This cycle of violence happens many places in the world but no more so than along the border of Uganda and Sudan. Soldiers kill parents, orphans join armies, become soldiers who kill parents. The wheel constantly turns...
What choice does this kid in the picture have but to become the soldier that he is staring at? That is why I shot the picture as part of a long series I've been working on about the border. It is really about that cycle, people caught in it, perpetuating it, trying to break it.
This image is on my mind today. It is one of two wall sized banner prints hanging in the chapel at my old high school SAS. They were made for a gallery show about the project and then hung in the church afterward by the school's chaplain Buddy Van Dyke. I've been asked to come back to the school tomorrow morning and talk to the students about the pictures during morning chapel. I've done this once before and I have to say that speaking to 200 high school students at 8am is one of the more intimidating experiences of my life. 400 bored eyeballs who's bullshit sensors are highly tuned. Don't yet know what I am going to say but I do know it better be true.
-Stephen Alvarez
Sewanee, TN
Keep up the excellent photography. This area of the world, and the stories that are there, have been ignored for too long. If you run into Winne Lawoko or Betty Udongo from the Northern Ugandan Girls Education Network, tell them Jeremy from Knoxville says HI!
Posted by: jspiers | November 20, 2008 at 01:02 AM