Photographs displayed yesterday evening by photographer and University alumnus Andre Lambertson at the Newcomb South Meeting Room presented the untold stories behind the 2010 Haitian earthquake.
Lambertson took the photographs featured in his most recent work, "Haiti: Reporting Beyond the Headlines," between 2010 and 2011 after traveling to Haiti a dozen times to document what he saw there. The most recent photographs were taken early this year.
Lambertson said he hoped his photographs, and the stories behind them, elicit empathy from international audiences.
"The longer I take photos, the more I feel like a storyteller than an objective journalist," Lambertson said.
The University Programs Council, Student Council and the Women's Center hosted the event in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, an organization which supports freelance journalists by giving them grants to document under-represented issues. Graduate Curry student Yune Pak, an intern at the Women's Center, also helped organize the presentation.
"The International Initiatives team at the Women's Center felt that this would be a great event to bring to Charlottesville," Pak said.
Mark Schulte, the national education coordinator at the Pulitzer Center, introduced Lambertson. Schutle said Lambertson's commitment to forming relationships with the Haitian communities he photographed helped Lambertson tell their stories, instead of simply taking "sensational" photographs ofthe damaged landscape.
"The earthquake killed 300,000 people just over two years ago, and today the country is facing huge challenges," Schulte said. "Major streets have been repaired, but half of the 10 million cubic feet from rubble is still in courtyards."
Lambertson began his presentation asking the audience to describe photographs they had seen of post-earthquake Haiti in 2010.
"Bodies, rubble - it's very hard to connect, especially when there is devastation that we can't understand," Lambertson said.
But Lamberton said his work contradicted the stereotypical photographs with which audience members were familiar. A photograph of two young boys splashing each other on a sunny day appeared on the screen, as well as a shot of Haitians worshipping in a church without walls.
"Have you seen images of Haiti like this?" Lambertson asked the audience. "There's a lot of resilience and strength [in] people."
While showing a photograph of a young girl looking wistfully at a beaded necklace she had made to sell, Lambertson said he had asked her what she was thinking. The girl told him: "I was thinking of my future," she said. "I shouldn't be here, I should be in school."
Pak said he hopes the presentation will start conversations and "bring light to critical issues that are overlooked."
Lambertson teaches photography at the International Center of Photography in New York City,
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