with love from sarajevo
The Project
In the summer of 2008, I came on holiday to Sarajevo, the home of my parents and grandparents, and for the first time saw true destruction. The occasional building was in shambles, of course, but truly haunting was the city's people. Fragmented and disturbed by years of war, a yoke of hopelessness burdens the people of BiH in a way one can't understand without seeing it.
Still pondering this despair later at the Sarajevo film festival, I perhaps serendipitously sat in on a talk by Kevin Spacey. Not normally one to be swayed by movie stars, I was surprised when the Usual Suspects star moved me. He said he was glad to see how art could bring people together despite the fact that, less than a decade prior, they had been literally and figuratively torn apart by war. It was then and there that I decided to begin a project of my own, a project designed to bring the people of BiH together with art, if only for a few precious moments.
With the help of some of the best photographers I know, I intend to tour Bosnia and Herzegovina and document her post-war landscape. The photographs and stories we collect will be used to remind other outsiders that even when battlefields fall silent, the scourge of war remains. More than simply documentarians, however, our collective will also serve as young ambassadors. Our project in BiH will not be complete until we give back to the community, holding photography workshops with interested young citizens. The conclusion of their lessons will be the students taking cameras for themselves to explore their world through - pardon the pun - a whole new lens. Their images and ours in tow, we'll then hold gallery shows in New York and Los Angeles and, if luck allows, the war-torn lands of the Middle East. As much as it is a mission to present the dangers of aggression and violence, it's also one designed to highlight the benefits of kindness, compassion and education.
Donations
I'll be frank: we need money. We need to pay for plane tickets, hotels, cars, the venue in BiH, the shipping of art, cameras for the kids, etc. In today’s economy, corporations aren't giving to charity the way they once were, and, unfortunately, art still makes criminally few of its purveyors rich. So we need donations from the public to make this happen. We will take anything. If you can donate $1, then we are $1 closer to our goal, and you will be a part of a small but important step in fixing yet another rotten disaster heaped on innocent people. Please tell your friends, family and anyone who may be interested. Even if you can't donate, the word of mouth is helpful.
Thank You,
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