Brent Stirton

Water Culture

August 17 - September 21, 2004

The Fundamentals of Water in the Third World.

A photo-essay in progress by Brent Stirton

This essay is an attempt to illustrate some aspects of the current water crisis affecting the third world. In 2003 the U.N declared that 258 million people in Africa alone do not have access to clean water. As a direct result million of lives are lost to a myriad of disease, conflict, drought and famine. In the course of my work I have covered many conflict zones and disasters. I was always struck however by the fact that many more people seemed threatened by a lack of access to the fundamentals of water and food than by the conflict itself. As a result I decided to focus on the issue of water in the developing world.

I went to Sierra Leone and Tanzania to look at Malaria. This preventable disease remains one of the world’s deadliest killers. 500 million people, twice the population of the U.S.A, are affected every year. The World Health Organization estimates that 5 million children are killed annually. I traveled to India and Bangladesh to document Arsenic poisoning through contaminated water sources, the greatest mass poisoning in human history. From there I looked at the flooding in Bangladesh and how millions of the poor have learnt to live in truly horrific conditions for up to 5 months every year in the face of the rising waters.

I went to Africa to look at the connection between HIV and access to clean water; I examined Trachoma blindness and the connection to inadequate sanitation practices. I looked at Cholera in the refugee camps of Liberia as people fled the civil war. After that I went to Ghana to look at Guinea Worm, a parasite which lives in the only available drinking water of rural populations and which gestates in the human body, emerging painfully many months later.

I traveled to Nepal to photograph fog harvesting, a perfectly harmonious alternative to source fresh water. From there I went to Madagascar to document how cultural ideology, in this case exhumation ceremonies, can prevent progress in terms of new sanitation facilities and man-made drainage systems. Wherever I went I found that water is also a gender issue, with the collection thereof almost always the responsibility of women. The time this process consumes excludes millions of women from the possibility of an improved quality of life, education and a role in the political process.

Currently I am hoping to be able to continue working on water issues from the point of future conflicts over shared water resources. I am also working on Global Warming issues and how that relates to water levels on a global scale.

When I decided to do this piece I knew that it would remove me from the mainstream publication market and that it was an essay that would not be considered topical or sexy in the face of media events like Iraq etc. I did it anyway and the more I have worked on it the more important I believe it to be. As members of the media we spend a great deal of time chasing news, often behind the curve rather than in front. As a result we often cover events which are in fact less important than issues which have been around us forever. We live on a planet where the primary concern of the vast majority of people is still ensuring that they have enough to eat and drink. Doing this project has caused me to question the value systems of our media, and what we consider to be our news priorities. It is my hope that in seeing these images the viewer might also start to question them.

UK based photographer, Brent Stirton, has been working with Getty Images Photo Assignments for over 4 years. Specializing in documentary work, Brent also works in the fields of advertising, fashion, portraiture and sport. He uses all camera formats and can handle digital medium format as well as conventional film work. He is adept in most lighting techniques and is known for lighting his documentary work.

Brent holds a Journalism degree from his native South Africa and is thus qualified to visually interpret a story, often working in tandem with journalists from the world’s leading publications. On a regular basis, he works for the United Nations where he volunteers his time for the Office of Humanitarian Affairs.

Brent is a multiple award-winning photographer, receiving awards from the World Press Foundation, The Society of American Publication designers, The London Photographic Awards, Mondi Magazine Awards South Africa as well as a range of other organizations. Most recently, Brent was awarded 1st and 2nd place in the 2003 World Press Awards for his outstanding portraiture. In addition, his work has been shown in over 10 Gallery shows and he continues to work on personal projects in his spare time.

His clients include: Adidas, Camel, Orange Telecommunications, The United Nations, Shell and the Discovery Channel. His work has been published by Newsweek, Stern, Time, The NY Times, The Washington Post, Le Monde 2, Elle, GQ, Marie-Claire, Geo, Geographical, CNN Traveller, Conde’ Nast Traveler and many other respected international titles.

The photography series is curated by James Price and Anna Van Lenten

Previous exhibitions at The Half King