Eighteen-year-old Maheshwari comes from a family of quarry workers in rural India, none of whom completed schooling past the eighth grade. For the first four years of Maheshwari’s life, it seemed she would follow a similar path: Waking at 5 a.m. to start the household chores, marrying young, bearing children, and bringing in money through odd jobs wherever she could. Instead, she was selected by the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project to attend their boarding school, a brush with fate that would change the trajectory of her entire life.
Daughters and Mothers
‘Daughters and Mothers’ explores the emerging differences in the lives of indigenous Mayan young women and their mothers due to the teenagers’ education. In a region of Guatemala where less than a third of the rural indigenous women are literate, this group of young women will be the first in their families to graduate high school.
Peruvian Nuns Share Cloistered Life
Twenty-three nuns live a cloistered life behind the walls of Santa Catalina Monastery in the heart of Arequipa, Peru. While the oldest active nun, Sister Consuelo de Jesus, has been a member of the cloister for 61 years and the youngest novice, Sister Heidi Marjorie, has lived with the order for a mere three months, both women have devoted their lives to God through service and prayer.
Road to the Runway: Sunhee
Designer Sunhee Hwang won 2012′s Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation award for womenswear. I followed her through the hours leading up to her Fall 2012 runway show at New York Fashion Week for The Wall Street Journal.
Unheard Buskers
When I moved to New York, I was instantly intrigued by subway musicians — people don’t just burst into song in a crowded place in North Carolina. But I was struck not only by their bravery for spontaneous performance, but also by how easily they are ignored by commuters.
Shooting for Non-Profits: Starfish One by One in Guatemala
As the photographer for She’s the First, a not-for-profit that raises awareness about girls education and encourages young people to creatively fundraise to sponsor a girl in the developing world, I recently had the opportunity to visit one of our partner organizations in Guatemala. Starfish One by One works with indigenous Mayan girls in middle …
Multimedia: Peruvian Nuns Share Cloistered Life
Launch WhiteCityStories.org. Twenty-three nuns live a cloistered life behind the walls of Santa Catalina Monastery in the heart of Arequipa, Peru. These nuns of the Dominican Order spend their days divided between prayer and religious labors, including making the host for the Basilica Cathedral and creating handicrafts. While the oldest active nun, Sister Consuelo de …
Special Olympic Athlete Pursues Independence
In 2007, I worked with a team of journalists and students to build the first Special Olympics Live website. I was able to travel to Dublin, Ireland, with fellow photojournalist Melissa Tuck, who co-produced this story, to document Aisling O’Brien’s everyday life. At the time, Aisling was a Special Olympic athlete who attended Trinity College …
Small Town Free Clinic Serves the Uninsured
Dr. Phillip Stover is the medical director of the Franklin County Volunteers in Medicine Clinic in Louisburg, North Carolina. The clinic treats only county residents who live with chronic diseases. Most of the patients are below or hovering just above the poverty line and cannot afford private health insurance.