Thursday, May 14, 2009

Chaldeans

Bare with me all, this is my first slide show on the blog and need to figure out how to get my verticals sized right and at full frame. I shoot way too tight for these template type things.
Anyhoo, I shot this story on San Diego's Chaldean community the other day for the LA Weekly. Actually, it's more of a collection of images since I just spent a few hours on it.
Chaldeans are Christian Iraqi's and have faced immense persecution since Saddam Hussein was ousted. The guy in most of these shots is named Kamil and he has lost many family members from car bombs and assassinations. He had to flee Iraq without his wife and kids due to threats and has gone through a harrowing journey to get to the U.S. Before the war he had a successful career in the oil industry, a college education, and a wife and kids, and now it has all been taken away from him. He told me things were pretty good under Saddam and hates that he was ousted. "It allowed the extremists to take control of the streets". So he's here now trying to get his life together with help from his fellow Chaldeans and soon hopes to get his wife and kids over. I wish him luck.

2 comments:

Daniel said...

I can't actually find where to press the play option. I'm on safari.

Daniel said...

Nevermind, I found it! haha