger who can barely speak their language. I just sit around and wait for a photo while they live their lives in front of my lens. On the other hand it is absolutely exhausting! I don't know how they maintain such general level of calm when every ones nerves must be frayed. Sleeping on the floor, constantly hungry, without a moments privacy not to mention the fact that they are living with the grief of losing their homes and often their loved ones, only one short year ago. Their resilience is truly astounding.

As I said I've been shooting film, so don't have a lot to show you, but I took a video on my iphone of my new best friend Hebins. He's my 8 year old guide and interpreter. I thought he would just say Hi Australia, but it turned into a full scale interview / interrogation of my motives for being here.

Interview with Hebens from Claire Martin on Vimeo.

So thanks all for checking out my blog. Please share the link with anyone you think might be interested.

Big Love
xx Claire

Some Big Thank You's! and some iphone pics

More Thank You's!!!

To Alice Cullam, Nicholas Martin, A couple of Anonymous People, Indrani Winfred, Lynn Gail, and Joel Newman. Amazing! Thankyou everyone! I can't wait to get home and print all the cards and posters and limited edition prints! Honestly, I'm so happy, and really looking forward to sharing my work. Big Love to you all!

Taken on my iphone! Such a sweet camera! Just a pic of one of the adorable children in the camp.

iphone pic. There are so many children in these camps. They are always so happy and follow me around, but the sad fact is that the reason they are so noticeable all the time, is because they are not at school.

This is Hebens, I have completely fallen in love with him and am trying my hardest not to partake in the tempting child trafficking ring and bring him home in my suitcase despite the fact I'm already enlisting him in child slave labor by forcing him to carry my tripod all day for far below minimum wage. He also works as my translator as he has great english for an 8yr old who can't afford to go to school. His favorite English phrase is "you sexy mother fucker" Although I'm pretty sure he has no idea what it means. He just likes it because everyone laughs when he says it. Too Cute, I tell you.

This family have been told to pack up their belongings and leave. They are being forcibly removed by the Mayor from the central park camp in Petionville . They are given 500 USD and told to pack up their lives and move on. Many have no place to go and large families to support. Others are moving back in to partially destroyed homes that have been tagged as unsafe.

I have been spending the Last few days teaching photojournalism at the Haiti Reporters School in Port Au Prince, and otherwise have been spending my time photographing in one of the largest tent cities in PAP. I am shooting exclusively film at the moment so these are only photo's from my iphone, but I thought I'd keep you up to date with what I am doing. I have decided to give all my attention to documenting life in the camps as this is the reality of day to day for most most Hatians, even thought there is a lot of politics at the moment around the return of the previous exiled dictator "Baby Doc" and the current Presidents stance on the rigged elections. I'll leave that to the other photographers to cover for now...

There are so many beautiful and heartbreaking moments in these camps. Resilience and struggle sit side by side. People tell me of the nightmares that haunt them, of the people they lost in the earthquake, while new born babies cling to their mothers, unaware of the crisis and disadvantage they have been born in to.

I hope my photo's are doing this story justice. I feel I've witnessed the hard reality here. I'm looking forward to sharing this story as an exhibition at Sydney's Head On Photo Festival.

More Thank you's!

Well, It was remiss of me not to mention my latest funders! I think I lost track of things when I was in Florida with the fever!

Big thank you's to Therese Muirhead, Jessica Connolly, Someone Anonymous, Lee Grant, Samantha Whitely and JD Ralley! Thank you for your support! It is really making all the difference. I can't wait to print my work and start sending it off to everyone! I'm getting very excited now, as I feel I am getting some really great images.

I've also changed my project description on my Indigogo Main Site to update where I am at with my project. It has evolved over time and I now feel I have found a story I am passionate about telling.

Please check it out here

Remembrance Day - The Ist Anniversary of the Earthquake

A voodoo ceremony is organized at the Institute of Ethnology as a part of the remembrance day activities.

Dancers at the remembrance ceremony. Over 16000 people crowded the Port Au Prince Soccer stadium to share in their collective grief and pray together.

A woman is possessed by a spirit and passes out in a voodoo ceremony remembering the aniversary of the Earthquake.

A choir girl throws her arms in the air in prayer at the national remembrance day ceremony.

The National Anthem is sung to a crowd of over 16000 at the national remembrance day ceremony.

People throw their arm in the air in prayer at the National Remembrance day ceremony.

A woman grieves her losses on the anniversary of the Earthquake.

Yesterday was a truly peaceful and beautiful national remembrance day with events organized all over downtown, including christian masses, and voodoo ceremonies. There was a real feeling of solidarity, everyone coming together to share their collective grief and remember those they lost. It was a very moving and touching day.

http://www.indiegogo.com/clairemartin?a=60692&i=addr

Back on the horse

Downtown Port Au Prince is eerily quiet on the third day of political protests against Renee Prevals Rigged Election Results.

A typical tent home for a family. One bed, a leaky cover and a few rudimentary cooking a washing supplies.

A young girl, perfectly groomed for school crosses a trash filled canal to exit her tent city in Downtown Port Au Prince.

This down syndrome boy is considered lucky to be "middle class". Here he stands with his neighborhood as a back drop. This suburb near the international airport was only partially damaged by the earthquake and many are still living under concrete roofs that could potentially be quite unstable.

A woman rides a tap tap (public transport) in downtown Port Au Prince.

A middle class suburb of Port Au Prince. Many of these homes remain unscathed from the January earthquake.

A young man tidies a rare space where he can sell tires on the side of the road.

Slum neighbourhoods in Port Au Prince now consist partly of temporarily constructed residences and tents in amongst old homes that survived the earthquake. For many living conditions after the earthquake simply went from bad to worse

A house sits adrift in Downtown Port Au Prince.

Hi there!
I am back on the horse. I had my recovery time in delightful Ft Lauderdale and returned to Port Au Prince this morning. One bonus, was I managed to develop the film I had shot in my first week, and I got a few negatives scanned, so I have some new work to post.
I can't wait to get back into it!
Cheers All!

CHANGE OF PLANS

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I have a very legitimate reason. I'm in hospital in Florida with Dengue Fever. This wasn't a part of the Plan!
I'll keep in touch with the progress of my project, once I've recovered.
Thanks everyone for all your support so far.
xx Claire

More Thank you's!!

Wow! Massive thanks to Sascha Bartly - I'll give you a call soon Saschy.
And Huge thanks to Emily Dimizantos too! You guys both Rock!! Thanks Again! You're all too generous.
Lot's of Love
CLaire