Leila Chirayath Janath believes that "work is the core of human dignity." So she started Samasource to connect people in developing nations with work via Web. But doing involves actual groundwork. Here are pictures she took during some of that groundwork and her own words about the shots.
Salon Volcano, Goma, DR Congo (2002)--I snapped this picture in Goma, a war-ravaged city on the Rwandan border, in 2002. Five months earlier, Goma had experienced a massive volcanic eruption that blanketed the city in volcanic rock and ash. And in the middle of the chaos, I found an entrepreneur attempting to make lemonade out of lemons. Is this not inspiring?
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Queen Idia, the British Museum, London (2002) - My college thesis
analyzed Nigeria's attempt to win back this ivory mask, one of many
African spoils of empire to remain on British soil. Idia was the queen
mother of Benin City, an empire in West Africa, and famously rallied
an army to save her son in the 16th century. Her image is haunting.
Read more about Leila Chirayath Janah of SamasourceThe Titanic, Inhambane, Mozambique (2002)--In a former life as a
travel writer for
Let's Go, I camped along the beaches of Mozambique,
a wild and pristine former Portuguese colony in Africa. One morning I
woke up and saw these kids next to their father's boat. It's a tribute
to African optimism.
Read more about Leila Chirayath Janah of SamasourceRaffa, The Pueblo Boxing Team, Houston, TX (2006)--I started a
side project called Boxing Without Borders after photographing some
boxers in Brazil during my senior year of college. Years later, as a
management consultant, I started working out at local gyms while on
assignment. I found the Pueblo Boxing Team in an old warehouse in the
Third Ward in Houston. It looked like it was out of a movie. Raffa was
training for the Golden Gloves when I photographed him after our
workout. He trained every day for hours.
Read more about Leila Chirayath Janah of SamasourceMy grandmother, Christiane Zeebroek Janah, in India in the 1950s.
After her family fled their Brussels home in 1948, Christiane
hitch-hiked around the world with her four friends, starting in Paris
with $5. She met my grandfather after giving a lecture at Calcutta
University about her travels. He followed her to Paris, where they
studied ceramics at the Sorbonne and had my mother. Last year, I
bought her memoir, Le Tour du Monde Avec Cinq Dollars (Around the
World on Five Dollars), on French eBay. Christiane was a voracious
traveler and adventurer. She had a remarkably open mind and fecund
imagination. She passed away in 2002.
Read more about Leila Chirayath Janah of Samasource
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