Inspiring Women FALL 2020
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1<br />
September <strong>2020</strong>, Volume 4, Issue 3
2<br />
<strong>2020</strong>
Inspiration in This Issue<br />
The Profiles<br />
Our Features<br />
Visualizing a Point of View 5 Nature Photography & Wild Landscapes 20<br />
Kenya Culminates a Photo Journey 6<br />
My Photos Lead Me Back to Italy 14<br />
Finding Myself in London Through a Lens 28<br />
Connecting Through the Camera in<br />
Munich<br />
In Every Issue<br />
Inspiration From the Editor 3<br />
40<br />
A Love Story with Sorrento, Italy 63<br />
Candidly Documenting Life in Moscow 73<br />
Always Thinking Big Picture in Germany 86<br />
Photographing the Dream from Paris 94<br />
<strong>Inspiring</strong> You 104<br />
Seaweed 24<br />
Happiness is… 35<br />
The World Through Their Lens 46<br />
Souvenirs From Across the FAWCO World 50<br />
A Club Inspires: AWC The Hague 56<br />
Black Lives Matter 59<br />
I Am a Phoneographer 69<br />
Two Natural Worlds 80<br />
How to Take Better Photos of People 83<br />
Cross-Cultural Life in the COVID-19 Era 92<br />
Between 101<br />
The Cover & Back Page Photos 106<br />
Magazine Survey 104<br />
More About This Issue 105<br />
Advertisers Index<br />
FAWCO is pleased to announce three new advertisers!<br />
The Short List p.2 The Short List has helped students with the college admissions and<br />
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Lauren Mescon, Rodan + Fields p.13 Lauren, member of AWC Amsterdam, has been an<br />
independent skincare consultant for the past decade. Rodan+ Fields are world-renowned<br />
for their products. Please take the quiz, a simple way to support The FAWCO Foundation!<br />
London Realty Intl. p.13 London Realty Intl. is owned by AWC London member Lonnée<br />
Hamilton, a worldwide property consultant. Her firm works with the best agents across the<br />
globe to fulfil your property needs.<br />
We also appreciate the returning support of our returning advertisers!<br />
Reilly Financial Advisors p.62 RFA provides clients with the highest level of services and<br />
specializes in the unique circumstances that Americans face as they reside overseas.<br />
Janet Darrow p.79Janet Darrow Real Estate (FAUSA member). Around the corner or a world<br />
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La Grenadine p.45 La Grenadine owned by Jamila Bouzidi of AIWC Casablanca. A haven<br />
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The Pajama Company p.19 The Pajama Company founded by Ellie Badanes, member of<br />
FAUSA and AW Surrey. Our pajamas are cozy, cheerful and online!<br />
3
Inspiration From the Editor<br />
When the photos<br />
for this issue<br />
started to arrive<br />
from all over the<br />
world, I felt two<br />
c o n t r a s t i n g<br />
emotions: joy and<br />
trepidation!<br />
Joy as the photos were so beautiful. We really<br />
do have some extremely talented women<br />
who make up the FAWCO world and our<br />
photographers are no exception. We are<br />
thrilled and honoured to be able to feature<br />
their work.<br />
Trepidation as I wasn’t sure how on earth I<br />
could possibly fit all these beautiful images into<br />
our usual number of pages while giving them<br />
the space they deserve!<br />
So I have made a choice. I decided that the<br />
images should be large, even if that means<br />
there are a scary number of pages! Please do<br />
remember, though, you are seeing the images<br />
rather than reading them, so actually if you<br />
ignore the page numbers it’s business as usual.<br />
I am sure you will agree the photos needed to<br />
be seen in all their glory as they are beautiful. I<br />
wonder which is your favourite?<br />
The other thing I wanted to tell you about in<br />
this issue is we have a new member of the<br />
<strong>Inspiring</strong> <strong>Women</strong> team: Michele Hendrikse Du<br />
Bois, whom many of you will know from the<br />
FAWCO Virtual Tour that has been going on for<br />
the last few months. Michele will be<br />
coordinating club features like “A Club<br />
Inspires” and, in this issue, “Souvenirs From<br />
Across the FAWCO World.” Welcome to the<br />
team Michele!<br />
In the meantime, I hope you had a good<br />
summer and that you are reinvigorated for the<br />
months ahead. In the year of a global<br />
pandemic who knows what will happen next.<br />
Certainly none of us would have predicted<br />
much of what <strong>2020</strong> has brought us so far.<br />
Stay safe and healthy<br />
Liz x<br />
Liz MacNiven,<br />
inspiringwomen.editor@fawco.org<br />
Want to be sure you see the next issue of <strong>Inspiring</strong><br />
<strong>Women</strong> as soon as it comes out? Click here to<br />
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4
Photography as art is a luxury<br />
and a privilege for the viewer.<br />
Those who choose photography as the<br />
medium to artistically express themselves<br />
do not have a blank canvas; there are<br />
pictures all around them. Their art starts<br />
with reality. The creation of their art is in<br />
how they shape the existing scene<br />
through the use of light, color and<br />
perspective. Their artist’s palette also<br />
includes a unique item, serendipity: to be<br />
at a place at the exact time when<br />
everything or nothing is perfect. Those<br />
moments are transformed into artwork<br />
that provokes the spectator to reflect on<br />
how that image makes them think or feel.<br />
Photographer Ania Audi on location (go to p. 25 to see more)<br />
Photography as a window on the times is essential. Whether it is the horrific video of the<br />
senseless death of George Floyd or the gruesome photos of COVID-19 patients on<br />
ventilators, these pictures can, even without the benefit of words, report truth. The<br />
pictures reveal the current “state of play”. They help to form and inform our beliefs and<br />
move many people from spectators to participants. The photographers who take these<br />
pictures speak truth to power, no language or voice is required.<br />
The <strong>Inspiring</strong> <strong>Women</strong> team is incredibly grateful to the FAWCO women who are profiled<br />
and have written features for this issue. Their photos are beautiful, exquisite and<br />
hopeful. They are strong, confident images but not lacking in grace, a reflection of the<br />
character of our members. Consider it our special treat to you as you take a “virtualvisual”<br />
journey during a time that finds us staying especially close to home.<br />
Elsie Bose<br />
5
Kenya Culminates a<br />
Photo Journey<br />
TAMARA KRAUTKRAMER<br />
Member: American <strong>Women</strong>’s Association, Kenya<br />
From: Too many places... Spain, California,<br />
Washington!<br />
Lives: Seattle, Washington and Nairobi, Kenya<br />
Tamara’s Story in Images<br />
A favorite photo of me:<br />
Every time we drove by an equator sign my husband and I pondered how to do this type of<br />
picture, and on our last trip before leaving Kenya due to COVID-19, we did it. No post<br />
processing, just a phone camera and a little ingenuity. Can you figure it out? It took us a number<br />
of tries and five people thinking about it to get it to work, but with a Kenyan, two Americans, a<br />
Spanish and a Colombian brain, we sorted it out. Try it!<br />
6
One of my early photos:<br />
I had only a small point and shoot camera with<br />
me while touring the Chihuly Garden and<br />
Glass Museum in Seattle about ten years ago.<br />
The iconic Space Needle and the vivid glass of<br />
one of the world's most famous artists are both<br />
quintessentially Seattle and yet not the normal<br />
postcard view of the building. Not a great<br />
image but it reminds me that I don't need a<br />
big, expensive camera to take a decent shot.<br />
An image that inspires me:<br />
Residents of Santa Rosa, California, decorated the burned-out remnants of their homes and<br />
vehicles after the horrific and deadly Wine Country fires in 2017. Months later at Christmas, fire<br />
victims came together from wherever they were housed to see their former neighbors, decorate<br />
donated trees lit with generators and sing carols. We went to this devastated subdivision with<br />
donations after hearing someone had set up a toy drive for displaced children, but<br />
unexpectedly found<br />
the scene to be<br />
incredibly uplifting …<br />
s u c h a m a z i n g<br />
g r a t i t u d e ,<br />
perseverance and<br />
community in the<br />
a f t e r m a t h o f<br />
tragedy. Memories<br />
of the fires and the<br />
o u t p o u r i n g o f<br />
support by the<br />
community in the<br />
aftermath still make<br />
me cry.<br />
7
A photo my family would know was mine:<br />
This image is from my series on the annual Christmas pilgrimage to Lalibela, Ethiopia, when more<br />
than 100,000 people arrive from all over the country for the event, many walking for days. The<br />
eleven monolithic churches were cut out of the rock around 1200 AD. Most of my best work is in<br />
black and white, which is a bit unusual for "travel photography” ... whatever that is! Since going<br />
to Kenya, more of my images have been of wildlife and in color, atypical for me, but it has been<br />
a rewarding learning experience.<br />
My last image before COVID-19:<br />
Samburu girls’ feet! We stumbled upon a group of teens socializing. The Samburu wear<br />
elaborate beading, frequently signifying different stages of life. These young girls were waiting<br />
anxiously to be asked to dance by the warriors. (Kenya)<br />
8
An image that evokes ...<br />
An image where<br />
circumstances<br />
were not as they<br />
first seemed:<br />
W a n d e r i n g<br />
around a massive<br />
old fort in India, I<br />
saw a gigantic<br />
cannon covered<br />
in colorful spray<br />
paint. Thinking the<br />
juxtaposition of<br />
t h e m o d e r n<br />
graffiti and the<br />
old fort might<br />
make for an<br />
interesting image,<br />
I walked around it<br />
looking for the<br />
angle. Just when I<br />
focused on the<br />
huge muzzle of<br />
the cannon, out<br />
popped a bird.<br />
… a sense other than sight:<br />
My visiting sister said watching her first leopard enjoy its tasty breakfast of wildebeest was<br />
gory but unforgettable, including the sounds of crunching bones. (Kenya)<br />
9
… sadness:<br />
My first sighting of<br />
a wild lion was<br />
thrilling yet sad,<br />
as she had lost<br />
two of her three<br />
cubs and was<br />
w a n d e r i n g<br />
looking for them.<br />
Our guide later<br />
said they were<br />
never found.<br />
(Kenya)<br />
… nature:<br />
We were advised to avoid sustained eye contact in order to show submission to the gorillas of<br />
the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda, but the gorillas didn't have to follow our rules. We trekked up<br />
to 9000 feet in the misty jungle mud before finding a group calmly munching on vegetation. As<br />
predicted, we<br />
could smell them<br />
before we heard or<br />
s a w t h e m .<br />
Volcanoes National<br />
Park is home to<br />
about half of the<br />
world's population<br />
of 900 critically<br />
e n d a n g e r e d<br />
mountain gorillas.<br />
Both frightening<br />
and awe-inspiring,<br />
the gorillas share<br />
98% of our DNA<br />
and, sometimes<br />
weighing more<br />
than 450lbs, the<br />
silverbacks are<br />
simply enormous .<br />
10
… a happy day:<br />
Incredible sunset as we sipped cocktails in Myanmar…and<br />
then two monks<br />
walked onto the bridge. Makes a photographer happy when serendipity strikes.<br />
… laughter:<br />
This image is titled “Not All Monks Are Rented” because so many photographers rent monks<br />
that these set-up shots are nicknamed “Rent-a-Monk”. I didn’t (and wouldn’t) rent a monk, I<br />
just got lucky and one walked into my frame. (Myanmar)<br />
11
… anger:<br />
One hundred years ago Africa had an estimated 10 million elephants, but experts fear they<br />
could be extinct in 30 years as tens of thousands are killed yearly by poachers. (Kenya)<br />
“Where are you from?” has always been a<br />
difficult question for me to answer as my father<br />
was an Air Force pilot, so growing up we<br />
moved every couple of years. As the new kid in school, I had to put myself out there to meet<br />
other children or be lonely. I knew the meaning of “loquacious” very early in life.<br />
Tamara’s Story in Words<br />
We spent five years in Madrid during my formative teenage years, so Spain has always felt a bit<br />
like home, but I have also lived all around the US. As an adult I have mostly lived in the Seattle<br />
area and Sonoma, California.<br />
My parents gave me an SLR camera for my 16th birthday while we lived in Madrid. They were<br />
avid travelers and history buffs, so I was fortunate to travel extensively with them and credit<br />
them for my lifelong obsession with exploration, adventure and travel photography. I have<br />
been to more than 50 countries.<br />
At university I studied Economics and Art History, and photography for me has always been a<br />
mix of left and right brain, to use a cliché. Going from film to digital was a reinvigorating<br />
challenge and being able to process images at home rather than in a dark room made<br />
photography a great hobby again. I joined photography organizations to improve my skills,<br />
meet other photographers and participate in competitions and gallery shows. Now my<br />
husband would say I am obsessed.<br />
My husband Harold and I were retired and living in Sonoma, California, but looking for our next<br />
chapter. Luckily we managed to combined our desire to give back with our love of adventure,<br />
as Harold is currently a volunteer Business Coach for the Stanford Institute for Innovation in<br />
Developing Economies. Stanford partners with entrepreneurs in emerging markets to build<br />
thriving enterprises to help end the cycle of global poverty. We had been in Nairobi for less than<br />
two years when COVID-19 arrived, temporarily sending us back to the US while we wait out the<br />
pandemic. We love being home in Seattle but enjoy Kenya and really look forward to returning.<br />
12
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13
My Photos Lead Me<br />
Back to Italy<br />
JUDES ROSELLI-CECCONI<br />
Member: American International League of<br />
Florence, Italy<br />
From: British, born in Kenya<br />
Lives: Italy<br />
Jude’s Story in Images<br />
An image that inspires me:<br />
Black/white photo of my<br />
brother throwing his<br />
daughter up in the air in a<br />
swimming pool. It inspires me<br />
because of the wonderful<br />
father that my brother has<br />
become and the love and<br />
trust his daughter has in him.<br />
14
A favorite photo of me:<br />
Running and jumping on a beach. I<br />
like this photo as it depicts my sense<br />
of freedom and love for the sea.<br />
My last image before COVID-19:<br />
Black/white photo of a Christmas<br />
tree and two seats looking out over<br />
the Tuscan countryside. Just before<br />
Christmas, I was sitting with friends in<br />
Tuscany, quite at peace with the<br />
world. Three weeks later I left for<br />
Kenya. COVID-19 hit our world and<br />
six months later I am still in Kenya,<br />
unable to travel home to Italy.<br />
15
A photo to be my legacy:<br />
Color photo of a man at<br />
an English fairground. It<br />
would be my legacy<br />
because I love the<br />
intrigue of not really<br />
knowing who is behind<br />
the smoke.<br />
An image where circumstances were not as they first seemed:<br />
Underwater photo. My brother swimming in a pool, quite content to be relaxed<br />
underwater, not knowing he would be dead a few months later.<br />
16
An image that evokes ...<br />
… nature:<br />
A photo of my sister<br />
snorkelling in the<br />
Indian Ocean. A<br />
surreal photo taken<br />
from a boat.<br />
… laughter:<br />
A photo of my brother wearing a<br />
joker’s mask. It makes me laugh<br />
as he is always playing tricks on<br />
everyone he knows.<br />
17
… sadness:<br />
Black/white photo of my sister<br />
covering her eyes. A day where she<br />
felt unhappy and unloved, with a<br />
little glimpse of light.<br />
… admiration:<br />
A color photo of my mother. I admire<br />
her beauty, her smile, her courage<br />
and ability to live life to the fullest,<br />
one day at a time.<br />
18
Jude’s Story in Words<br />
I grew up in Kenya, East Africa. My early life<br />
was about going on safari, seeing wild<br />
animals, travelling and living in places like<br />
Kenya, Ethiopia, Lesotho, South Africa,<br />
Washington, DC and Italy.<br />
My mother was a photographic journalist<br />
which I found fascinating. I was intrigued by<br />
photography by the age of 12.<br />
I ended up living in Tuscany, Italy after<br />
marrying my Italian husband. We married in<br />
South Africa and had two sons. After living in<br />
South Africa for 12 years we decided to<br />
move to Italy to an olive and grape farm<br />
which my husband inherited.<br />
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19<br />
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Ania Audi<br />
I was about 12 years old when my dad first lent me his reflex camera. He showed me how to load<br />
in a roll of film and focus by lining up the images in the top and bottom circle through the<br />
viewfinder. Little did I know at the time that this hobby would one day turn into a passion which<br />
would lead me to travel to many corners of the globe and inspire me on a quest to remote<br />
places in search of visions of nature’s beauty.<br />
“One of the most remote and unspoilt places I’ve ever been to: Mongolia. My family and our guide climbed the sand dunes in the Gobi<br />
to watch the sunset and contemplate the vastness of this desert. From a distance, we kept an eye on the approaching thunderstorm.”<br />
20
“Three pink flamingos taking off from a large salt flat in the middle of the Atacama Desert in Chile. The desert is surrounded by<br />
volcanoes, both extinct and active. It is known to be the driest desert in the world and home to the clearest skies thanks to the<br />
high altitude and cool temperatures compared to other deserts.”<br />
The travel bug really hit me during my freshman year at university, I saved up enough to buy a<br />
student fare ticket and a Eurail pass and left on a one month solo trip to Europe with little more<br />
than a suitcase and a point and shoot camera. Youth hostels and overnight trains were home.<br />
“The colors in the Andes are simply breath-taking. This lake near the border of Chile and Bolivia was spectacular in itself, but<br />
finding wildlife here made it even more special. The Vicunas live in mountainous areas at altitudes from 3,200 to 4,800 meters.”<br />
21
Coupled up with meeting other student travellers or<br />
those on a gap year from down under, the<br />
adventures began. The following summer I went<br />
back again, but this time armed with addresses of<br />
new friends to visit. Each European city and town<br />
that I stopped in was explored and photographed,<br />
from Stockholm to Mykonos and Lisbon to Gdansk.<br />
After graduating, I moved to Paris and my travels<br />
expanded to Egypt and southeast Asia.<br />
A couple years later I was fortunate enough to<br />
meet the man of my dreams; very importantly, he<br />
also liked to travel! We’ve been to 34 countries<br />
together, some before and some with our kids.<br />
Although as with most photo enthusiasts, I’m rarely<br />
in our holiday pictures because I‘m the one behind<br />
the camera.<br />
“The sheer size and beauty of glaciers in Iceland is<br />
something to behold. Over the years due to global warming<br />
the glaciers have receded. I took this shot in February just<br />
before the lockdowns due to Covid-19 started.”<br />
Meanwhile, living in Paris I discovered I had talents<br />
as an artist. So when my kids started going to school<br />
all day, I started sculpting. Sculpting, modelage<br />
and stone became my second passion. Over 12<br />
years I worked in four different ateliers in Paris and<br />
its suburbs. With all the possibilities of inspiration and<br />
creativity Paris offers through its exhibitions and its<br />
galleries, I was fully immersed in the art scene. I also<br />
continued exploring photography through<br />
workshops and developing my own photos, but I<br />
found that it was nature and travel photography<br />
was my real passion.<br />
In 2010 my family took a trip to Namibia. Then and<br />
there I had my first taste of wildlife photography…and I was hooked. Africa is now one of my<br />
regular go-to destinations, Paris not being the best place for finding wildlife nor the kind of<br />
scenery I dream of.<br />
Luckily in the past couple<br />
years, now that both my<br />
children are at university,<br />
I’ve made a bucket list of<br />
places I still want to see<br />
and I have found some<br />
good agencies that<br />
organize trips solely for<br />
photography. It is a<br />
different experience from<br />
when you travel alone, in<br />
a group or with family;<br />
everything is organized<br />
for photographers to be<br />
at the right spots in the<br />
best light conditions<br />
possible and to have<br />
enough time to get in<br />
t u n e w i t h t h e i r<br />
surroundings. Without<br />
22<br />
“The purpose of my trip to Chile was not only photographing landscapes during the day, but<br />
at night this is one of the best places in the world for astrophotography. I went with a group<br />
of amateur astronomers to learn as much as I could; the unpolluted skies there were simply<br />
magical to see.”
others getting bored or<br />
impatient, you can be<br />
creative. Photographers<br />
are very willing to spend<br />
hours waiting for that fish<br />
eagle to swoop down<br />
and catch a fish or for<br />
the sun to peak out from<br />
behind a cloud to get<br />
the right light on that<br />
tree in the middle of a<br />
field of wheat.<br />
Being quite reserved and<br />
rather introverted, I’ve<br />
come to realize that<br />
surrounding myself in<br />
nature is a source of<br />
energy for me. It is very<br />
“This is an aerial photo of a hippo family in the Okavango Delta of Botswana taken from a<br />
grounding whenever I<br />
door-less helicopter. Tricky for photography because of the vibrations and the wind but it was<br />
am overwhelmed or not<br />
in sync with things going a very exciting experience and highlight of that trip.”<br />
on around me. It makes<br />
me automatically feel lighter, happier and more creative. And although one can find beauty in<br />
many things and places, nature seems to magnify the beauty and there is a sense of hypera<br />
w a r e n e s s t h a t<br />
comes from being<br />
surrounded and in<br />
tune with it. It always<br />
makes me appreciate<br />
this beautiful planet<br />
on which we live.<br />
T h r o u g h<br />
p h o t o g r a p h i n g<br />
earth’s beauty and<br />
wildlife, I wish to share<br />
what I see and hope<br />
other people will see<br />
t h e v a l u e i n<br />
preserving these gifts.<br />
Ania Audi, member of<br />
AAWE, was born in Poland.<br />
Her parents moved to the US<br />
when she was three. She’s<br />
Fascinating to see these pieces of glacier ice, sculpted by the sea, then washed ashore in contrast<br />
with the black sand beach. The challenge is to do long exposures without getting your feet wet!<br />
lived in Chicago, Phoenix and San Diego. After graduating from UCSD, she decided to take a<br />
year to travel…ending up in Paris where she has now been for over a quarter of a decade. She is<br />
currently a member and the photo editor for the Association of American <strong>Women</strong> in Europe in<br />
Paris and member of ASCPF, a French association of animal and nature photographers. She is<br />
now planning a future exhibition and website while in the meantime sharing some photos on<br />
intragram: aniainparis. Next on her bucket wishlist would be trekking with gorillas and<br />
primates in Rwanda or Uganda, landscapes and wildlife of Antarctica and South Georgia island,<br />
and finally making it down under to New Zealand, Australia, and diving the great barrier reef!<br />
23
Cyndy B. Waters<br />
The Island of Zanzibar sits east of the<br />
African continent where the magical<br />
mix of explosive sunrises are often<br />
enriched with storm clouds and the<br />
Indian Ocean’s emerald sea lying<br />
transparent over beautiful white sand.<br />
Seaweed growing and harvesting is a<br />
major cash crop on the Island and has<br />
rearranged traditional roles of women in<br />
the home and workplace.<br />
Traveling most of the Island with my<br />
daughters, I found several places where seaweed was being farmed and had made a<br />
significant impact on society. However, each location was unique. The depth of water<br />
throughout the day, water temperature, hours of work due to rising tides and the economics of<br />
the region, all affected the style of production.<br />
From my first sighting of beautiful, traditionally dressed African women moving about in the sea, I<br />
was hooked. I took a few photographs from a distance and went to get my daughters to help<br />
me find out what was going on. Having Judy and Nangesian with me was paramount. I quickly<br />
realized the women did not want to be photographed or bothered while they quietly sat<br />
seeming to weave, plant, and clean small bundles of seaweed. As we began to talk to Mwaka,<br />
24<br />
Mgeni Ali: “Tide is getting too high!”
All that glitters in the seaweed<br />
25<br />
Looking for lunch
they explained that I was their<br />
mother and she shook her head,<br />
giving me permission to start<br />
shooting. Being Kenyan by birth,<br />
they are fluent in Swahili and<br />
Mwaka understood we were not<br />
tourists, but that I was a<br />
photographer who also worked in<br />
Kenya as a missionary and project<br />
developer among very needy<br />
populations. We were able to met<br />
several of the women who also<br />
allowed me to photograph them.<br />
With limited time, I was already<br />
planning my next trip back.<br />
Pauline and her grandson<br />
When I returned months later, I<br />
brought a variety of photographs<br />
for every woman who had allowed<br />
me to photograph her. They were<br />
thrilled. It was early in the morning<br />
and Mwaka took me to their<br />
homes to give out the prints. I’ve<br />
returned several times and even<br />
though I’ve visited other seaweed<br />
locations, Mwaka and her friends<br />
have become dear to me.<br />
26<br />
Walking to work
I was welcomed by the small Islamic<br />
community and taught how<br />
seaweed affected their lives and<br />
culture. Fishing was hard in their<br />
location, as the bay is deep and<br />
shallow. The changing of tide gives<br />
them about five hours a day to work<br />
in the sea before it rises too high.<br />
Seaweed “mwain” is everywhere<br />
and it’s a family affair. Older<br />
grandmothers are found sitting on<br />
their porches cleaning mwain. Men<br />
help make the long sticks that<br />
hammer into the sand to run<br />
seaweed lines, while some help with<br />
collections in their small boats. On<br />
weekends, daughters run to the sea<br />
to play and collect delectable<br />
treats for lunch from the ocean floor<br />
while the tide is low. During harvest,<br />
families work together and the Giving out copies of the photos<br />
mood is happy, but the work is hard.<br />
The huge baskets of wet seaweed<br />
are very heavy and the profit is very small. Yet they appreciate the addition to their meager<br />
incomes and the women love the fact that with their profits they can help buy uniforms and pay<br />
school fees for their children.<br />
It is obvious they<br />
love their time in<br />
the sea. The<br />
seaweed has<br />
brought them<br />
out of their<br />
isolated roles in<br />
the home and<br />
invited them into<br />
the beautiful<br />
ocean where as<br />
non-swimmers,<br />
they would never<br />
have journeyed<br />
otherwise. They<br />
have allowed<br />
me in and enjoy<br />
s e e i n g<br />
t h e m s e l v e s<br />
through my eyes<br />
and my lens.<br />
They tell me the<br />
Fatima is 70 and travels to the village to grow her seaweed She has no children so she has to keep p h o t o g r a p h s<br />
working and she works long days and works too hard. This is her only way to survive.<br />
p r o v e h o w<br />
beautiful their<br />
lives are.<br />
Cyndy B. Waters is a member and past Board member of AWA Kenya for many years. She is the Founder<br />
and Director of The Orbit Village Project operating in Nairobi, Kenya. www.Orbitvillage.org,<br />
Insta: Cyndybw cyndybwaters@mac.com<br />
27
Finding Myself in London<br />
Through a Lens<br />
HALEY GREEN<br />
Member: American <strong>Women</strong>’s Club of London,<br />
England<br />
From: Chicago, Ill<br />
Lives: South East London, England<br />
Haley’s Story in Images<br />
An image that inspires me:<br />
My son was dealing with<br />
depression from moving<br />
to a new country. He<br />
once told me his sadness<br />
felt like waves crashing<br />
into him. On this day, he<br />
spent a lot of time<br />
wading in the water and<br />
throwing rocks as far as<br />
he could. I had this photo<br />
made into a canvas and<br />
it hangs in our home to<br />
remind us that there are<br />
many moments of joy<br />
between the waves.<br />
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One of my early photos:<br />
Most of my early photos are<br />
similar to this one, but it lacks a<br />
bit of life. While I still think this<br />
photo is successful in expressing<br />
the cosy warmth of the café, it<br />
needs someone sitting in the<br />
booth, enjoying a drink to make<br />
it a success in my eye.<br />
A photo my family would know was mine:<br />
My photos are a mix of locations in<br />
London not often seen and moments of<br />
London life. In this shot I particularly love<br />
how the dog is sitting at the table,<br />
enjoying a shared treat. My editing style<br />
is subtle so my family would recognize<br />
my photos based on subject matter<br />
more than anything else.<br />
29
My last image before COVID-19:<br />
My last ‘normal’ photo prior to COVID-19<br />
was this photo from inside the London Eye.<br />
The London Eye was celebrating its 20 th<br />
birthday and my family and I went for an<br />
early afternoon ride. Each pod was<br />
decorated in a different theme. Ours was<br />
a garden but this view of Parliament was<br />
so beautiful I had to take the shot.<br />
An image that could be replicated as<br />
a painting:<br />
I would love this photo to be<br />
reimagined as a Dexter Dalwood<br />
painting. Dalwood’s paintings<br />
communicate our everyday<br />
existence while bringing together<br />
the narratives of our memory,<br />
present and future.<br />
30
An image where circumstances were<br />
not as they first seemed:<br />
After lockdown was mandated in<br />
London, I began to work on<br />
p h o t o g r a p h i n g f o o d a n d<br />
documenting the process in a blog.<br />
This photo is a combination of two<br />
photos. In one photo I liked how the<br />
wind was blowing the towels on the<br />
line. In another photo I was pleased<br />
with how the cake on the plate was<br />
positioned. I married the two photos<br />
to create this homage to my mother.<br />
An image that evokes ...<br />
… a sense other than sight:<br />
I don’t consider portraiture a part of<br />
my portfolio but I love this photo of<br />
my daughter. When I look at this<br />
photo, with her head tossed back, I<br />
can hear her laughing.<br />
31
… a happy day:<br />
This photo always makes me smile. There<br />
are so many magical London moments<br />
and on this day I happened to capture<br />
the end of a riding lesson in Hyde Park.<br />
… nature:<br />
Nature in London means<br />
something very different<br />
depending on where you are.<br />
32
… laughter:<br />
I laugh every time I see this photo, a<br />
London call box, next to a New York<br />
taxi, parked in front of a butcher<br />
shop which is named K & J Libretto &<br />
Daughters. You couldn’t make it up!<br />
… everyday London life:<br />
No matter the weather, a dogwalker<br />
has got to do what a dogwalker has<br />
got to do.<br />
33
… my most treasured possession:<br />
As if a child can be your possession...these<br />
two are my most prized possession and my<br />
greatest creation.<br />
I grew up in a southwest suburb of Chicago, in<br />
a typical blue-collar neighborhood where<br />
everyone knew everyone else and your door<br />
was always open. Each weekday my father<br />
would come home from work and brew a pot of coffee. My mother would arrive home shortly<br />
after the coffee was done. Both would fix their cup and, if the weather was nice, sit outside to<br />
unwind after work. Slowly, but surely, our surrounding neighbors would make their way to our<br />
home to enjoy a cup of coffee, some coffee cake, and local gossip. Growing up in a<br />
community like this made for a great childhood. Games of tag that spanned two blocks of<br />
houses, impromptu pool parties, and sleepovers are some of my favorite childhood memories,<br />
along with the many cups of coffee and slices of coffee cake.<br />
Haley’s Story in Words<br />
After moving to London, photography became my reason to leave the house each day. I<br />
would head to a new area of London to explore and quickly found that the city has many<br />
personalities. As time wore on, I connected with other London photographers and formed some<br />
amazing friendships. I share my photos on my Instagram account under the name<br />
Postcards.from.London and treat each post as if it is a postcard sent home, sharing tiny tidbits of<br />
our life.<br />
In the summer of 2016, my husband’s company moved our family to London. I left behind a<br />
decade long position as a middle school science teacher, my children left behind their friends,<br />
and we all left behind a life in a community we built one PTA meeting, church picnic, summer<br />
camp, and soccer match at a time.<br />
We settled in south east London, which is to say, my husband hit the ground running, my<br />
children started their new school without any hiccups and I became a stay at home mother for<br />
the first time in my life suffering from an identity crisis. Struggling with the isolation a longdistance<br />
move creates, I found myself lonely, feeling isolated and depressed. Determined to<br />
find my footing, I decided to explore my new home all the while taking photos to share with<br />
friends and family back in the states.<br />
34
Tharien van Eck<br />
There are numerous definitions of happiness with the simplest “the state of being happy”. The<br />
question then is - what makes people happy? It can be shopping, reading, eating, cooking,<br />
dancing, talking, listening to music, or playing a musical instrument. Traveling, and more<br />
specifically traveling in nature, makes me infinitely happy.<br />
I invite you to travel with me as we make our way through the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in<br />
Southern Africa, home of red sand dunes, small and large herbivores such as ground squirrels,<br />
and roaming herds of eland, springbuck, blue wildebeest and an abundant number of<br />
predators including lions and cheetahs.<br />
The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is situated between South Africa, Namibia and Botswana and<br />
jointly managed by South Africa and Botswana. The meaning of Kgalagadi is “land of thirst”. The<br />
Park is situated in the southern Kalahari Desert and consists of red sand dunes, sparse vegetation,<br />
dry riverbeds, and scattered trees, an area of approximately 40,000km². The riverbeds are said to<br />
flow only once or twice per century, but with underground water providing for the camelthorn<br />
trees that are growing in the riverbeds.<br />
Happiness is... to drive, at a snail’s pace, on a dirt road, looking out of the window to spot<br />
animals, and then suddenly, in the shade of a small bush, to see not one, but two lions, right next<br />
to the car. And content to be stared at while resting in a small spot of shade!<br />
35
Happiness is... being<br />
able to stop at a road<br />
sign, wondering which<br />
direction to take, only<br />
to decide that any one<br />
will be good, because<br />
tomorrow is another<br />
day. The names of the<br />
water holes are a<br />
curious collection, e.g.<br />
in remembrance of a<br />
guide that worked in<br />
the area (Dalkeith), or<br />
an explanation of the<br />
area (Mabuasehube –<br />
“red soil”) or !Xaus<br />
(heart of the local<br />
communities).<br />
Happiness is... to<br />
watch a family of<br />
giraffes graze, a small<br />
group of the 40 or so<br />
that can be found in<br />
the Mata Mata area,<br />
which is close to the<br />
Namibian border.<br />
Happiness is... to travel<br />
on a road not travelled<br />
before and to marvel in<br />
a sky bluer than blue!<br />
The red dunes are<br />
parallel to each, more<br />
pronounced in the<br />
southern part of the<br />
park and the host of an<br />
abundance of flora.<br />
36
Happiness is... to<br />
see color in a<br />
landscape almost<br />
devoid of color.<br />
Happiness is... harmony in<br />
nature, where small and<br />
big can enjoy drinking at<br />
the same time from the<br />
same waterhole.<br />
Happiness is... seeing<br />
a tortoise, so well<br />
camouflaged, slowly<br />
crossing the road<br />
knowing that it is his<br />
habitat and that we<br />
are just a passing<br />
visitor he can ignore.<br />
37
Happiness is... to<br />
observe the cunning<br />
ways of a jackal,<br />
always on the lookout<br />
for something to eat!<br />
Happiness is...<br />
to see cheetahs<br />
drinking at a<br />
w a t e r h o l e ,<br />
keeping careful<br />
watch of other<br />
predators that<br />
may want to<br />
come drinking<br />
as well.<br />
Happiness is... to<br />
watch the sunset<br />
contemplating the<br />
wonders of nature,<br />
dreaming about,<br />
and planning a next<br />
visit post COVID-19!<br />
38
Happiness is... watching<br />
blue wildebeest and<br />
springbuck drinking at the<br />
same waterhole.<br />
Happiness is... travelling<br />
with someone that<br />
enjoys the same<br />
experiences as yourself,<br />
someone who is<br />
content to sit at a<br />
waterhole waiting for<br />
animals to come<br />
drinking, someone who<br />
enjoys a glass of wine<br />
with a simple dinner,<br />
someone who can<br />
stare into the distance<br />
waiting for a buck to<br />
appear or just to enjoy<br />
the scenery.<br />
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only<br />
one page.” – Augustine of Hippo.<br />
Tharien van Eck grew up in South Africa and studied<br />
medicine. She and her family relocated to Belgium in 2004<br />
when she started to work full time for Johnson & Johnson.<br />
Tharien is a member of the AWC Antwerp. She has a passion<br />
for helping and supporting others and since 2019, has been the<br />
Target Program Chair for FAWCO and has participated in the<br />
selection of S.A.F.E. as the Target Project. When she is not<br />
painting, she enjoys reading, cooking, and spending time with<br />
her husband and two grown children, and COVID-19<br />
permitting, travelling around the world!<br />
39
Connecting Through the<br />
Camera in Munich<br />
MONICA HOEFFEL MURPHY<br />
Member: FAUSA<br />
From: Grew up in suburbs of Detroit<br />
Lives: Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia<br />
Monica’s Story in Images<br />
A favorite photo of me:<br />
This is a self-portrait I took of myself a while ago. I created a series of them. Sometimes I don't<br />
have anyone to model for me and have to work out my ideas or lighting patterns on myself. This<br />
is one of my goofy alter ego trying to come out.<br />
40
A photo that could be replicated<br />
as a painting:<br />
I love the chaos that is happening in this<br />
back alleyway in Barga, Italy. If you look<br />
closely you can see that a Vespa has been<br />
turned into a plant stand! I am currently also<br />
an Urban Sketcher, so I believe this type of<br />
visual clutter would appeal to lots of onlocation-artists.<br />
Paul Wang (@paulwang_sg), Tomas<br />
Pajdlhauser (@captain_tom), Lena Sen<br />
(@electric_mirror), Teo Kim Seah<br />
(@kimseah_teoh) and Hosanna Lau<br />
(@hosanna9)are a few artists that come to<br />
mind. You can find their work on Instagram.<br />
A photo to be my legacy:<br />
This could be a legacy photo. One of<br />
the things I feel I do well, is<br />
photographing "non-models" in an<br />
editorial way. I search out interesting<br />
locations and pitch creative ideas in the<br />
hope of making a client's portrait<br />
sessions one-of-a-kind.<br />
41
A photo my family would know<br />
was mine:<br />
I love shooting environmental portraits.<br />
I usually get natural, relaxed results<br />
when people are placed in familiar<br />
surroundings. Portraits like this also<br />
quickly connect the viewer to the<br />
story. I think this is a style my family<br />
would recognize. As a personal photo<br />
project, I followed a year-in-the life of<br />
a historic beer garden in Germany. This<br />
portrait is of just one of the people<br />
involved in their famous brewing<br />
industry. I present to you Herr Schmid,<br />
he is a cooper and runs the last barrel<br />
making workshop in Munich.<br />
An image where circumstances are<br />
not as they first seem:<br />
At first glance this might seem like some<br />
sheaves of straw leaned against a<br />
fence. In truth, there is a young man<br />
tied inside all that straw. He is resting<br />
before portraying a traditional<br />
Buttnmandl that accompanies St.<br />
Nikolaus on his holiday rounds in the<br />
Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden.<br />
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An image that evokes ...<br />
… a sense<br />
other than<br />
sight: I think<br />
this photo of a<br />
bride at her<br />
M e h n d i<br />
c e r e m o n y<br />
evokes the<br />
sense of sound<br />
(or lack there<br />
of.) We are<br />
viewing the<br />
bride in a<br />
p e a c e f u l<br />
c o c o o n ,<br />
waiting to join<br />
the rowdy<br />
c e l e b r a t i o n<br />
right outside<br />
her door.<br />
… a happy day:<br />
This is a happy day of swimming at Buza Beach in Dubrovnik that delighted my "inner child".<br />
43
… nature:<br />
I love the repetition of the tall woman<br />
serenely standing amid the repeating tall<br />
trees in this nature photo.<br />
… laughter:<br />
These cows are being driven up to a<br />
communal pasture, but have stopped<br />
to eat the neighbors natural wallcover<br />
along the way. Hysterical.<br />
44
Monica’s Story in Words<br />
I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit. I was always a creative child, making and drawing things. I<br />
worked most of my life as a store display artist, but was always interested in photography. When<br />
my youngest child was nearly grown, I apprenticed myself to a wedding photographer and I<br />
learned the documentary style of photographing events. I also began photographing portraits,<br />
something I still love to this day. Connecting with people through photography has given so<br />
many great memories.<br />
Two years ago I returned from Munich where I lived for a number of years and was a member of<br />
the Munich International <strong>Women</strong>'s Club. While I was there, I created a photo blog about<br />
traditional clothing. I spent a lot of time photographing people in traditional clothing and<br />
exploring local festivals. It was a fascinating way to connect with people, even with my poor<br />
German language skills. Because I was increasingly traveling back and forth to America,<br />
helping out with ill parents, it became difficult to resource content for the blog. So, my last year<br />
in Munich I spent creating a photographic "Year-in-the-life" of the Augustiner Beer Garden as a<br />
personal photo/blog project. I traded out photos for access to the inner workings of one of<br />
Germany's oldest beer gardens. It made it much easier to jump right back into photographing<br />
there, after returning from a trip to America. I made lovely friends that I still am in contact with<br />
today.<br />
Since I moved back to the US I have renewed a practice of drawing after 40 years away from it.<br />
This work can be seen on Instagram at "Littlehistoriesart".<br />
45
My-Linh Kunst<br />
For me the subject of a picture is always more important than the<br />
picture. And more complicated. – Diane Arbus<br />
The world of photography would not be what it is today<br />
without the lens of female photographers. They helped<br />
shape the storytelling value of the art, bringing to light<br />
social issues and marginalized people. They bring out the<br />
story behind the image, the uninhibited character of<br />
their subject and the emotion of the moment.<br />
I was asked to write about iconic female photographers.<br />
There are so many. For this article, I concentrated on a<br />
few of the American greats.<br />
Credit: AWARE <strong>Women</strong> artists, Femmes artistes<br />
Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) was an American<br />
documentary photographer and photojournalist<br />
who is best known for her Depression-era work.<br />
Lange's photographs not only humanized the<br />
terrible circumstances of the Great Depression, but<br />
also influenced the development and purpose of<br />
documentary photography. She was later<br />
commissioned to photograph Japanese<br />
internment during World War II.<br />
46
Diane Arbus (1923–1971) was a New York-based<br />
photographer. She was best known for her intimate<br />
black-and-white portraits, normalizing people on<br />
the fringes of society, including the mentally ill,<br />
transgender people and circus performers.<br />
Helen Levitt (1913–2009) was particularly noted for<br />
street photography around New York City and has<br />
been called "the most celebrated and least known<br />
photographer of her time." Throughout her long<br />
Credit: AWARE <strong>Women</strong> artists, Femmes artistes<br />
career, Helen Levitt’s photographs have<br />
consistently reflected her poetic vision,<br />
humor and inventiveness as they<br />
honestly portrayed her subjects – New<br />
Yorkers acting out the daily drama on<br />
the streets of their city.<br />
One of my absolute favorites was Vivian Maier (1926-<br />
2009), because of her unconventional story when it<br />
comes to photography. She worked as a nanny for 40<br />
years and carried her camera around in her spare<br />
time to capture moments in the streets. She took over<br />
150,000 photographs during her lifetime and has<br />
greatly impacted the development of street<br />
photography with these images.<br />
47
Her images were completely unknown and unpublished<br />
while she was alive, only to be discovered in her derelict<br />
storage locker after her death. Her life and work have<br />
been the subject of books and documentary films,<br />
including the film Finding Vivian Maier (2013).<br />
One of the most well-known of the living<br />
photographers, Annie Leibovitz (born 1949) has<br />
achieved commercial success with celebrity<br />
portraits in intimate settings and poses or<br />
beautiful staged settings. One of her most<br />
famous photos was of John Lennon and<br />
Yoko Ono in their bed. She began working<br />
as a commercial photographer at Rolling<br />
Stone magazine and soon became the<br />
first woman to be named chief<br />
photographer. She left and began<br />
working at Vanity Fair in 1983, where she<br />
developed her style of staged and brightly<br />
lit portraits. Today she still regularly<br />
contributes to the magazine, as well as to<br />
Vogue too.<br />
Sally Mann’s (born 1951) work is known to make people uncomfortable because she<br />
photographs her young children in the nude and sometimes with small injuries. She is an<br />
American photographer, widely known for her large-format, black-and-white photographs - at<br />
first of her young children, then later of landscapes suggesting decay and death.<br />
48
Nan Goldin (born 1951) is known for her<br />
deeply personal and candid portraiture.<br />
Her work often explores LGBT bodies,<br />
moments of intimacy, the HIV crisis, and the opioid epidemic. Many consider her most notable<br />
work to be The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1986), which documents the gay subculture and<br />
Goldin's family and friends.<br />
Cindy Sherman (born 1954) is a New York Citybased<br />
photographer who has produced<br />
photographs examining the identity and gender<br />
roles that exist in society using self-portraiture.<br />
Sherman isn’t using her self-portraits to express<br />
different aspects of her character, but rather to<br />
examine society at large.<br />
Coming back to empathy and story-telling, whether through street photography or staged<br />
portraits, these female photographers portray mostly people, in their moments of joy or struggle.<br />
This was but a small list. There are great female photographers all over the world. And every year<br />
there are more and more talented women photographers taking the scene by storm. The<br />
Phoblographer blog has a good list of young<br />
talents to inspire you in <strong>2020</strong>.<br />
My-Linh Kunst, former president of FAWCO (2011–<br />
2015), is a published and exhibited photographer<br />
based out of Berlin, Germany. Her books Beyond<br />
Borders: Portraits of American <strong>Women</strong> from<br />
Around the World (2008) featured inspiring<br />
FAWCO women, and to accompany the FAWCO<br />
Symposium on Human Trafficking, Hope is the<br />
Thing with Feathers (2016) portrayed human<br />
trafficking survivors and change-makers based in<br />
the Netherlands.<br />
49
Souvenirs from Across the FAWCO World<br />
Saint Basil's Cathedral is regarded as<br />
a cultural symbol of Russia. Built in<br />
1555-1561, the original building,<br />
known as Trinity Church and<br />
later Trinity Cathedral, contained eight<br />
churches arranged around a ninth,<br />
central church. A tenth church was<br />
erected in 1588 over the grave of<br />
venerated local saint Vasily<br />
(Basil). The building is shaped like the<br />
flame of a bonfire rising into the<br />
sky. It is like no other building –<br />
a strangeness that astonishes by its<br />
unexpectedness, complexity and<br />
dazzling interleaving of the manifold<br />
details of its design.<br />
Annalize Smith, FAWCO REP AWO Moscow,<br />
Region 2<br />
Frankfurt is a vivid mix of old and<br />
new architecture. This is a view<br />
of Frankfurt skyline with Römer<br />
Cathedral in the background from<br />
one of six bridges right in town<br />
across the Main River.<br />
Danita Waterfall-Brizzi, President, AIWC<br />
Frankfurt, Region 5<br />
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The Eiffel Tower is one of the most<br />
iconic structures in the world. Just<br />
like the Statue of Liberty in NYC, it<br />
represents a city and the feelings<br />
and ideas associated with that city.<br />
For me Paris represents creativity,<br />
stimulation and romance. I choose<br />
this photo of the Eiffel Tower because<br />
it was taken at sunrise when the<br />
city is still sleeping; you have the<br />
impression you are alone to take in<br />
the beauty of the iron lady and keep<br />
her as your own personal secret and<br />
romance with no one else around.<br />
Krystal Kenney, Member at Large, AWG<br />
Paris, Region 3<br />
The streets of Bogotá are filled with<br />
the shouts of "Aguacate, aguacate!"<br />
from mobile vendors with carts piled<br />
high with bright green orbs. Choosing<br />
the right avocado is a quintessential<br />
skill and art form in Colombia,<br />
utilizing all of one's senses. You<br />
don't just tell the vendor the number<br />
you want to buy, but when you want<br />
them for to ensure they will be<br />
perfectly ripe when you need them to<br />
be. "Four, please, two for today and<br />
two for Thursday." To me, there's no<br />
better souvenir than experiencing<br />
Colombia's rich agriculture and food<br />
culture in this way.<br />
Mary Stange, FAWCO Rep, AWC Bogotá,<br />
Region 10<br />
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Dunnottar Castle is a must. It is one<br />
of the favorite locations for our<br />
Photography Club to meet as you<br />
always get a different photo.<br />
Caroline Aylmer Sanford, AAW of<br />
Aberdeen, Region 1<br />
Sunset on the Arabian/<br />
Persian Gulf at the<br />
Saudi Aramco beach.<br />
This beach is popular<br />
because it is one of the<br />
few places in Saudi<br />
where people can wear<br />
bathing suits to enjoy<br />
the beach and the<br />
beautiful waters of the<br />
Gulf. The people in the<br />
photo are dressed in<br />
traditional Saudi garb.<br />
Therese Hartwell, former<br />
President and FAWCO Rep,<br />
AWEP, Region 9<br />
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Hassan II mosque This beautiful<br />
mosque in Casablanca was built to<br />
commemorate the former king’s<br />
(Hassan II) 60th birthday. The<br />
mosque stands right at the edge of<br />
the water and its 210-meter-tall<br />
minaret is one of the city’s major<br />
landmarks. The building showcases<br />
the talent and craft of Moroccan<br />
artisans. The miles-long coast of<br />
Casablanca and Ain Diab are very<br />
important to the citizens. Walking,<br />
running, swimming, football are<br />
enjoyed there every day. The minaret<br />
can be seen throughout this area.<br />
Cynthia Smith-Ayed, RC and FAWCO Rep,<br />
AIWC Casablanca, Region 7<br />
This photo, taken from Piazzale<br />
Michelangelo, is emblematic of<br />
Florence and its status as an<br />
open-air museum city, the<br />
cradle of the Renaissance.<br />
Diedre Pirro, FAWCO Rep, AILO<br />
Florence, Region 8<br />
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Our favorite place to visit will always<br />
be the Grand Place. Filled with<br />
festivals all summer long and special<br />
events throughout the year. It never<br />
disappoints. One event takes place<br />
every two years, a carpet made of<br />
flowers. The carpet, measuring 77 m<br />
x 24 m, is prepared by about 120<br />
volunteers with nearly one million<br />
begonias in less than four hours.<br />
Heather Bloemperk, FAWCO REP AWC<br />
Brussels, Region 4<br />
One of my favorite places<br />
to walk is along Elliot Bay<br />
and the Puget Sound in<br />
West Seattle. The views<br />
extend from Mt. Baker in<br />
the north, the Olympic<br />
Mountains to the west, Mt.<br />
Rainier to the south and<br />
across Elliot Bay to the<br />
Seattle skyline. The<br />
outdoor art along the way<br />
complements the natural<br />
beauty of the area.<br />
Michele Hendrikse DuBois,<br />
Regional and Seattle Metro<br />
Coordinator, FAUSA<br />
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For months, I walked across this<br />
bridge over the Limmat river every<br />
evening to the main train station<br />
after my German class, so I equate<br />
this view with me becoming a part of<br />
Zürich. I guess, when I close my<br />
eyes and think of Zürich, this is<br />
what I see.<br />
Laurel McDonald, FAWCO REP AWC Zürich,<br />
Switzerland, Region 6<br />
The dabbawalas are a lunchbox<br />
delivery and return system that<br />
delivers hot lunches from homes and<br />
restaurants to people at work in<br />
India, especially in Mumbai.<br />
Between 175,000 and 200,000<br />
lunch boxes are moved each day and<br />
it is frequently claimed that<br />
dabbawalas make less than one<br />
mistake in every six million<br />
deliveries which sparks interest of<br />
many business studies.<br />
If you have the chance to visit<br />
Mumbai, go to Churchgate at 11:30<br />
a.m. and watch – fascinating!<br />
Karen Boeker, now member of AWC<br />
Denmark, in 2014-2015 member of ACIW<br />
Mumbai, Region 11<br />
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A Club Inspires: AWC The Hague<br />
The American <strong>Women</strong>’s Club of The Hague, Netherlands is in FAWCO’s Region 4. Club president<br />
Barbara Brookman answers our questions about the club and what life is like living in The Hague:<br />
When, why and by whom was your club started? The American <strong>Women</strong>’s Club of The Hague<br />
was founded 90 years ago. The 25 th Anniversary History of the Club describes its founding as<br />
follows: “True to our national genius for sociability, a group of American women residing in The<br />
Hague gathered regularly at the hospitable home of Mrs. E. Daniels, who was one of the oldest<br />
American residents. In 1930, when her health began to fail, and in order to relieve her of this<br />
responsibility, it was felt the time had come to organize an American <strong>Women</strong>’s Club.”<br />
“The first meeting was held at the home of Mrs. Jesse van Wickel in the beginning of August,<br />
1930. Four women attended, and it was agreed to send out invitations to a luncheon to be held<br />
at the Hotel Vieux Doelen to all American women residing in The Hague, Rotterdam, Amsterdam<br />
and surrounding cities – saying that as prospective members of the club they could join at this<br />
luncheon. The affair was a great success as practically everyone invited came. The club was<br />
started with 55 charter members.”<br />
How many members do you have and what are their nationalities? The club has 175 members,<br />
126 of whom are US citizens. The other nationalities include Dutch (25), British (15) and Canadian<br />
(5). About 16 of our members have dual citizenship. We also have 22 Honorary members who<br />
have earned this distinction by being continuous club members for at least 25 years.<br />
How does the club run? We have monthly general meetings from September through June.<br />
November is our annual general meeting, where our budget is approved by the membership,<br />
and the election of the officers of the board takes place at our April general meeting. The club's<br />
constitution states that our board must consist of a President, Vice President, Treasurer and<br />
Secretary. The President and Vice President are required to be Regular members. Other board<br />
positions with voting privileges include a Club & Community Officer, Communications Officer,<br />
Clubhouse Administrator and Board Member at Large. A Board Advisor and Parliamentarian<br />
attend the monthly board meetings, but do not have voting rights. The slate of officers is created<br />
by a seven-person nominating committee, and typically we can only find one candidate per<br />
office, so officers run unopposed.<br />
AWC Board: left to right, Mary Ellen Brennan, Treasurer; Michelle Voorn, Communications; Carin Elam, Club & Community; Sarah<br />
Dunn, Treasurer; Melissa Rider, Vice President; Barbara Brookman, President<br />
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What kind of events do you have in your club? We have several different types of activities in the<br />
club: ongoing activities, which take place weekly or monthly; one-of-a-kind activities, which<br />
happen only once as the name implies; arts activities, which include our many museum visits and<br />
lectures; and tours, which take place more infrequently. Our Vice President coordinates all<br />
events, helped by a group of leaders for the various ongoing and arts activities.<br />
In March, the pandemic forced us to reinvent<br />
ourselves quickly into a virtual club. The Club<br />
showed its resilience as we moved our<br />
activities online using Google Hangouts and<br />
Zoom to continue our general meetings,<br />
book clubs and even BYOB Thirsty Thursdays.<br />
We also quickly adjusted our print magazine,<br />
Going Dutch, to document what we’re living<br />
through individually and as a club.<br />
As we’ve come out of lockdown, we still<br />
don’t know what the fall will bring and what<br />
long-term changes are required to our usual<br />
activities, our Club events or even our ability<br />
to get together in person. What I do know is<br />
that this club will build on its strengths and find<br />
the spirit to adjust.<br />
Handbag Auction: AWC The Hague is rethinking the<br />
format for this year's Handbag Auction given the<br />
pandemic. In February 2019, we raised 4,070 euro for the<br />
FAWCO Target Project Hope Beyond Displacement.<br />
Do you raise money for any particular cause? Club member donations support a variety of<br />
charities during the club year through seasonal events like the Sinterklaas toiletry and gift drive or<br />
the Easter baskets drive. Our yearly TLC Dinner lavishes special attention on Club and community<br />
members going through a tough time. Club members meet once a month to sew heart pillows<br />
that are donated to women with breast cancer receiving care at area hospitals.<br />
We raise money and awareness for FAWCO’s target project through special events and the<br />
Handbag Auction. Our 2019 handbag auction raised 4,070 euros for the Hope Beyond<br />
Displacement target project.<br />
Our yearly Holiday Bazaar is a well-loved event that raises<br />
money for the club’s operations and philanthropic<br />
endeavors. The club also supports Overseas Americans<br />
Remember’s Fourth of July picnic and Thanksgiving<br />
celebration in the Pieterskerk in Leiden.<br />
What was your own favorite activity/event last year? From<br />
the great vendors to the bake sale, the raffle and an early<br />
visit by Santa, my favorite event last year was the Holiday<br />
Bazaar. Nothing brings the club together like those two<br />
days in November. The bazaar draws in many of our<br />
members, even those that don’t normally participate in<br />
club events, and is a real teambuilder for the club.<br />
Bakesale: Our bake sale is a popular stand<br />
at our yearly Holiday Bazaar.<br />
What else would you like us to know about your club? As a<br />
proud founding member of FAWCO, the AWC of The<br />
Hague has contributed greatly to FAWCO over the years.<br />
Five Club members have been President: Ruth St. John<br />
(1959-61), Virginia Roth (1985-87), Georgia Regnault (1987-<br />
1989), Celeste Brown (2005-2007) and Emily van Eerten<br />
(2003-2005 - AWC Amsterdam then, 2019-2021, The<br />
Hague). Several members have also served on the<br />
57
Foundation Board or been Committee Chairwomen. The club has hosted one FAWCO<br />
Conference in 1961, two Interim Meetings (1935 and 2004) and many Regionals.<br />
In addition, the King has named four of our club members (Jane Choy, Roberta Enschede,<br />
Georgia Regnault and Anne van Oorschot) Knights in the Order of Oranje Nassau. This signified<br />
not only that these women have played an active role in their club, but also that they have<br />
made exceptional contributions to Dutch society through their volunteer work.<br />
Tell us a little about your city and country in general. I grew up in The Hague but left for the US<br />
almost 30 years ago, in my early 20s. I returned two years ago to a city that has changed a lot<br />
since I lived here before. It’s far more international and it’s a lot more fun than I remember.<br />
While often overshadowed by Amsterdam as a top tourist destination in The Netherlands, The<br />
Hague is better known as the International City of Peace and Justice, being home to the Peace<br />
Palace and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Amsterdam is the capital of The Netherlands, but<br />
The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government, so many embassies are located here as well.<br />
The city is rich in culture, with the Mauritshuis museum housing many famous artworks including<br />
Rembrandt's The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp and Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring.<br />
M.C. Escher's masterpieces are magnificently displayed in Queen Mother Emma's winter palace.<br />
Not to be overlooked is the Panorama Mesdag, a cylindrical painting more than 14 metres high<br />
and about 40 metres in diameter depicting the sea, beach and village of Scheveningen in the<br />
late nineteenth century.<br />
Prinsjesdag: On Prinsjesdag, the opening of Parliament by the King, the<br />
club hosts a luncheon at a restaurant which gives us a bird’s eye view of<br />
the royal procession, which ends with the balcony scene.<br />
58<br />
One of The Hague's most regal<br />
pageants is Prinsjesdag – on the<br />
third Tuesday in September – when<br />
the King officially opens<br />
Parliament. King Willem-Alexander<br />
and Queen Máxima travel by<br />
Golden Coach from the<br />
Noordeinde palace to the<br />
Binnenhof in a large procession of<br />
carriages, military bands and other<br />
escorts on foot and on horseback.<br />
The procession snakes along the<br />
downtown streets lined with school<br />
kids, tourists and ordinary citizens<br />
wearing lots of orange. Once<br />
arrived on the Binnenhof, the King<br />
delivers the Speech from the<br />
Throne in the medieval Knight’s<br />
H a l l , a n n o u n c i n g t h e<br />
government’s plans for the<br />
upcoming year in the presence of<br />
both houses of Parliament, the<br />
government ministers and foreign<br />
dignitaries. Afterward, the procession returns to the Palace for a balcony scene.<br />
For many years, the club has organized events around Prinjesdag: a luncheon at a restaurant<br />
overlooking the procession and a walking tour along the route the week before to learn more<br />
about the event, the Dutch monarchy and the historic buildings along the route. Last year, I had<br />
the opportunity to lead the walking tour, which had me brushing up on everything I learned in<br />
civics class many years ago.<br />
This year, the ceremony will be held in The Hague’s oldest church to allow for social distancing.<br />
It’s not clear yet how the pandemic will change other aspects of the event.
BLACK LIVES MATTER<br />
A<br />
CONVERSATION<br />
IN PHOTOS<br />
“Show me your strength” (Mahawa)<br />
59
In a time when we are dealing with a global pandemic, we were confronted with an issue that<br />
was long overdue attention. But in life, often the biggest growth happens in the darkest times.<br />
“We all matter” was my first thought. But the murder of George Floyd in front of that camera<br />
made me witness an act and I couldn’t look away. It made me think of my own childhood<br />
experiences, how different they were than for many others and how privileged that made me.<br />
In later years, my travels in the Congo in Africa had already given me a chance to change my<br />
thoughts and personal opinions. But here I had an opportunity to do something else.<br />
So, I invited people with African roots inside my photographic studio and started a conversation<br />
with them about how they are experiencing these times and what I might be able to do to<br />
make a difference.<br />
As a white female photographer, I never had the experiences I was hearing about. Never had<br />
to think about if my child was going to be accepted in school or not. Never had to think about<br />
my strolls through the streets and being stopped or hearing words that made me feel less<br />
worthy. Our society, or so I had thought, was getting used to being made up of a mix of people<br />
from all over the world. We were travelling more easily and people from different backgrounds<br />
were melting together. We were seeing people of many different generations living in countries<br />
different from their ancestors. But this was my world and my experience, not that of everyone.<br />
The models that came to the studio all expressed the same feelings. Every one of them was<br />
positive about the BLM movement, about the extra attention and the fact that the world is<br />
listening to them now.<br />
In the brief time I spent with them, what did I see and learn? I saw greatness, love and a joy in<br />
life. I believe that it is this passion that will start to eliminate the past issues. Determination and<br />
focus will be the elements of success. But most of all, it is LOVE that will win, especially if we stop<br />
focusing on the color of our skin and instead look inside the souls who share the same planet<br />
with us.<br />
Today with COVID-19, we are living in a time where our comfort zone has been smashed to<br />
pieces. I think this gives us a unique opportunity to stop, think, learn and grow. We can make a<br />
better community for us all. There are treasures to be found in the middle of this awful<br />
pandemic if we look hard enough. I have faith that it is all going to be for the best.<br />
I am honored to have had the chance to make this contribution, to share what I saw and to tell<br />
a small story to this big world. No one should be born to feel less worthy.<br />
Through my work as a photographer, I hope to show the beauty of their souls in a black and<br />
white setting.<br />
Thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts and give my eye a taste of change.<br />
Brigitte Meuwissen is a member of AWC Antwerp who was born in Belgium<br />
and raised in different countries. She is a freelance photographer and the<br />
mother of two wonderful daughters. With her images, she is bringing a<br />
sparkle of laughter and fun into someone's life. For her art is irreplaceable in<br />
challenging times and a photo is a moment in that will last for generations to<br />
come. Currently she is teaching the “Art of Seeing,” a photography course<br />
through which she is helping people to understand the light and beyond.<br />
She has taught this course previously at different universities. Her fascination<br />
in telling stories and showing emotions through her portraits is a gift in which<br />
she specialises. She is also working on her book “<strong>Women</strong> We Are,” portraits<br />
of women in their favorite place. www.brigittemeuwissen.be<br />
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“African<br />
Roots”<br />
(Annabelle)<br />
“The Future”<br />
(Guy)<br />
“Happy<br />
“Happy<br />
in My<br />
in My<br />
Skin”<br />
Skin”<br />
(Ken)<br />
(Ken)<br />
“Love yourself”<br />
(Rania)<br />
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62
A Love Story with<br />
Sorrento, Italy<br />
MAUREEN CAMELO WHITING<br />
Member: American International <strong>Women</strong>’s Club of<br />
Naples, Italy<br />
From: Vermont, USA<br />
Lives: Between Queensbury, NY and Sorrento, Italy<br />
Maureen’s Story in Images<br />
A favorite photo of me:<br />
I met Gennaro from L'Antica Trattoria Ristoranti in Sorrento which is a very special place to me.<br />
Not only is the cuisine delicious but it is art and you are always made to feel very special. When I<br />
have visitors come to see me in Sorrento I love to share the experience even if it is just for a glass<br />
of prosecco and a flower for your hair.<br />
63
An image that inspires me:<br />
The 14th century Cloister of San Francesco in Sorrento is one of the serene spots close to the city<br />
center. It is also the home of many exhibits, weddings and concerts. But the true tranquillity is<br />
the rooftop. It<br />
inspires me to<br />
stop and take a<br />
breath, to take<br />
in the beauty<br />
around me. The<br />
swing is always<br />
there, art in itself.<br />
I frequent this<br />
spot often, even<br />
if just for a few<br />
moments… a<br />
reminder to me<br />
that life is short,<br />
and I should<br />
take in the<br />
beauty when I<br />
can.<br />
One of my early photos from Italy:<br />
On the outside wall of the Sassi in<br />
Matera, Basilicata. One of the most<br />
interesting areas of Italy. Famous for its<br />
extensive cave dwellings, it is now a<br />
UNESCO site. The brilliance of the<br />
flowers added such beauty to the stark<br />
setting. I have been back since that first<br />
visit and able to explore even more.<br />
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An image my family<br />
would know was mine:<br />
This is Mount Vesuvio as<br />
seen from the beach<br />
in Castellammare di<br />
Stabia.<br />
I have such a<br />
fascination for her. The<br />
fact that you can see<br />
the volcano from so<br />
many different areas.<br />
She graces so many of<br />
my photos.<br />
An image that evokes ...<br />
... a sense other than sight:<br />
Contentment… no COVID-19! My dad at 93. Not a care in the world. Well deserved.<br />
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… peacefulness:<br />
Lake Champlain waiting for the ferry from Vermont<br />
…nature:<br />
Homer,<br />
Alaska. I love<br />
the beauty of<br />
the glaciers<br />
and of the<br />
fireweed. The<br />
scent of<br />
berries and<br />
citrus in the<br />
air is amazing.<br />
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… a happy day:<br />
Paris with my<br />
daughter<br />
67<br />
… laughter:<br />
Starting our Sicily adventure with ladies from our club, AIWC Naples. Five women,<br />
one car: Mamma Mia!
… admiration:<br />
Bernadette<br />
Clahane, the<br />
bravest, most<br />
adventurous<br />
travel partner<br />
there ever was.<br />
Maureen’s Story in Words<br />
I grew up in a small town between the edge of the Adirondack Mountains and historic Lake<br />
Champlain. Only hours away from New York City and Montreal you could find excitement,<br />
culture, museums and art.<br />
My heritage is Italian and Irish. Family was a very important part of my life as it still is today.<br />
Sundays were special as my parents, brother and sister traveled to my grandparents for Sunday<br />
dinner with my extended family. This carried through to my adult life. After high school in the<br />
early 70s I left for college in Vermont where I graduated with a Physical Education degree.<br />
Marriage, teaching, children followed. I transitioned to doing childcare at home after I lost my<br />
childcare. It was an easy transition, as I adapted my home to mini gym and was able to stay<br />
home and work at the same time. As the children all left for school, I pursued my second career<br />
as an RN, moved on to Care Management. Children grown, single again I was given a chance<br />
for a new chapter of my life to travel.<br />
My daughter graduated with a degree in photography, hence the family photographer. Up<br />
until this time traveling was mostly wherever my children were. So, I was fortunate to see parts of<br />
the country and my children at the same time. Thanks to my parents, who had become world<br />
travelers after we had all left the nest, a door opened for me. They were unable to take a<br />
planned trip due to my mom’s health. So, I stepped in and took the trip instead. I was off to<br />
Ireland and never looked back.<br />
With my new travel bug, I decided I wanted to record my adventures. In pursuit of that perfect<br />
photo or at least "that's nice Mom" from my daughter. I’m still looking for the perfect photo, if it<br />
really exists, but I am enjoying trying to find it. The pursuit brought me to Sorrento where I found<br />
my second home and life. I fell in love with Sorrento and have made such wonderful<br />
relationships and was introduced to AIWC Naples. Was fortunate also to be able to go to the<br />
conference in The Hague. Today I share my time between home here in Queensbury NY and<br />
home in Sorrento. I have the best of both worlds this way.<br />
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Karen Axelrad<br />
It’s a most liberating feeling not carrying a heavy<br />
camera with lenses, tripods, etc. I travel with my<br />
iPhone and an iPad to process the photos. My<br />
camera is always with me as well as a mini,<br />
lightweight selfie stick (to take photos from<br />
angles and stabilize the camera) and also a<br />
remote control.<br />
Being a bit of a gadget freak, I have<br />
downloaded many apps, a few of which I will<br />
explain here.<br />
When David Hockney published his cubistic<br />
Polaroids I desperately wanted to try a similar<br />
technique, but taking hundreds of Polaroids was<br />
simply too expensive. Years later I jumped at the<br />
chance to buy my first digital camera. I could<br />
Looking Down #seethis #distressedfx<br />
shoot away and it didn’t cost extra. Later I<br />
discovered the free app You Gotta See This<br />
and I was hooked. It turns out that it was<br />
known for the “Hockney Effect”.<br />
The photo Looking Down was taken with this<br />
app and then a texture was added with the<br />
distressedfx app.<br />
69<br />
Observing the Observer #hipstamatic #johns #maximuslxix
Night #hipstamatic #johns #blackeyssupergrain #triplecrown<br />
Stairs #hipstamatic #lowy #canocafenol #triplecrown<br />
One of my favorite apps is Hipstamatic. Each photo is taken with a lens, a film, and<br />
with or without a flash which is a software treatment. You can save favorite<br />
combinations or be surprised by using the shuffle function. I’ll often make multiple<br />
shots of the same photo to see which treatment I like the best. Hipstamatic is also<br />
great for black and white photos or sepia photos like the one above.<br />
Eye #hipstamatic #doubleexposure #johns #ina ’s1982<br />
J Wrapped #hipstamatic #doris #inas1935 #doubleexposure<br />
with Bernar Venet sculpture<br />
One of my favorite features of Hipstamatic is the ability to take double-exposures. For those of<br />
you too young to remember, in the old days of film cameras one had to pull a lever to advance<br />
the film to the next shot. If you forgot to do that, you got a double-exposure: the 2 nd photo was<br />
on top of the 1 st one. Hipstamatic has a lever to make double-exposures in-camera. Beware of<br />
accompanying me to an art museum — I’ll photograph the art and then turn the camera on<br />
someone near me. It is serendipitous when the gap in the painting occurs on the eye.<br />
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DianaPhotoApp will randomly choose two<br />
photos and make a double-exposure out of<br />
them with various blending effects. There are<br />
many other apps that will also let you blend two<br />
or more photos together.<br />
Hang on to Your Mask #slowshutter #icolorama #stackables<br />
#oilist #distressedfx #superimposeX<br />
Another favorite app I like to use in art<br />
museums is Slow Shutter. It takes long<br />
exposures resulting in weird figures and<br />
movement. It also eliminates the fear of<br />
being sued by a stranger for posting their<br />
face online.<br />
Rambling #slowshutter #icolorama # distressedfx #superimposeX<br />
Recently I’ve been experimenting with a new<br />
app called Imaengine. It turns a pixel photo into<br />
a vector graphic. All photos are made with pixels<br />
and the quality decreases if blown up too much.<br />
A vector graphic is made with lines and can be<br />
blown up immensely without losing quality, but<br />
the gradations are too sharp and obvious for a<br />
normal photo. It can, however, be used to<br />
achieve unusual artistic effects, made with just a<br />
few colors.<br />
4-Toned Me #imaengine<br />
Self-portraits are fun for experimenting and the<br />
model is always with you. In this self-portrait, I<br />
painted a number of the effects.<br />
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Hiding the Spots #iPhone5s #iColorama #mexturesapp
Last, but not least, the app I<br />
recommend if you only have one<br />
app as it is free and incredibly<br />
versatile: Snapseed. The 1 st photo<br />
was taken with Hipstamatic at the<br />
MuCEM in Marseille, but I used<br />
Snapseed to bring out the sky and<br />
tones in the 2 nd photo.<br />
This photo won an award for the Mira<br />
Mobile Prize and was exhibited in<br />
Porto in 2019.<br />
Wet Reflections #hipstamatic#kaimalmarkii #blackeyssupergrain<br />
Karen Axelrad was raised in Los<br />
Angeles, studied at UC Berkeley and<br />
got her Masters in Architecture at<br />
UCLA where she met her German<br />
husband. They had an architecture<br />
partnership (Schiedhelm-Partner) in<br />
Berlin until his death in 2011. She has<br />
two grown s ons and one<br />
granddaughter. She is politically<br />
active in American Voices Abroad<br />
and Democrats Abroad. You can<br />
see more of her photography on<br />
Instagram:<br />
h t t p s : / / w w w . i n s t a g r a m . c o m /<br />
iphotami/<br />
and Flickr:<br />
https://www.flickr.com/photos/<br />
karenaxe/<br />
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Wet Reflections 2 #hipstamatic#kaimalmarki#blackeyssupergrain<br />
#snapseed
Candidly<br />
Documenting Life in<br />
Moscow<br />
DEBORAH HOEHNER<br />
Member: American <strong>Women</strong>’s Organization<br />
Moscow, Russia<br />
From: Grew up in Dallas, TX but calls Boston, MA<br />
home<br />
Lives: Moscow, Russia<br />
Deborah’s Story in Images<br />
An image that inspires me:<br />
These kinds of photos convince me more and more of the love I have for documentary<br />
photography. There is just no repeating an exact situation. I had known this boy since he was<br />
about six months old, and he was always full of energy. As he was playing on the playground,<br />
he decided that these girls, who were eating a snack and having a conversation, just needed<br />
to be given a ride.<br />
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One of my early photos:<br />
I named this image “The Three Gymnasts”. I went to my friend’s daughter’s gymnastics class my<br />
first year in Moscow in 2009, and I happened to have my camera with me. To me this image is<br />
timeless and brings out three emotions and personalities of these little girls: calm, stressed and<br />
determined. Also, the diagonal line on the wall makes the composition more interesting.<br />
A photo people would know was mine:<br />
I’ve done many spontaneous shoots, and you can see elements of that spontaneity in these photos. I<br />
like this photo of my friend, a former ballerina in Moscow. We were having coffee in front of the<br />
Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC after her ballet class when she slipped her ballet shoes back on<br />
and posed in what she was wearing that day.<br />
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A photo to be my legacy:<br />
My brother and his family had lived in Ukraine in the early 2000s for six years. They returned in the<br />
summer of 2013 to visit places and friends before the situation changed dramatically in that country<br />
less than six months later. I joined them for a bit of the trip, and it was special to take part in their walk<br />
down memory lane. In this image, we were having lunch and tea on a train from Yalta to Donetsk.<br />
An image where circumstances were not as they first seemed:<br />
I took this photo on Nikolskaya Street (near Red Square) during the World Cup 2018 semi-final game<br />
between Russia and Croatia. Despite Russia’s low-ranking, their team got really far in the games.<br />
There was so much spirit, excitement and anticipation in the air, even though, in the end, they lost. It<br />
was a memorable night!<br />
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An image that evokes ...<br />
… a sense other than<br />
sight:<br />
Hearing. The Choir<br />
Boys. After listening<br />
to the angelic voices<br />
of these boys, I<br />
watched them storm<br />
out of the hall after<br />
their practice.<br />
… nature:<br />
A traditional Russian country home, called a dacha, about an hour and a half north of Moscow.<br />
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… a happy day:<br />
Moscow, 2018. Playing in the snow in the magical winter.<br />
… laughter:<br />
A documentary style family photo session on Red Square, where the parents are letting their<br />
kids be kids!<br />
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… tears:<br />
Russia’s May 9<br />
Victory Day<br />
walk called<br />
“The Immortal<br />
R e g i m e n t , ”<br />
w h e r e<br />
p a r t i c i p a n t s<br />
carry pictures<br />
of their family<br />
or friends who<br />
had served<br />
and died in<br />
World War II.<br />
… a woman in your life you admire:<br />
My Mom, who is the most giving and<br />
caring person I know, in her beloved<br />
New England.<br />
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Deborah’s Story in Words<br />
I grew up in Dallas, Texas until my university years. However, two of those years were spent<br />
overseas. When I was seven years old, my family moved to Germany for a year, where my<br />
father taught us to count to 10 in German and then sent us off to German schools. Also, when I<br />
was 16, we lived in Cambridge, England for a year, where I attended a British school.<br />
I had been taking photos all my life, but it wasn’t until the spring of 2009 that I finally got this<br />
urge to “try” photography. My sister and sister-in-law had taken photos of their children<br />
through the years, and I loved how they captured many candid and now cherished moments.<br />
My father, too, many years earlier, had been interested in photography. It surprises me that I<br />
didn’t pick up photography earlier on, as I have always been best inspired visually.<br />
Being immersed in cultures not my own has taught me to appreciate different cultures and the<br />
people living in them. Over the years, I have learned to adapt more easily to various<br />
situations and changes. These experiences gave me the determination to live overseas upon<br />
graduation from university. Six months before I graduated from the University of Texas, I<br />
traveled across Europe, visiting Russia for the first time. After graduating, I worked for the<br />
student organization I had been involved with at the university, which brought me first to Minsk,<br />
and then to Russia, where I have lived for the past 25 years. Almost five years ago, I began<br />
working as a freelance photographer.<br />
79
Judy Furukawa<br />
When facing the question, “Is it a mountain or a hill?”, the answer was always easy. Hills don’t<br />
have snow year-round, mountains do. I will admit to having chuckled and sneered when my<br />
husband pointed to “Mount Tom” in western Massachusetts during my first trip to his hometown.<br />
Late November, no snow, don’t waste my time… A few years later, my mother joined us there<br />
for Thanksgiving and asked what the name of the “hill” was. He was sure I’d put her up to it.<br />
Not at all, she was a Seattle native who knew her mountains. Yes, I am, as Richard says, a<br />
certified mountain snob.<br />
The Yakima Valley in<br />
Washington state is where I was<br />
born and raised. The majestic<br />
snow covered peaks of the<br />
Cascade Mountains are<br />
within a short driving<br />
distance. The Native American<br />
tribes in the region believed<br />
that powerful demons lived on<br />
the peaks and watched those<br />
below. Hiking above the<br />
timberline would disturb them<br />
and was discouraged. Now the<br />
Cascade Mountains are<br />
popular recreational areas,<br />
both for hiking in the summer<br />
and skiing in the winter. There is<br />
a viewpoint on Highway 82<br />
where you can see Mount<br />
Rainier, Mount Adams, Mount<br />
St. Helens and possibly Mount<br />
Baker if you are lucky.<br />
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Views of Mount Hood grace the city of Portland, Oregon. I’ve also included a photo of Crater<br />
Lake, Oregon (near Medford), which was formed when a volcano erupted and the<br />
cone fell inward. The cone is now known as “Wizard Island” because of its conical shape.<br />
Currently, we live in the United Arab Emirates. After more than 14 years in Belgium, we moved<br />
here in 2014. The UAE borders the Arabian Gulf and much of its early and current economy -<br />
shipping, tourism, water sports, sailing - relies on the water. The sale of natural pearls was the<br />
basis of its economy for decades in the past. The desert, however, is what most<br />
people associate with the UAE.<br />
Today the<br />
government<br />
Dubai<br />
is<br />
trying to restore<br />
the natural wildlife<br />
- the Arabian oryx<br />
and mountain<br />
gazelle.<br />
Falcons<br />
are not native to<br />
the area, but they<br />
are trained for<br />
hunting. The first<br />
were captured<br />
while on their<br />
migratory routes.<br />
They are now bred<br />
for sale. Because of<br />
the efforts of the<br />
UAE<br />
government<br />
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to restore natural wildlife, no<br />
hunting is allowed in the UAE.<br />
Falcon owners therefore must<br />
travel to hunt. Falcons are the<br />
only animals permitted in the<br />
cabin of commercial aircraft in<br />
or out of the UAE.<br />
The Liwa area, where the Empty<br />
Quarter of the Emirate of Abu<br />
Dhabi meets the Empty Quarter<br />
of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,<br />
is the high desert. This is where<br />
the largest dunes of the UAE are<br />
to be found.<br />
Most of these photographs were taken with an iPhone 8Plus. Aerial photos were taken from<br />
the window of a commercial flight. The Crater Lake photo was taken with the standard<br />
daylight filter on the 35mm lens with a Pentax DA SLR.<br />
Judy Furukawa is originally from the Pacific<br />
Northwest. She and her husband have lived<br />
in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates since<br />
2014 after more than 14 years in Waterloo,<br />
Belgium, where they raised their daughter.<br />
As there is no longer an active club in Dubai,<br />
Judy remains a member of the Brussels AWC.<br />
She is a past president and board member of<br />
the AWCB, has served as FAWCO<br />
Parliamentarian and has been the<br />
Citizenship Chair on the US Issues Team since<br />
2012. Her professional background is in<br />
education, and immigration and farmworker<br />
law. Her hobbies include travel, mah-jongg<br />
and photography.<br />
82
Krystal Kenney<br />
Now, more than ever, it is important to<br />
be able to take photographs. People<br />
are traveling more, raising families,<br />
starting businesses, and we all have a<br />
camera with us at all times, it’s called<br />
a phone! Social media is a useful tool<br />
for our private businesses and it's<br />
important to share with people in our<br />
lives and at work.<br />
I have been a photographer for over<br />
10 years and traveled the world<br />
photographing people and events<br />
before finally landing in Paris, where I<br />
started my full-time portrait company. Today, I would like to teach you how to take better<br />
photos of people with any type of camera including your smartphone, point and shoot camera,<br />
or a big DSLR professional camera. The following techniques can be used with all of the above<br />
types of camera and will help you to feel more confident while creating beautiful photographs<br />
of people in your life.<br />
#1 Timing is everything!<br />
Whenever possible it’s so important to shoot<br />
at sunset or sunrise. I always push for sunrise<br />
because there are usually fewer people<br />
around as well. These “golden hours” are<br />
the best time to shoot because the light is<br />
soft and airy, and it also creates a beautiful<br />
halo effect around your subjects' faces and<br />
bodies. Whenever possible, try to put the<br />
sun behind them, because no one looks<br />
good with bright sun shining in their face<br />
and blinding them, leaving them with<br />
squinty closed eyes.<br />
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#2 Never force a smile.<br />
The goal of my photography is to always create a natural<br />
impression. Whether I am shooting family portraits or an event I<br />
constantly chat with my clients to put them at ease. I never say<br />
SMILE!!!! Anytime you tell someone to smile on cue you will get the<br />
fakest smile; everyone turns into a deer in the headlights in that<br />
situation. Instead, I give verbal cues such as “Look into your<br />
partner’s eyes” or for children I tell their parents “Give the kids a<br />
tickle, or a big hug, tell your mom a secret.” The key to being a<br />
good photographer is anticipating moments, coming up with<br />
situations to create the moment you are dreaming of capturing.<br />
Also, especially for children it is important to give them more<br />
control. I ask kids “Would you rather run to the camera, or jump off<br />
that bench?” If you give kids some control in the situation, they are<br />
more likely to give you more of what you want.<br />
#3 Change your perspective.<br />
Whenever you are shooting children or pets it is important to get on their eye line. And by that, I<br />
mean the eye should always be your focus point; after all it is the window to the soul. Make sure<br />
to get down on the ground so that your camera is even with their eyes. If you are shooting your<br />
family with different sizes of kids, I recommend the taller kids pick up the smaller kids so they are
all on the same horizon for sight. If<br />
you shoot down a kid's face it will<br />
make their head look huge and not<br />
give you the realistic angle you are<br />
searching for. When it comes to<br />
shooting adult women, I do just the<br />
opposite, I try to shoot down a little<br />
at their heads because this creates<br />
a slimming effect. I climb up on<br />
benches or stairs to get these<br />
angles. It also creates a more<br />
interesting photograph for the<br />
viewer's eye if you can change your<br />
everyday perspective.<br />
#4 Give people something to do<br />
with their hands.<br />
People are always uncomfortable in<br />
general with being photographed<br />
and never know what to do with<br />
their hands. For couples I always tell<br />
them to hold hands and look at<br />
each other as they walk to me. For<br />
business portraits I have the subject<br />
hold onto a book or use a<br />
computer. If they are a chef have<br />
them prepare a plate or hold a<br />
cooking utensil. There is always a<br />
way to work a prop into your photos<br />
which will help your subject feel<br />
more comfortable and create a<br />
better photo.<br />
#5 Focus on the eyes<br />
As mentioned above the eyes are the windows to the soul and it’s so important that no matter<br />
the camera, you put the focus box on the subject's eyes. To put people at ease sometimes I tell<br />
them to close their eyes and take a deep breath and think of something funny, or I tell a joke,<br />
then I tell them quickly to open their eyes. In that split second you can capture someone's true<br />
relaxed look.<br />
#6 Simplify your backgrounds<br />
If your main subject is the person or<br />
people make sure you don't have<br />
any distracting backgrounds. I try<br />
to put people in front of wide-open<br />
spaces or plain walls. Also, make<br />
sure you don’t have anything<br />
strange sticking out of their head<br />
like a tree branch or a building; you<br />
can easily move yourself to avoid<br />
objects creeping into your shot.<br />
Remember that people are trusting<br />
you to tell them what to do. Pay<br />
attention to your surroundings.<br />
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#7 Leading lines and the rule of thirds<br />
This comes down to the foundations of<br />
photography. Leading lines are lines that<br />
lead the viewer's eyes into your subject. They<br />
can be anything from a row of trees to a<br />
house or a wall. You want to attract the<br />
human eye to your subject. The rule of thirds<br />
consists of placing your subject a bit to the<br />
left or the right of your photo. You never<br />
want to place your subject directly in the<br />
center of a photograph because this is<br />
unappealing to the human eye. I<br />
recommend turning on your grid lines so you<br />
can practice using the rule of thirds. It’s easy to do either on a smartphone or a DSLR.<br />
#8 Imagine a fist above your subject’s head<br />
You always want to imagine a human fist above the person’s head before you take the shot.<br />
This is important because when you print the photo, the printer will always crop the photo,<br />
leaving you with a smaller image. If you do not leave some extra space above your subject’s<br />
face you will end up with chopped heads and body parts. Try not to chop your subject’s limbs<br />
off either, such as their feet and hands.<br />
#9 Shoot through something<br />
This idea comes back to composition. If you<br />
can shoot through flowers or a tree to<br />
frame your subject you will create a more<br />
interesting photo. Also, you can use<br />
landscapes to frame your subject, such as<br />
shooting through a bridge or buildings to<br />
create an urban frame around the people<br />
in your photo.<br />
#10 Have fun and break the rules<br />
Every great artist knows we learn the rules<br />
so we can break them. I hope the above<br />
rules will help you to take better photos of<br />
people but also don’t be afraid to play around and bend them. People will give you better<br />
poses if they feel comfortable around you. They will feel your energy, so make sure to laugh and<br />
have fun with them!<br />
If you want more, I also offer one-on-one photo lessons online from everything for iPhone to<br />
DSLR cameras on any subject. Contact me today to learn more and<br />
don't forget to check out my podcast, where I interview a different<br />
creative in Paris every week. La Vie Creative Podcast can be found<br />
on iTunes and Spotify.<br />
Krystal Kenney, a member of AWG Paris, is from Maryland but has called<br />
Paris, France home for the last eight years after she decided to move her<br />
photography business abroad. Since then she has won multiple awards for<br />
her photography and worked with many highly acclaimed clients including<br />
the American Ambassador to France, the Musee d’Orsay, and the Louvre.<br />
She specializes in event and portrait photography and runs a podcast<br />
based in Paris in which she interviews creatives weekly, called La Vie<br />
Creative Podcast. https://www.missparisphoto.com/<br />
85
Always Thinking Big<br />
Picture in Germany<br />
ANNETTE WENDLAND<br />
Member: Munich International <strong>Women</strong>’s Club.<br />
Germany<br />
From: Germany<br />
Lives: In a small town on one of the two lakes just<br />
south of Munich<br />
Annette’s Story in Images<br />
An image that inspires me:<br />
This image was taken at the Tate Modern, during an exhibition of Olafur Eliasson. I love the way<br />
we became part of the art work, our silhouettes clearly defined. But the reason I chose this<br />
image is that I have made it my screensaver on my mobile phone, reminding me daily to think in<br />
broader terms, be open, explore whenever possible and most importantly to stay curious!<br />
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A photo to be my legacy:<br />
One of my earliest images, taken on the<br />
beach of St. Peter Ording, northern Germany.<br />
The beach is the Wadden Sea World Heritage<br />
site, wonderful for long walks and many sports<br />
activities. For me it is important, as it was one<br />
of the first images I sold as a free-lance<br />
photographer; in this case it featured in the<br />
UK edition of the Condé Nast Traveller.<br />
An image where circumstances were<br />
not as they first seemed:<br />
This is an image of my youngest<br />
niece, which was taken for the<br />
book The Family Kitchen Garden.<br />
Both my nieces had been very<br />
generous playing model for the<br />
day, but to get that last shot in<br />
before the sunset, the only thing<br />
that got that inquisitive and cheeky<br />
smile was thanks to my sister<br />
emptying a bottle of water over my<br />
head while I was clicking away. It<br />
worked - it caught my niece’s<br />
attention and she could not stop<br />
laughing at me!<br />
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A photo my family would know<br />
was mine:<br />
Flowers! Close-up, in a bunch or<br />
caught during a garden tour, they<br />
are filling up my archives more than<br />
any other subject. Following a<br />
couple of trips to the well-known<br />
English gardens of the Loire, more<br />
had been planned for this year, now<br />
next year… It is always a fun week<br />
with friends, staying in boutique<br />
hotels, exploring regional food and<br />
of course visiting glorious gardens.<br />
My last image before COVID-19:<br />
For many years now a group of us<br />
have been organizing a yearly girlie<br />
weekend. We do not always<br />
succeed but mostly we manage to<br />
find a time to suit us all. At the end of<br />
January we traveled to Bologna:<br />
what a wonderful city, just perfect<br />
for a long weekend. It really has so<br />
much to offer on the food and<br />
cultural front that it did not matter<br />
that it rained most of the time. This is<br />
a view into a shop selling<br />
homemade pasta – just one of many<br />
they have!<br />
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An image that evokes ...<br />
… a happy<br />
day:<br />
W h a t a<br />
glorious view<br />
early morning<br />
in December.<br />
I was just on<br />
my way to the<br />
airport to visit<br />
my nieces, so<br />
not just a<br />
happy day<br />
but a happy<br />
week!<br />
… a treasured possession:<br />
Those who know me will<br />
not be surprised to learn<br />
m y m o s t t r e a sured<br />
possession is my cat<br />
(although the word<br />
“possession” may not be<br />
100% correct.) In this photo<br />
still a kitten, she is now just<br />
over 18 months old, keeps<br />
me on my toes and also<br />
keeps me sane, especially<br />
during these bizarre times.<br />
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… laughter:<br />
In September 2018, this art installation of King Ludwig II was exhibited in the park of<br />
Nymphenburg Palace - just a reminder that there is always something to do and see in Munich!<br />
… nature:<br />
The view of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, Switzerland: gorgeous views and hikes and a<br />
place I have spent many a holiday.<br />
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Annette’s Story in Words<br />
I was born in Germany, but we moved when I was eight years old to the San Francisco area. A<br />
great experience, not knowing a word of English and the first time overseas - it was an exciting<br />
time for me!<br />
My family continued to move regularly between the US, Germany and Switzerland, after which I<br />
studied Hotel Management in Switzerland. I continued to travel frequently, working in the UK,<br />
Germany, United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong before moving back to London and restarting<br />
a new career in photography.<br />
Photography was always something that I was interested in, but admittedly I did not venture<br />
beyond the traditional family photo until I started working and was able to take evening<br />
courses on various subjects from basics to developing film to using large-format cameras. When<br />
I reached a point in my career where I had to decide what my next step would be, I asked<br />
myself, what is it I really want to do for the rest of my life, budgets and marketing plans or<br />
perhaps photography. It was something I had to give a go, so off I went to study photography.<br />
Today I live in Bavaria, close to Munich, about an hour south on the Ammersee, one of the two<br />
lakes just south of Munich. I had been living and working in London for some time, and my initial<br />
plan was not to move to Munich. I came back for family reasons. The plan was for a short stay,<br />
but Munich and the area are so lovely that I got stuck and have now lived here for about 10<br />
years. But I found myself missing the English language and the international vibe. I joined MIWC,<br />
so that void has been filled now and I am enjoying my time here more each year.<br />
THE INSPIRING WOMEN TEAM IS<br />
“AUDITIONING” FOR ITS NEXT<br />
ISSUE! WE ARE ON A ”STAR<br />
SEARCH” FOR STORIES, PHOTO<br />
FEATURES, ARTICLES (OR PERHAPS<br />
A POEM!) FOR OUR THEME<br />
“WOMEN IN DRAMA”!<br />
91<br />
We are looking for 700-800-word max. pieces on women in drama (front of house or behind the scenes).<br />
Interested? For more details contact our editor now at: inspiringwomen.editor@fawco.org<br />
The deadline for submitting the feature is October 9th.
On a warm spring afternoon, my grandmother<br />
was busily painting flowers of the season while<br />
occasionally explaining the techniques to me.<br />
Since retirement as an art historian, she got a<br />
job painting Chinese watercolored plants and<br />
writing poems on white silks that are made<br />
into handkerchiefs and Chinese dresses for the<br />
foreign tourists. In the 1990s, tourism was<br />
becoming an important industry in China, and<br />
visitors to Beijing adored the traditional<br />
Chinese arts and crafts. Occasionally, I asked<br />
my grandmother questions about how to use<br />
the brush to bring liveliness to the petals and leaves. It never occurred to me to try to paint<br />
since I have been too busy trying to adjust to new school systems, languages, and cultures.<br />
Vickie Bu<br />
Suddenly, I heard a buzzing sound and it took me a while to realize that it was my alarm clock. I<br />
slowly woke up from my dream. I was actually in my humble one-room apartment in<br />
Heidelberg, Germany on a cold rainy morning at the end of November. I got ready for<br />
breakfast before starting my morning<br />
routine of reading books and learning<br />
languages. In addition to reading, I<br />
have also been enjoying crochet and<br />
knitting once the colorful autumn<br />
leaves start to fall. Throughout the<br />
day, my thoughts turned to my<br />
childhood adoration of colors and<br />
feeling of coming home whenever I<br />
visited art museums.<br />
It took me a few days to find a store<br />
where I could purchase decentquality<br />
yet relatively affordable art<br />
supplies. I tried out my first watercolor<br />
practice on December 2, 2019, after<br />
visiting the Christmas Market with a<br />
friend. I love the atmosphere of the Weihnachtsmarkt with its warmly lit shops selling all sorts of<br />
Christmas specialties from spiced tea mix and sweet delights to decorative candles and cookie<br />
cutters. While tasting some Wurst and drinking Glühwein, we talked about my friend’s recent<br />
vacation to Peru and her other adventures throughout Latin America, Southeast Asia, and<br />
Europe. Once I got home, I tried out my watercolor set and brushes immediately. My first<br />
attempt was awful and it took me some time before I could control the amount of water. I<br />
drew a series of Christmas cards and gave them out along with my crocheted Christmas tree<br />
ornaments as presents.<br />
92<br />
New Year <strong>2020</strong> started with the usual selforganized<br />
fireworks celebration in<br />
Heidelberg and probably in much of the<br />
world as well. As I admired the beautiful<br />
explosion of colorful flowers lighting up<br />
the sky, I was grateful for the usual scene<br />
of conviviality. I had been following<br />
closely the news about new types of lifethreatening<br />
coronaviruses coming out of<br />
Wuhan, China. It was important for me<br />
to get a holistic picture of the situation<br />
through watching various media in
Chinese, Japanese, English and a few other languages<br />
that I could understand. It was disheartening to watch<br />
reports of lives lost and the authorities scrambling for<br />
answers. My carefree days of just picking up a bag and<br />
purchasing a train ticket for spontaneous trips would be<br />
over for the unforeseeable future. I also stopped going to<br />
gatherings, because I recognized the severity of the<br />
situation and I could potentially be a target for racist<br />
crimes against East Asians.<br />
I prepared myself mentally from Christmas onward, since<br />
lockdown could mean spending most of the time at home<br />
in isolation alone, and the days are easily meld into a<br />
seamless whole. The word pandemic brings to my mind<br />
historical and faraway stories such as the Black Death that<br />
swept through medieval Europe and Spanish Flu of 1918.<br />
As the number of infections and deaths due to COVID-19<br />
increased worldwide, travel restrictions came into effect. A<br />
sense of euphoria was in the air at the bar near my home<br />
the day before the lockdown on March 24, <strong>2020</strong>. After five<br />
years of absence from Facebook, I reconnected with<br />
many of my friends from around the world who work at<br />
hospitals, grocery stores, and other essential lines of work.<br />
They expressed fear and a sense of responsibility. I sent out numerous messages of<br />
encouragement because it was difficult remembering our conversations about their excitement<br />
and aspirations during our schooldays and now they were going to risk their lives.<br />
I used the time wisely to reflect on new directions in life and<br />
my connection to the world through drawing my own<br />
calendar this year with a theme of celebrating subtle<br />
seasonal transformation and writing a creative journal about<br />
my journey. My family members, friends and I sent each<br />
other interesting stories, practical tips, self-made masks,<br />
recipes and photography on various topics during the<br />
lockdown. The only thing I would do differently in the future is<br />
to accomplish my dreams as quickly as possible and to visit<br />
family and friends more often.<br />
Vickie Bu is a Canadian<br />
citizen who was born in<br />
Beijing and spent her<br />
early years in Tokyo<br />
before attending high<br />
school on the west coast<br />
of the United States.<br />
After graduating with a<br />
B.A. in Political Science<br />
and Public Policy from Toronto University, Vickie also studied in<br />
Paris and Vienna before moving to Germany. These days she<br />
works as receptionist in a hotel in Heidelberg and is a member<br />
of the Heidelberg International <strong>Women</strong>'s Club. Vickie is always<br />
looking forward to exciting new adventures in life.<br />
93
Photographing the<br />
Dream from Paris<br />
COLLEEN SHAUGHNESSY-LARSSON<br />
Member: Association of American <strong>Women</strong> in<br />
Europe, Paris, France<br />
From: ”Originally, the United States”<br />
Lives: Paris, France<br />
Colleen’s Story in Images<br />
A favorite photo of me:<br />
This is Beijing, October 1988. My<br />
husband, Erik, is always taking<br />
photos of me taking photos. I like<br />
this one because it has history and<br />
was taken in a different era of<br />
China. We traveled from Sweden to<br />
Finland by ship, then a night train<br />
from Helsinki to Moscow. The Trans-<br />
Siberian took us to Beijing, which<br />
was the only place we had made a<br />
hotel reservation.<br />
It was an interesting trip. We found<br />
that individual travelers were<br />
restricted from making plane<br />
reservations and eating in westernstyle<br />
restaurants. Then in a smaller<br />
town we were able to make one<br />
flight reservation. We were bemused<br />
once on the flight, when the<br />
captain said, “Prepare for landing”,<br />
all the passengers stood up, took<br />
their bags out of the overhead bins<br />
and stood for landing.<br />
94<br />
In China, we were truly visual to the<br />
inhabitants. We were asked to<br />
smuggle out photographs to the<br />
West. It was intriguing. The country<br />
would experience Tiananmen<br />
Square seven months later.
An image that inspires me:<br />
While on a Senegal river voyage on a converted freighter, we stopped in the Thiangaye village.<br />
The girls were excited to be using my phone to take a photo of me. They followed us everywhere<br />
through the village we were visiting.<br />
The image makes me smile more than laugh when I think that young women are similar in all<br />
cultures: curious and liking fashion, jewelry and gadgets. They want to break out and try new<br />
things and be more confident.<br />
One of my early photos:<br />
I have many photos even<br />
earlier, but this is one of those<br />
that stands out in my memory.<br />
It shows three sisters from<br />
Canada at Crystal River,<br />
Florida. There were no waves,<br />
but seeing them holding up<br />
their shorts and their standing<br />
positions, it was too irresistible.<br />
95
A photo my family would know was mine:<br />
Spontaneity makes my images<br />
recognizable. When I walk around with<br />
my camera I look for movement or an<br />
object that will change the static view.<br />
This location is an oasis village in<br />
southern Morocco. I saw these girls<br />
peeking around the corner. It was one<br />
of those “blink of an eye” moments.<br />
Anyone who knows me knows that,<br />
when I have the camera, the walk will<br />
take longer as I spend time looking at<br />
everything possible.<br />
My legacy photos:<br />
These images on the streets of Beijing and the Forbidden City are from 1988. They are part of a<br />
set. Before the negative was damaged, all four were printed and hung together in four<br />
separate frames in my apartments. In 2010 my niece, Elyse, wanted to carry on the set and has<br />
hung them wherever she moved. She guards the legacy of a bygone era.<br />
96
An image where circumstances were not as they first seemed: Why are these people sitting next<br />
to a cow’s head in a field in Elerai West Kilamanjaro, Tanzania? The man is accompanied by his<br />
mother, in the middle, and his wife. He has turned 50 and will now be able to drink alcohol in<br />
front of women. Younger men will butcher the cattle and he will be the mentor.<br />
Villagers from the surrounding area walked miles to attend. The sight of hundreds of them<br />
coming through the fields towards us, all in their colorful attire with impressive hair, ear, neck and<br />
ankle beaded adornment, was a remarkably, visual experience.<br />
For the coming<br />
- o f - a g e<br />
ceremony, the<br />
cow’s head is<br />
carried on the<br />
shoulder of<br />
another Massai<br />
in a parade<br />
c e l e b r a t i o n .<br />
There is often<br />
much singing,<br />
dancing and<br />
drinking during<br />
a celebration.<br />
An image that<br />
could be replicated<br />
as a painting:<br />
Coincidentally, this<br />
is the latest photo<br />
of mine that my<br />
artist sister, Kathy,<br />
saw and wanted<br />
to paint. The<br />
location is Rue<br />
Cremieux, near<br />
Gare de Lyon on<br />
a street noted for<br />
i t s c o l o r f u l<br />
facades. This<br />
house stands out<br />
as being different<br />
from the others<br />
because of its<br />
p r o v i n c i a l ,<br />
p e a c e f u l<br />
a p p e a r a n c e<br />
during the COVID-<br />
19 lockdown.<br />
97
An image that evokes ...<br />
… a sense other than sight:<br />
Sound. April 15, one month into lockdown. No planes, no boats, barely any people. Even the<br />
water was silent.<br />
… a happy day:<br />
Every day is a happy day when traveling. It is always difficult to choose. But these were<br />
especially happy Massai girls in Lake Natron, Tanzania, playing with the water and chasing each<br />
other around.<br />
98
… laughter:<br />
As with any<br />
d e p a r t u r e<br />
from a fun<br />
destination,<br />
there is lastm<br />
i n u t e<br />
scurrying in<br />
the airport<br />
gift shops to<br />
take back<br />
s o u v e n i r s .<br />
Across from<br />
the cigar<br />
shop was this<br />
publicity cutout.<br />
I couldn’t<br />
miss out on<br />
the lastminute<br />
idyllic<br />
image of<br />
Costa Rica!<br />
Although our vacation was entirely in nature with green and cloud forests, full of colorful birds,<br />
volcanoes and scenery, who could resist Santa on the beach? This ironic image makes me<br />
laugh with smiling memories of an enjoyable December vacation 1,000 km/670 miles north of<br />
the equator.<br />
… tears:<br />
This image conveys more shock and sadness than a tear. This is April 16, the day after the Notre<br />
-Dame fire. This member of the fire brigade became like one of the perching, staring<br />
grotesques<br />
designed by<br />
E u g è n e<br />
V i o l l e t - le-<br />
Duc in the<br />
1840s. With<br />
his phone,<br />
h e i s<br />
r e c o r d i n g<br />
images of<br />
t h e<br />
damagehe<br />
can see of<br />
the roofless<br />
Notre-Dame<br />
de Paris from<br />
above.<br />
99
… anger:<br />
My maternal uncle, Johnnie,<br />
believed in reincarnation. One<br />
day, while I was in rural Haines<br />
City, Florida, I looked out and saw<br />
a larger-than-normal Eastern Black<br />
Swallowtail on a recently planted<br />
bush, blooming in my mother’s<br />
favorite color, powder blue.<br />
Butterflies are unknown there.<br />
I grabbed my camera and moved<br />
in closer and closer. The butterfly<br />
kept sipping the nectar as if I were<br />
not there. After I had taken about<br />
30 shots from different angles, it<br />
finally flew away.<br />
I knew it was my mother come back to say hello before she took her final flight to the garden<br />
in the sky. A few days earlier, she had been in a tragic car accident, crushed when a speeding<br />
Ford Explorer drove on top of her. The inebriated driver, wearing no seatbelt, was thrown from<br />
the vehicle, landed in a field and eventually went to jail for 10 years. She was released in <strong>2020</strong>.<br />
That makes me a little angry, but I know my mother went to a happier place.<br />
Life in South Dade County, south of Miami,<br />
was about boating in Biscayne Bay or slow<br />
cruising along the many Florida rivers. Next<br />
came the camping period in small family<br />
groups around Florida, heading north for family visits or crossing the United States several times.<br />
Due to a medical issue, my father was able to combine his vacation and sick time. In a country<br />
that provides 1–2 weeks vacation, we spent six weeks annually on vacation.<br />
Colleen’s Story in Words<br />
At the age of 16, I began my travel and photo independence by me traveling to Canada and<br />
the World’s Fair. By the age of 22, confused with life, unhappy in marriage, I “prostituted” myself<br />
you could say and followed a military husband to Germany in order to travel. After the tour of<br />
duty, I knew I would return to Europe anyway possible. After many ups and downs in life,<br />
securing college degrees and planning, within the decade I returned to Europe traveling with a<br />
friend and basically never left.<br />
Photography became important in my life with my first Kodak Instamatic. When my camera was<br />
stolen in Greece, I felt lonely, empty and had to replace it. I think a camera gives me a<br />
temporary sense of confidence, not shyness, not wanting to invade another’s space if they see<br />
me, even though I was educated as a photojournalist.<br />
Living in Paris has been a long European journey that started in 1992. I also met my soulmate,<br />
Erik, who had a job in Paris. By this time I was working with American Airlines, commuting<br />
between Paris and Chicago for 20 years. During that time my website colleensparis.com came<br />
to life; it is resting right now with occasional updates.<br />
Since 2010 I have been a member of Toastmasters International. Toastmasters gave me the selfconfidence<br />
(which is still a work in progress) to test my leadership abilities in various club and<br />
district roles. Today, I am the Division Director in North France with 700 members and 31 clubs.<br />
Many of the older photos in this collection are from scanned images in photo albums. Life<br />
doesn’t stop until it stops. To quote myself: “Enjoy the moment, it only happens once.”<br />
100
“Between worlds, time, space, matter, air and<br />
ice. I stumble about staring indecently at<br />
erotic auroras, blindingly blue glaciers, at<br />
landscapes so giant I feel curiously dwarfed.<br />
Immersed, untethered, unable to absorb. This<br />
fragile sacred place makes me weep and<br />
warp. Ghostly pioneers and portals appear, I<br />
disappear….”<br />
[DIARY EXCERPT / EXHIBIT INTRODUCTION]<br />
It’s October 1, 2018. We set sail at sunset. Near<br />
midnight we’re still gliding through the crisp<br />
Arctic waters. Below deck, many are grasping<br />
their phones, watching their<br />
connection with the “real world”<br />
dwindle. Above deck, a few souls<br />
are braving the tooth-chattering<br />
cold. We’re sprinkled with snow and<br />
admiring deadly icicles dangling<br />
from the rigging. Not a bone in my<br />
body wants to go indoors, not until<br />
my nose freezes off!<br />
Barquentine tall ship. My shipmates are<br />
scientists and artists. Feeling elated I look up to<br />
welcome the snow. I yelp loudly as I watch a<br />
green fleck turn into a giant aurora that soaks<br />
the ship and the entire bay in its magical<br />
dancing light. My heart bursts with glee, and<br />
it’s only our first night on board!<br />
Four weeks spent in utter glorious awe of true<br />
adventure: it’s exhilarating, purifying and<br />
awakening. I feel change and sense that<br />
nothing in my life will ever be the same. The<br />
“musts,” “needs” and incessant “doing” melt<br />
away and morph into a delirious, curious<br />
childlike state of simply “being.”<br />
“This is actually happening,” I<br />
remind myself as a lifelong dream is<br />
unfolding. I’m on an Arctic<br />
expedition, heading north in the<br />
Svalbard Archipelago, on a<br />
101
during landings: laying down a line of road<br />
markings made of waxed parchment as a<br />
symbolic intrusion into this pristine world.<br />
We push up north through treacherous<br />
weather and eventually make it to 400 km<br />
from the North Pole. I witness everything with<br />
newfound awareness. We stand on rocks<br />
where whalers stood centuries ago and visit<br />
ghost towns that tell tales of broken dreams. I<br />
feel akin to the pioneers who risked their lives<br />
to explore these unchartered territories and<br />
find myself obsessed by them.<br />
With epic hiking adventures and long spells to<br />
do our art, I’m in my element. I photograph the<br />
landscape, document artwork, wear my<br />
replica of Captain Scott’s snow goggles and<br />
do a performance ritual “Paving the Way”<br />
Our expedition on the Antigua feels urgent.<br />
We sit on deck, our silence broken<br />
occasionally by a passionate discussion about<br />
current issues, but in hushed tones. It seems the<br />
landscape requires this reverence. The further<br />
north we sail, the more silent I fall. This place<br />
takes my breath away. I feel humbled,<br />
insignificant and dwarfed into oblivion.<br />
Oftentimes I can’t even move my camera to<br />
my eye and choose instead to simply merge<br />
with this divinity. I begin experiencing a state<br />
of being “between,” a feeling of transient,<br />
unseen energy.<br />
The expedition becomes symbolic for my inner<br />
journey. The endless Polar desert, the stark<br />
mountain peaks, melting glaciers, white<br />
belugas, the armed guides, the bear tracks,<br />
the light shockingly diminishing by twenty<br />
minutes a day, all of it a message, an insight,<br />
even now. And how it moved me. The Arctic<br />
still pulls at my heartstrings today, like a lover<br />
lost at sea.<br />
I lost – and found – myself on this journey. I<br />
have always struggled to do what I love and<br />
likely what I was born to do. My quest<br />
102
continues through a new series of<br />
art. Using a process of photocompositing,<br />
I place human<br />
figures (archetypes of the human<br />
condition) into the purity of the<br />
Arctic landscape. It’s a symbolic<br />
“reclaiming of the self” process<br />
and a reminder to consider our<br />
fragile blue planet and also our<br />
time on it. As Mary Oliver so<br />
profoundly wrote, “What is it you<br />
plan to do with your one wild and<br />
precious life?”<br />
103<br />
Patricia Ramaer, member of<br />
AWC Central Scotland & AWC<br />
Amsterdam, got stranded in<br />
Scotland after graduating with<br />
her Masters in Fine Art and<br />
Humanities and fell in love with<br />
the wild, remote landscape.<br />
Originally from Vancouver,<br />
Canada, she is addicted to art,<br />
early photography, mysticism<br />
and exploring the great<br />
outdoors. The Quantum Artist.<br />
Mystic. Visionary. Explorer<br />
www.patriciaramaer.com<br />
www.authorinteriors.com/<br />
spotlight-on-the-makerpatricia-ramaer
<strong>Inspiring</strong> You<br />
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• to build strong support networks for its American and international membership;<br />
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104
More About This Issue<br />
For more information about this magazine, please contact a member of the <strong>Inspiring</strong><br />
<strong>Women</strong> team:<br />
Editor in Chief, Liz MacNiven, inspiringwomen.editor@fawco.org.<br />
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The <strong>Inspiring</strong> <strong>Women</strong> Team<br />
Liz Elsie Karen Berit Michele<br />
Acknowledgements:<br />
Thanks to our profilees Annette, Colleen, Deborah, Haley, Judes, Maureen, Monica<br />
and Tamara, and to Barbara (AWC The Hague) for taking the time to participate in<br />
this edition and for the use of their photos and those of their friends and families.<br />
Thanks also to Ania, Brigitte, Cyndy, Judy, Karen, Krystal, My-Linh, Patricia, Tharien and<br />
Vicky for their pieces, as well as to all the people who contributed to the Souvenir<br />
Photos feature!<br />
Special thanks to the proofreading team of Karen Boeker (AWC Denmark), Laurie<br />
Brooks (AWC Amsterdam/AWC The Hague), Sallie Chaballier (AAWE Paris), Janet<br />
Davis (AIWC Cologne), Mary Dobrian (AIWC Cologne), Janis Kaas (AAWE Paris/<br />
FAUSA), Carol-Lyn McKelvey (AIWC Cologne/FAUSA), Lauren Mescon (AWC<br />
Amsterdam), Mary Stewart Burgher (AWC Denmark) and Jenny Taylor (AIWC<br />
Cologne and Düsseldorf).<br />
Copyright <strong>2020</strong> FAWCO<br />
<strong>Inspiring</strong> <strong>Women</strong>© Magazine is owned and published electronically by FAWCO.<br />
All rights reserved. All bylined articles are copyright of their respective authors as indicated herein and<br />
are reproduced with their permission. The magazine or portions of it may not be reproduced in any form,<br />
stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical,<br />
photocopy or otherwise – without written consent of the publisher.<br />
105
The Cover Photo<br />
”Me2: Lindsey” (2009) - by Aviva Brooks<br />
“I could have become the person I ‘should’ have become in<br />
New York. But I forgot to leave Paris. That day, my life<br />
changed paths. And the funny thing is that this path crosses<br />
others, lots of others, that are where they are also by chance<br />
or a split-second decision. These are photos of me, they’ve<br />
become photos of us.”<br />
30 years ago, Aviva Brooks, member of AAWE Paris, left Wall<br />
Street for Paris, where she lives and works today in<br />
photography, painting, and video. In 2009, during an artist<br />
residency, she took a look at her childhood friends’ lives in<br />
New York and brought back a series of photos that, although<br />
very personal at first, touched on a more widely shared<br />
feeling: apparently, a lot of us often ask ourselves “What<br />
would my life be like if…?” It’s about the life that we didn’t<br />
live, our “normal”, that in turn - and with time - became a fantasy of its own, and to which we<br />
often refer in our moments of reflection.<br />
A cross-disciplinary American artist, Aviva draws on the contrast between American and French<br />
cultures, she explores the interstices, the tension that separates – or unites – the visual and the<br />
written, the action and the thought, the energetic immediacy and the distant elegance, the<br />
present and the past, childhood and adulthood, American black or white and European<br />
shades of grey. On her way, she paints artifacts from the passage of time, thus documenting<br />
the tipping point where an era becomes the “past” : telephone booths, public benches,<br />
Volkswagen "combis", neon signs…<br />
In addition, Aviva works with Parisian hospitals to transform their environment, incorporating<br />
soothing and uplifting art into waiting rooms, examining rooms, and patient rooms https://<br />
www.steakfritesproductions.com/the-h-art-project https://avivabrooks.com<br />
The Back Page Photo<br />
“From Below” (2017) - by Ania Audi<br />
“When not traveling I regularly go out to do some street<br />
photography around Paris. In July 2017, I heard of an interesting<br />
event by artistic director Pierre Sauvageot called ‘Grand<br />
Ensemble’. It was described as a dialogue between an<br />
apartment building and a symphonic orchestra.<br />
The orchestra played on a building’s balconies and the public sat<br />
or stood and watched from the square down below. It was a<br />
great success as hundreds of people turned up to watch and<br />
listen. I sat on the ground to take photos of the musicians, at one<br />
point looking up and seeing a woman taking a photo right above<br />
me. I thought the perspective was funny and took this photo of<br />
her taking a picture.”<br />
Ania has also created a photo essay for the magazine which you<br />
can find on p.20<br />
106
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