Photographer Page

Andrea Bruce

In the Syrian province of Latakia, a regime stronghold, a small village mourns the loss of a son. Killed in an ambush at the other end of the country, the lieutenant was the first soldier to fall from this village of 125 people. During the funeral, Bassel Barhoum (center) hugs his mother Jamila Marshid during his brother's funeral in the village of Daqaqa in Latakia Province, Syria. Abu Layth died while fighting for the Syrian Army.

I took this photograph during the 2012 election at the Police Training Academy in Richmond, Virginia, where people were standing in line to vote. I think about this photograph often. It seems to embody much of the surfaced turmoil of the past decade and the reason why many are voting this year. It also reminds me of the many ways one can read a photo, and what people can get from it depending on their history and their experiences—like politics itself.

The magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck Haiti on August 14 caused widespread devastation and killed more than 2,200 people. This child was airlifted from the Haitian city of Jeremie by the U.S. Coast Guard and taken to a hospital in Port-au-Prince, the capital.

The Joseph family starts their walk from the village of Duquillon to Beaumont, which will take them a day. They packed up their two children and remaining belongings to move from their home, destroyed by the earthquake.

Desperation for clean water is increasing daily. Though water trucks have visited the rural villages, it is not enough to sustain the residents who once depended on an entire river for their water needs.

A woman wrestles jugs of water away from neighbors also desperate for their share. After the earthquake the Lacombe River, like many on the western peninsula, became brown and, locals, who have lived through cholera issues, believe it is polluted.

A water truck stops on the main road between Jeremie and Corail to bring water to villagers desperate for a drink. The nearby Lacombe River is normally the main source of water for the region.

Small boats carrying the injured begin to arrive in calm weather for the first time since Tropical Storm Grace passed.

Most of the homes in Corail, Haiti, are uninhabitable. If they didn’t fall completely, they are broken, cracked and unsafe, leaving an entire town to sleep on the streets.

In Corail, families huddle together on mattresses and sheets wrestled from the wreckage of their homes.