NPR Picture Show

Yesterday NPR published a nice story featuring my new exhibit in DC. It was on the NPR Picture Show — if you haven't seen this site, take a look. They do a great job publishing all kinds of interesting photography stories.

Everyone's been so positive about my exhibit I am in danger of getting a swollen head.

Easter in Ivankiv

Residents of Ivankiv, Ukraine, attend a midnight Easter service at the Russian Orthodox church in town.

A woman makes the sign of the cross as she enters the church near midnight.

For two hours, attendees stand, pray, light candles and follow the traditional orthodox ceremony.

Lay leaders of the congregation make a circuit of the church at a midpoint in the midnight Easter service.

A girl waits outside the church for her family's Easter basket to be blessed with holy water.

After the mass, the priests come outside and make a circuit of the churchyard and adjoining street, showering hundreds of families with blessings and holy water.

Ivankiv is the closest inhabited city to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Books Alive!

Singer Lee Knight sings, dances and reads stories with kids from Oneonta, NY, on April 10, during Books Alive!, an interactive performance organized by the Oneonta World of Learning.

The Oneonta World of Learning, a “children’s museum without walls,” organizes educational events for children in the Oneonta area. For more information on OWL see their website or blog.

Update, May 2010:
Here are additional photos from the Books Alive event. Parents, feel free to download these photos for personal use, or you can contact OWL for many more photos.

kyrgyz revolution, again

AP

Breaking news from Kyrygzstan: another revolution. But if you don't have any leaders to replace the ones you depose, how are things going to get any better?

More news here.

I followed Opposition leader Omurbek Tekebaev during earlier protests, when he was running for President in 2000.

I spent several weeks following Tekebaev, and at the time I was very impressed. He answered our questions openly and thoughtfully. I thought he was the first honest politician I had met in Central Asia.

Since then, as one revolution after another has flared up, replaced the people in power and then quickly returned to the status quo, I've grown pessimistic than any leader, even an honest one, would make any significant changes in how the country is governed.

In short, I'm sorry to say Kyrgyzstan has not improved much in 10 years.

But as I look at my old scans, I am pleased at least to see that I have improved as a photographer in the last 10 years.