Okay, here’s the assignment — myself and a stylist drove around western Ukraine in an Opel, purposely avoiding the big cities, sticking to the back roads, looking for “real” people to be our models. In the trunk of the car, thousands of dollars worth of high fashion from Europe and New York. Change in the car, you look great!

Ada Aden Hussein lives in the Mental Health Ward of Hargeisa Hospital, where she has worked for five years as an attendant. Ada took the job so she could take care of her daughter, who suffers from bipolar disorder, and her granddaughter. Hargeisa, Somalia. 2007.

Akaiyu, twenty-one, on a visit to a health clinic. Her infant [...]

While in Ghana researching my article on African Pentecostalism now in The Walrus, I also spent time observing and interviewing people involved in African traditional spirit worship. In particular, I visited the Black and White Powers Shrine in Kumasi several times, and spoke with its founder and fetish priest, Nana Abas.

A miscellany of portraits taken during recent travels.

Images from my assignment (Feb/Mar 07) to the Québec’s Basse-Côte-Nord, or Lower North Shore. See the feature in the Jan/Feb 08 issue of Canadian Geographic, or the online journal.