Contact Sheet 158 - Pa Bouje Anko: Don't Move Again

Laura Heyman's intriguing photographs, which were featured at Light Work in the exhibition "Pa Bouje Ankò: Don't Move Again," capture life in Haiti both before and after the 2010 earthquake. She began the photographic project in Port-Au-Prince with a question: Can someone from the first world see and photograph within the third world without voyeurism or objectification? Heyman works with an 8x10 camera to create black-and-white portraits that recall the work of earlier studio photographers like Mike Disfarmer and James VanderZee. According to the artist, while making these photographs, she was aware of the many cultural complexities of this type of representation, stating, "I was highly conscious of everything that stood in the way of a real exchange between myself and each person who sat for a portrait race, class, opportunity and lack of opportunity, agency, the ability to move freely through the world. These things can make communication difficult, as they are always present, but rarely discussed." Heyman's first visit to Haiti was in November 2009. On subsequent trips and in the aftermath of the earthquake, her project has evolved to include various rapidly expanding populations in Port-Au-Prince tied to reconstruction. United Nations officials, NGO employees, volunteers, grassroots organizations, business investors, and local politicians are among the subjects she plans to shoot; the first group of non-Haitian subjects photographed for the project was the U.S. Infantry, in May 2010.