From Friday I will be heading to the disaster zone in northern Japan.
I will be traveling up with a group of independent photographers to document relief efforts and try to report on angles that might not be getting enough coverage. I will excerpt what I wrote on my photography website here so that you don't have to click through:
Hello everyone. Beginning late this Friday the 25th I will be traveling to the Tohoku region to cover the ongoing aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. I am quite worried that the attention of the world is going to turn away just as the true weight of the refugee crisis begins to be realized. I am also a bit dismayed at some of the foreign coverage of the disaster and the fact that some large networks have pulled back to Kansai, reporting details such as "It's raining in Kyoto."
In addition to doing photography for various outlets, I will be calling in to The Majority Report to give updates. If there is anything that you think needs more coverage or something that is being missed entirely, please let me know. I plan to be on the ground for at least a week.
I have given a lot of thought to whether I would be more useful not going and doing what I can from Kansai. I have spent a good deal of time pondering whether heading there is a morbid kind of adventure tourism, or a ghoulish way of feeding one's ego. In the end I have decided that what I can do to help is to tell the story of what is going on in Tohoku and I can't do that from my apartment.
I very much believe that independent media and citizen journalism, while not always sterling, is becoming a real and powerful force. If I can help that movement in any way, then I can be somewhat satisfied.
If you want to keep up with our progress you can check my website or listen to the Majority Report I will try to post back here if I have the time and the internet access.