Picture Stories by Stephen Alvarez

Stanley Greene's Black Passport

 

Black Passport

Stanley Greene and Teun van der Heijden

Aperture 2010

Let me say two things right of the bat.

1, I’m no war photographer. I’ve worked in war zones and I’m no stranger to the thrill of photographing something that might well kill you. But as for shooting war for war? It is not my particular drug. It is, however, Stanley Greene’s drug of choice. He returns to it over and over, making his pictures but loosing a part of himself each time.

2, I don’t know Stanley Green.

But after spending some time with his new book Stanley Greene: Black Passport I feel like I do know Stanley. More than that, I feel like we’ve been out all night drinking and carousing and he has laid his soul bare in some late night/early morning booze and dope fueled intimacy.

That is what Greene and Tuen van der Heijden have done in this book, laid Stanley’s soul bare.

Meteor Crater, AZ a world away from here

I'm in the Harrisburg, PA airport right now headed to even more snow and cold, so I wanted to post a photo that is a world away from my current reality.

Meteor Crater Arizona, I was there on a story about astroid impact a couple years ago. My assistant John Burcham and I spent 3 consecutive nights at the bottom of the crater trying to photograph the Perseids meteor shower.

Waiting for a visa interview, Kampala

Duku John waiting for his US visa interview in Kampala. No matter how good his grades, how strong his ties to his community in Uganda and Sudan, it is nearly impossible for a young, unmarried African man to get a temporary visa to the US. His visa application was denied...

-Stephen Alvarez

Lewisburg, PA

 

West Virginia

I'm on assignment in West Virginia this weekend driving through the cold and snow... Here's a quick frame from the window of our rental car as we passed Strasburg last night. It is shot with my iphone, but like I always say, the camera in your hand beats the one packed in pelican boxes in the trunk...

-Stephen Alvarez

Seneca Rocks, WV

On assignment, Myo Lake, New Britian

Thanks to Robbie Shone for sending this photo of me along. I suspect that most other photographer are like me. I have few photographs of myself, and virtually none of me working. The reason is obvious, the photographer is always behind the camera. In the case of my cave work, photos are even rarer because almost everything underground must be lit and after making the real pictures, I don't really have the energy to set up an 'on assignment' picture.

Rob got this image by using the exposure from the picture I was shooting and a flash attached to his camera.