In this time when video is ubiquitous from sources like TV news and YouTube, there are still types of information that are most effectively delivered by the traditional means of the still image – in this case, the news photo.
Every year a Pulitzer Prize is awarded for Breaking News Photography. This year the prize goes the photography staff of Reuters for a vivid and startling visual narrative of the urgency, desperation, and sadness of migrants as they journeyed to the U.S. from Central and South America.
We live in a time of very divisive politics, in which there are very different opinions regarding immigration in general and migration to the US from countries to the south in particular. A series of photos will not tip the discussion in one direction or another. But they can help us to realize that, whenever we hear news about “migrants,” “Syrians,” or any other group, what is really being talked about is PEOPLE – with the same desires, fears, emotions, family ties, ability to experience joy and pain as any of the rest of us.
Anita Areli Ramirez Mejia, an asylum seeker from Honduras separated from her six-year-old son Jenri near the Mexico-U.S. border, is reunited with him in Harlingen, Texas on July 13, 2018. (Loren Elliott)A rooster walks past the dead body of a Barrio-18 gang member in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. (September 28, 2018/Goran Tomasevic)A migrant girl traveling with a caravan of thousands from Central America en route to the U.S. holds her belongings while making her way to Mapastepec from Huixtla, Mexico at sunrise on October 24, 2018. (Adrees Latif)A migrant caravan from Central America proceeds towards Tapachula from Ciudad Hidalgo, after crossing the Guatemala border into Mexico, while en route to the United States on October 21, 2018. (Adrees Latif)A Honduran migrant protects his child after fellow migrants, part of a caravan trying to reach the U.S., stormed a border checkpoint at the Guatemala – Mexico border, in Ciudad Hidalgo on October 19, 2018. (Ueslei Marcelino)A migrant boy, part of a caravan from Central America trying to reach the U.S., cries due to excess heat and humidity as migrants seek asylum at the Guatemala Mexico border checkpoint in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, on October 20, 2018. (Edgard Garrido)Luis Acosta, helps carry 5-year-old Angel Jesus, both from Honduras, as a caravan of migrants from Central America en route to the United States crossed through the Suchiate River into Mexico from Guatemala in the outskirts of Tapachula, Mexico, October 29, 2018. A second caravan of migrants bound for the U.S. border waded through the Suchiate River into Mexico after they clashes with Mexican police at the border bridge. Dozens were injured and one was killed by a rubber bullet. (Adrees Latif)A United States Marine fortifies concertina wire along the San Ysidro Port of Entry border crossing as seen from Tijuana, Mexico on November 20, 2018. (Adrees Latif)Migrants, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America trying to reach the United States, return to Mexico after being hit by tear gas by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials after attempting to illegally cross the border wall into the United States in Tijuana, Mexico on November 25, 2018. (Adrees Latif)Maria Meza, a 40-year-old migrant woman from Honduras, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America trying to reach the United States, runs away from tear gas with her five-year-old twin daughters Saira Mejia Meza (L) and Cheili Mejia Meza (R) in front of the border wall between the U.S and Mexico, in Tijuana, Mexico on November 25, 2018. (Kim Kyung Hoon)A migrant from Honduras, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America trying to reach the United States, holds a young girl as others jump over the border wall to enter the United States illegally from Tijuana, Mexico on December 2, 2018. (Alkis Konstantinidis)Andrea Nicole Arita, 10, from Honduras, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America trying to reach the United States, crawls through a hole under a border wall to illegally cross into the United States from Tijuana, Mexico on December 4, 2018. (Alkis Konstantinidis)A man proceeds with caution as he pulls a raft with families seeking asylum from Central America as they illegally cross the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico as seen from Granjeno, Texas October 5, 2018. (Adrees Latif)Mateo, a two-year-old migrant boy from Honduras, is led through dense brush by his mother Juana Maria after a group of two dozen families members illegally crossed the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico, in Fronton, Texas on October 18, 2018. (Adrees Latif)U.S. Border Patrol agent Marcelino Medina looks for others as he apprehends a migrant woman and man for illegally crossing into the U.S. border from Mexico near McAllen, Texas on May 2, 2018. (Adrees Latif)A nine year old migrant girl from Guatemala sits in the back of a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle after she was apprehended for illegally crossing into the U.S. from Mexico in Sunland Park, New Mexico on June 14, 2018. (Adrees Latif)nine year old migrant girl from Guatemala sits in the back of a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle after she was apprehended for illegally crossing into the U.S. from Mexico in Sunland Park, New Mexico on June 14, 2018. (AdreesMigrant children are led by staff in single file between tents at a detention facility next to the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas on June 18, 2018. (Mike Blake)The body of Misael Paiz, 25, a migrant from Guatemala, lies covered in a white cloth after it was located by U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Sonoran Desert in Pima County, Arizona on September 10, 2018. (Lucy Nicholson)Friends and family carry a coffin with the remains of Jakelin Caal, a 7-year-old girl Guatemalan girl who died after she and her father were detained by U.S. border agents, during her funeral in her home village of San Antonio Secortez, Guatemala on December 25, 2018. (Carlos Barria)A child from Honduras, draped in a covering with an image of the American flag, walks ahead of his mother towards a plane deporting migrants back to Honduras from Mexico, at the Tapachula International Airport in Tapachula, Mexico on October 31, 2018. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins)
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Bill Dobbins is a professional photographer, videographer and writer based in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited as fine art in two museums, a number of galleries, and he has published eight books, including two fine art photo books:The Women: Photographs of The Top Female Bodybuilders (Artisan)
Modern Amazons (Taschen)
WEBSITES
BILL DOBBINS PHOTOGRAPHY
www.billdobbinsphotography.com
BILL DOBBINS ART
www.billdobbinsart.com
FEMALE PHYSIQUE SITES
www.billdobbins.com
EMAIL: billdobbinsphoto@gmail.com
April 21, 2019
About the Author
Bill Dobbins
Bill Dobbins THE BODY PHOTOGAPHER became well known for his male and female physique photos - images of the aesthetic, athletic body.
Using the same distinctive personal style, characterized by strong graphics and a classic look in both color and BW, Bill Dobbins has also developed a body of work featuring fashion, beauty and glamor photos In a world in which so many images create a level of "noise" that makes it hard for advertisers to be noticed, Bill's work cuts right through the confusion and grabs the eye.
Bill has created two art photos books: The Women: Photographs of the Top Female Bodybuilders (Artisan) and Modern Amazons (Taschen) and his fine art work has appeared in two museums and several galleries.
WEBSITES
BILL DOBBINS PHOTOGRAPHY
www.billdobbinsphotography.com
BILL DOBBINS ART
www.billdobbinsart.com
THE FEMALE PHYSIQUE WEBZINE/GALLERY
www.billdobbins.com
EMAIL: billdobbinsphoto@gmail.com
Bill Dobbins is a professional photographer, videographer and writer based in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited as fine art in two museums, a number of galleries, and he has published eight books, including two fine art photo books:
The Women: Photographs of The Top Female Bodybuilders (Artisan)
Modern Amazons (Taschen)
WEBSITES
BILL DOBBINS PHOTOGRAPHY
www.billdobbinsphotography.com
BILL DOBBINS ART
www.billdobbinsart.com
FEMALE PHYSIQUE SITES
www.billdobbins.com
EMAIL: billdobbinsphoto@gmail.com
