east fresia tea for NYT
ostfriesland, far up north, with long foggy winter nights and cozy houses, has the highest per capita tea consumption in the world.
tailor for SPIEGEL WISSEN
at the berlin taylor bis es mir vom leibe fällt your old clothes are turned into new pieces of fashionary.
brown coal tourism
Following decades of heavy brown coal excavation, this rural region southeast of Berlin is in the middle of a transition to redefine itself as a tourist destination by turning the mining pits — miles and miles of churned-up land – into Europe’s largest system of artificial lakes. The plan is seen as an economically viable solution in an area battered by the effects of the German reunification, the job losses of dying industries and a shrinking population.
Pamphlets and websites liken the mining pits to the Grand Canyon and to the wide-open deserts of the American Southwest. Tourists can go on jeep safaris that include picnic in a “bizarre landscape.” An F60, a giant crane of steel used to move the earth, has been turned into an exhibit and event center with annual fireworks, Already today, people use some of the lakes for swimming and boating while other lakes are still being filled with water and are not safe to enter.
In 2010 an underground slide in a mining pit that had been filled with sand for decades almost swallowed several truckers and a herd of sheep. The small village of Bergen that was slated to be part of the lakes network now lies next to a muddy slath of land cordoned off for future use with signs stating “Lebensgefahr” — Life Threatening.
This story hopes to examine the change from the perspective of the land. Photos are by myself and Mike Terry. The project was completed with a grant from VG Bild-Kunst.
finalist
i am a finalist for the south tyrol media award, which means i am one of six photographers to team up with a reporter sometime this year to photograph a story in the mountainous region in northern italy. then they select the best out of the six early next year. i am excited to go!
raghad for DER SPIEGEL
when someone threw a molotov cocktail at her, raghad all-shammari went up in flames. she was in the front yard of her family’s baghdad home, her head was unveiled and she thinks she was mistaken for a christian woman. the attack left over 50 percent of her skin burned and raghad was given days to live. but her family and friends raised enough money to fly her to germany to receive surgeries. she survived and doctors from the nonprofit organization placet, which provides reconstructive surgery to terror victims, have been trying to rebuild her facial features, eye sight and body. she is one of many terror victims who survive an attack but have to learn to continue life as a disfigured person.
please click/tap for slideshow.
here is an excerpt from the story. they used two photographers and these are the photos of mine that made it in. top right is a file photo provided by the family.
paradies neukölln for DER SPIEGEL
a story that ran back in spring about a roma village on the move to berlin neukölln. more photos here
rieselfelder for GREENPEACE MAGAZIN
this area outside berlin used to be a dump for city sewage back during gdr times. then the wall fell and the hobrechtsfelde rieselfelder went fallow. now they are being reforested and turned into pastures for wild horses and cattle with hopes of decreasing the contaminants in the ground and luring visitors for recreation.
click/tap photo for slideshow
