Category Archives: Pictures

We’re Not in Kansas, but …

I love what Sean Tevis is doing. He’s a thoughtful, committed guy who wants to make life better for his neighbors. He ran for office last year and lost—and seems to have frightened the old guard in his area half to death. With good reason. He’s intelligent, collaborative, and not even on the radar of lobbyists. That is, he’s on their radar now, but he’s not exactly on their Christmas-card lists.

So he has a plan.

And I think he can make it work. Read his whole presentation here, and share it if you feel inclined.

Full disclosure: I have mixed feelings about donating to out-of-state campaigns—I sure didn’t like what happened with Prop 8 in California last year—but Sean is doing more than running for office himself. He’s also pioneering methods for direct communication between voters and candidates, and urging transparency in campaign funding. And I happen to agree with a lot of what he’d work on if elected.

Whether or not you choose to get involved, keep an eye on Sean Tevis. He’s doing something wonderful.

Gadawan Kura

These photographs came about after a friend emailed me an image taken on a cellphone through a car window in Lagos, Nigeria, which depicted a group of men walking down the street with a hyena in chains. A few days later I saw the image reproduced in a South African newspaper with the caption ‘The Streets of Lagos’. Nigerian newspapers reported that these men were bank robbers, bodyguards, drug dealers, debt collectors. Myths surrounded them. The image captivated me.

Through a journalist friend I eventually tracked down a Nigerian reporter, Adetokunbo Abiola, who said that he knew the ‘Gadawan Kura’ as they are known in Hausa (a rough translation: ‘hyena handlers/guides’).

A few weeks later I was on a plane to Lagos. Abiola met me at the airport and together we took a bus to Benin City where the ‘hyena men’ had agreed to meet us. However, when we got there they had already departed for Abuja.

In Abuja we found them living on the periphery of the city in a shantytown – a group of men, a little girl, three hyenas, four monkeys and a few rock pythons. It turned out that they were a group of itinerant minstrels, performers who used the animals to entertain crowds and sell traditional medicines. The animal handlers were all related to each other and were practising a tradition passed down from generation to generation. I spent eight days travelling with them.

Much more at Pieter Hugo’s site.

May I Have This Dance?

26th October 1956: Henry Behrens, the smallest man in the world dances with his pet cat in the doorway of his Worthing home. Measuring only 30 inches high, Mr Behrens has made a living by travelling the world with Burton Lester’s midget troupe. (Photo by Harry Kerr/BIPs/Getty Images)