August 29: Documenting Haiti Through Multiple Crises
Documenting Haiti Through Multiple Crises
Your lens to the internet's most powerful photographs.
 📸For Your 👀 Only:  Reginald Louissaint Jr. For Haitians, this last year has been frustrating, devastating, and overwhelming. Haiti has seen unprecedented trauma in the last couple of months — a president assassinated, an earthquake, and a massive hurricane, all during a global pandemic. After the last major earthquake decades ago and the difficulties with the UN and aid distribution, Haitians are still working to get on their feet. "Haiti has always had a problem of infrastructure," Jean Eddy Saint Paul, the former director of the Haitian Studies Institute at Brooklyn College, recently told Brooklyn Magazine. "The international community under the umbrella of the United States of America has a huge moral responsibility in what's happening in Haiti." For those on the ground, being both a participant in the coverage of the destruction and a victim of it is a daily reality. Reginald Louissaint Jr. is a photographer and videographer from Haiti. Loussaint Jr. has photographed protests, the aftermath of an assassination, an earthquake, and a hurricane.
We spoke with him over email to ask about using your photographic voice in times of crisis.  Reginald Louissaint Jr. What has it been like documenting Haiti through multiple crises?
Very hard. Especially when you are close and sensitive to what is going on. I am both a photojournalist and a victim of the situation. I'm not just documenting, I'm in it. Photojournalism gives me this opportunity to witness what is going on.
What is something you want Haitians to take away from your work?
That I'm just a loudspeaker. My work is to reflect what we live, what we feel and what we undergo. My work just wants to be this megaphone to push their voice as far as I can.
What is something you want non-Haitians to take away from your work?
It is bursts of voice, frustrations and even calls for help that pass into it. My work is part of the agenda of this struggle for collective well-being. My position and that of many others flow through my work.  Reginald Louissaint Jr. What's something you would like to see change about international media's coverage of Haiti?
Their look. When I started in photojournalism, I and a few other colleagues wanted to see a different look at subjects treated in Haiti, we wanted to see a treatment that came out of the occidental look often fast and not deep enough. This is one of the reasons that gave birth to the Kolektif 2 Dimansyon, a collective of Haitian Storytellers, filmmakers, and artists based in Haiti. We wanted this look with all the social and cultural codes, and also sensitivity. We wanted a Haitian look. But I must say that it has evolved a bit since then.
How did you get into photography?
I used to do videography before. I started by taking an interest in photography because I understood that videography is only a succession of still images and that this effect of movement is governed by the basics of photography. I have never left him since.
What are some photography goals for your career?
Continue to be this megaphone, to use photography as a trigger for interactions, for denunciation through my projects.  Reginald Louissaint Jr.  📸MORE FROM OUR DESK 📸 As always, here are some of the best photo stories from around the internet, and what we loved from our desk. LONDON'T FAMOUS NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL IS CANCELED THIS YEAR, BUT HERE'S A LOOK BACK AT THE PARTY  Sherion Mullings THESE PHOTOS MAKE THE CASE FOR BRINGING BACK FUNNEL CAKES (AND OTHER FAIR FOODS) IN 2021  Mark Wilson / Getty Images FORMERLY INCARCERATED PEOPLE SHARED WHAT IT'S LIKE TO READJUST TO SOCIETY AFTER PRISON  Annie Grossinger
SOME HOPE  Mohammed Huwais / AFP, via Getty Images Women take part in a local Chess championship in Yemen's capital Sanaa on August 25, 2021. "We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us." — Ralph Hattersley That's it for this week! Kate, Kirsten + Pia
📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by the News Photo team. Kate Bubacz is the photo director based in New York and loves dogs. Pia Peterson is a photo editor based in Brooklyn. You can always reach us here.
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