ANTERO DE ALDA Photography Recent Works
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American Full Moon
Adema Balde Eyes, Dembel Jumpora, Guinea-Bissau s/d. photo AMI VITALE
Today, by seeing the images of happiness of the children of Haiti with a few packets of biscuits in their hands, collected from the humanitarian trucks after the earthquake of January 12th, I reminded myself of Ami Vitale and her stories with children from Guinea-Bissau.
«I don’t know if it’s possible to get to a truth, but I’m searching for that.» AMI VITALE, The Digital Journalist, 2003.
When young Ami began working on image editing for Associated Press, shortly after graduating in International Studies in the University of North Carolina, she still looked like a teenager in her closed little interior universe, but began to realize what the photographic markets of New York and Paris were demanding to the great photojournalists, worldwide. Perhaps more importantly, she discovered that she wanted to quickly abandon that “introverted shell”: In her gut, she always felt that photographers are introverted people looking for a way to relate to the world. Relating to the world was, ever since, what Ami Vitale did, and already in 1999 – as Matt Brandon said in The Digital Trakker of December that year – perhaps it was not possible to find someone who had received that many awards and decorations.
With the money made from editing the images of others, alone and without compromise, Ami Vitale decided to travel to Europe and made her first major stop in the Czech Republic, in 1997, because she was impressed with the news and pictures that she had received from the Balkans. Since then, she never stopped again and according to her account, she has known over 70 countries in the five continents.
In some places where she has been, she felt fear: Afghanistan, Kosovo and India (Kashmir from New Delhi — where she lived), were the places that impressed her. However, in an interview given in January of 2003 to journalist Susan B. Markisz, at the time working for The Digital Journalist, the already renowned Ami Vitale confessed her passion for Africa (where she has also lived). To explain that her presence as a person was equally or more important than her presence as a photojournalist, she said that in many places where she has been, she collected her food, prepared her own meals, washed her clothes, played with children on the street and attended the religious ceremonies: masses, funerals, weddings, male and female circumcisions...
In Guinea, the children of Fama Jamanka, the woman that took her in her mud hut, were astonished at her lack of expertise to collect water from the well (Ami Vitale is flimsy like all the great women). With some difficulty, she explained to them that to get water in America she only had to press a button. Once, on a full moon night, after gazing at the surprised expression of the photographer after a magnificent sunset, a group of children asked her if there was no moon in America. Ami lived like one of them, one day at a time like there was no future, and still, she couldn’t quite figure what to answer them...
Still to this day, at her home in Miami, Florida, where she works for National Geographic and many other international organizations, when the full moon arises, she remembers Guinea and lets a tear drop from her eyes. And now she realizes, better than ever, why is it that those children could cope so well with their tragedy.
Living with the poor made Ami Vitale a much richer person. According to her own words, she still doesn’t know if there is a truth out there, but she still continues to pursuit it.
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