About a month ago i met cool and friendly Ruth Mortimer who works for Blue Dragon. Blue Dragon is an local Hanoi organization that gives underprivileged kids a better chance at life. Ruth asked me if i wouldn't mind donating some time to the organization and make a short video for them. I was happy to help.

I had one day of filming as i am in the middle of another project. This made all the shooting very fast. Ruth did a great job helping me organize the kids and getting the interviews done quickly.

The video is a thank you video to World Vision for their generous support.

So here it is, hope you enjoy it.

What is a photographer’s responsibility to the subject after the photography has finished? This has been stewing in my mind for sometime. I'm quite lazy about writing in my blog but I hope that I can get some feed back from others about this. Here are my thoughts.


I have done only a handful of stories, in each story there is a bond of trust between me and the person I’m photographing. We see each other everyday. They let me into their lives to document and then to show to other people. That is a lot of trust to give to someone with a camera and you don't know.

It must be difficult for the subjects of photo stories after the photographer has finished the work. I wonder if they feel used or if they feel they are not important to the photographer anymore?

I mean really think about it. You make a new friend who cares about you and is interested in your life. This friend, with a camera, comes with you everywhere. They ask questions about everything your doing and why. This must make the subject feel pretty special.

Then, BAM!!!, after 2 weeks, this person with a camera says goodbye and you see them if your lucky one time a year.

This must be difficult for the subject. I wonder how they justify the photographer leaving them in their mind?

I do try to go see the people that have allowed me into their lives. When I do, they always say I don't visit enough. I usually smile guiltily and say that I have been busy working but I have not forgotten them.

I wonder what some of the big photographers like James Nachtwey or Stephanie Sinclair think of this? Do they feel the same or do they just keep on moving and don't look back?

As my life as a documentary photographer continues there will be more stories with more people. Then, there will be more people to visit to make sure they know I think they are important and that I appreciate them letting me into their lives. At some point it will become impossible to visit everyone. I hope they will understand.


So, should I feel guilty or not if i can't find time to go visit the subject of a past project?

I'm trying to rationalize it. No conclusions as of yet.

I just got word today that I won some awards in this years PX3 competition.

I have to say that i'm really happy to get these and thank you to everyone who is supporting me and pushing me to do more and be better.

I have been following the blog of Brent Foster for about a year now. He works similar to me, that being that he works in photography and film as well.

Lately, there has been a new breakthrough in DSLR technology. We can now do video with the same DSLR body and lenses we use for photography. For people like Brent and myself this is amazing!

Yesterday Canon announced that it will be updating it's firmware for video on the 5D Mark II so that users can use manual control instead of the hindering automatic functions it now has. This new firmware will allow users to control the aperture, shutter speed and gain (ISO) and we hope that it offers 1080 24p as well.

This is a major breakthrough for people who are working in photography and film. I couldn't be more excited to have these options available to me.

I have always been interested in multimedia photography ever since i was first introduced to in by my friend Justin in late 2006. I started reading blogs like Multimedia Shooter and studying classes from Mindy McAdams at the University of Florida.

For me, i think multimedia is not just the use of sound and photography. Sometimes i see people who add music to some images and they say they have made a multimedia.

I apologize to those people. I'm sure they worked very hard on what they did, but to me, it is not really giving justice to the tools available to them.

Multimedia is the use of photography, film and sound (interviews, ambient sound, music) so that they are all being harnessed to take advantage of the power each media form gives. This lets the viewer become closer to the story and understand more.

Photography Vs. Multimedia. One is not better than the other. They are just tools like in a construction workers tool belt. They each serves a different purpose.

We can now start see we have more demand from clients and newspapers to do video. There is new technology to do this from DSLR manufactures and we have this new way to present our stories and photography. So, my question to photographers is this:

Why are you waiting for?!

Other people are catching on and not just in the photojournalism area. You can see fashion photographers (Steven Klein, NYC & Esquire Magazine June Cover) starting to do both photography and film using The RED system and the 5D Mark II.

Almost every newspaper in America and Europe ask their photographers to do video as well as photography.

This is not a fad. This is the direction our industry is going. So come... on jump on.... it is only bumpy in the beginning.

I had an assignment to go shoot Intel's Chairman Of The Board, Craig Barrett, as he traveled around Hanoi.

Mr. Barrett really hates photographers which is what he told me in so many words. So it made the job interesting.

Here are some photos from a show i did a month ago. I really hate shooting fashion shows in Vietnam as the event organizers set up the lights like crazy people, well at least for photographers.

I got an Honorable mention for my documentary video "Bop" at NPPA's contest The Best Of Photojournalism 2009. The contest is designed by photojournalists for photojournalists.

Now in its eighth year, the Best of Photojournalism (BOP) is the world's leading digital photojournalism contest. BOP is a project of the National Press Photographers Association.

Considering the list of other award winners, MediaStorm, MSNBC, Washington Post, The Las Vegas Sun and the Mercury News I feel very honored to be placed with them.

You can see the awards page here: http://bop.nppa.org/2009/web_sites/winners/index.php?cat=DOV&smc=INDE&place=HM1

Thank you to everyone who helped me make this film.

-Ehrin

Here are some shots from a recent assignment for a Vietnam fashion designer Kelly Bui.

I love going out at night in Vietnam. Especially in the evening to the parks. Everywhere you look is full of life. Teenage dancers practicing, the elderly drinking tea and playing chess, footballers showing off their skills, skateboarders gliding by and lovers holding each other. This scene was not as common as when i first came here. You of course would see many many people doing traditional things like drinking tea, exercising and playing chess, but skateboarders and dancers were not so common.

In a park, it seems like the glow of the tungsten lights lets people relax and enter into this sanctuary of freedom to do whatever they like. In Hanoi it is a special place.

I went to a fashion show a couple of weeks back. I was asked by a friend of mine to go and shoot some of the clothes and models. After talking some more about fashion with some of the Vietnamese designers i was interested in their lives and work. I may pursue a story at later this year in order to shed some light on this thriving and competitive world where looks and attitudes rein supreme.

My brother is visiting me. So my girlfriend and I thought it would be a good idea to go down to Hoi An for a couple of days to relax.
I grabbed my flash light and my camera bag to see if i can get an opportunity to try out a couple of ideas i have had for some photo. These photos are of some local girls ridding their bikes.

The other thing i really love about going to Hoi An is that the local food is so different than in Hanoi. Here is a photo of a man selling some of those lovely noodles in Hoi An.

The allies of Hoi An are small and provide the casual walker an easy idea of what life would have been like here in the early 1900's. Every house you walk by you can see people through their old windows going about their daily routine.


The next day we had decided to go to an old ruin called My Son.


All in all it was a great little trip.

My multimedia piece about leprosy villages in Vietnam and a story about one resident is published on the Vewd documentary photojournalism magazine.

Well i'm happy to say that i won some awards for my work. It is always nice to have acknowledgment like this from professionals this industry. 2008 Visual Culture Awards

Ehrin Macksey : Gold, Emotive Vision, Light, and Self Portrait ; Bronze, Photographic Story ; Gold, Multimedia ; Award of Excellence, International Documentary

This is a great publication by the very talented Yumi Goto and not because they feature some of my work. Things are changing for documentary photographers and I'm always looking for new ways to show my work and expose people to the stories i have done.

You can sign up and download the publication here: pdfX12

So tomorrow I'm back to work on my project. Above you can see where I eat lunch and dinner everyday when I'm there. Like I posted before it is .... rural. I'm really excited to go back since now i feel very confident with my new video equipment and I got some addons to my video equipment from my friend Justin. God Bless his little heart as getting electronics and video equipment in Vietnam is quite difficult, at least good equipment.

So I'm out in the sticks again to work more on my epic Multimedia/film. Next week i have to conduct a couple of interviews so I hope I will be able to post more about my trip to Sapa, Vietnam.

I truely can't wait to go back and start working on my video ideas for this project.

Wish me luck.

Last week I went to the countryside to do some more research into a personal project i'm working on. The setting for the place was beautiful as the newly planted rice was growing and was a lush green. The birds and insects clamor away as the people of this nearly sustainable community work next to them. They grow all their own vegetables, rice and meat and work together to help build houses or to work on other community projects.

I met the director for the community, a jolly, stained and crooked tooth man. He has a kind heart and has worked as a doctor/director for the community for more than half of his life.

He told me about how they had come to receive two more rejections from the outside world. A pair of 9 year old twins who were born with a horrible skin disease called Lamellar ichthyosis or fish scale disease. Their parents had kept them hidden in a dark area of a dirt floor house for most of their lives. The parents must have thought that the skin disease would later go away, but at the age of nine they found themselves abandoning their children at the front gates of this community. The twins were accepted here and treated as normal. Probably one of the few places in the world they would ever feel like that. More than likely they will live out their lives in this community.

The people in this community have lived lives of persecution. Not for something they did or that they could control, but for how they look.

As I listened to the stories and poems of their lives, it immediately breaks down my emotional barrier protecting me and keeping me objective. Their lives were full of isolation, rejection, murder and suicidal tendencies. Only recently in the last 5 years have they felt happiness or that people might care for them.

I spent two days there gathering resources, listening to stories and observing the daily lives and needs of these people. They were so kind to me, a stranger, they are all open and willing to share their life.

On the second day I met up with the poetry club. They read some poems they had written. They were not harsh poems about the hardships they had endured in their life, but poems welcoming me as a friend. After they were finished telling me their poems I was expected to address them. I almost lost it and nearly cried. After 2 days of being consumed by this place, feeling its kindness towards me and seeing the living conditions and deformities of these people, it finally caught up to me. I was emotionally drained. As I'm sure others would be if they listened and saw the same things.

I will go back every week from now until I finish the project. I hope to share more stories later with you.

Thanks for reading.

So a month ago I moved from my house to an apartment. The house was too big for me and the furniture and other things were breaking so I decided that it was time to move to a newer place.



I moved into this great new apartment (I will post photos later). The difference between this new neighborhood to my old neighborhood. More like how the majority of Vietnamese live in Hanoi. So I started to go out and document the area I lived in.



There is a park and a small lake near my house. It is polluted and not kept up with and kind of run down which to me gives it some character.

So here are some photos of that area. Later I will post some photos from the network of allies in which I wander through every day.