Tim Scott Photography

Picturing Yourself

2011-07-16T21:53:00.000-07:00

An idea has been bouncing around in my head for a few years, mostly in the back. It's roots probably come from a discussion in 1999 with a friend and colleague at the time about teaching youth in San Francisco how to make films.

Then in 2007 I went out to Washington DC on an informational interview trip ostensibly to pave the way for a move there. Indeed I did "move" there in September of that same year but it didn't stick. During that trip earlier in the year, I showed up for an appointment with someone and found that her boss, the director of the center for Governance and Democratization, had stepped in to chat with me. We headed down the hill towards Dupont Circle to Starbucks. On the way he was more interested in my film background. In the future six or so months he was putting together a program called Bridge Media whereby children in post-conflict areas from both sides would be taught how to make films about their lives to be shown and discussed among themselves and shared with the other community or communities.

A few days later I had a second interview with his team, this time more specific on what I saw could be done. I returned to San Francisco and the communication cooled and then went down. Almost a year later I checked and the project was up and running.

While in Sudan I thought it would've been great if I had some smaller, less complex, and lighter cameras to teach children how to use and then curate a show both there in Abyei (how I'd print the photos I don't know) and elsewhere.

So, now I am putting together a proposal to form photography clubs in collaboration with international NGOs, dovetailing with life skills training/programming for 10-13 year old youth. I target that range because I'm most interested in early adolescence, during that time where the search for identity within a community and the larger world begins. I envision two or three-month spans of time, enough to grasp basic concepts, regular meetings when we can introduce more concepts and give thematic projects such as home, family, peer pressures, religion, etc. All the while I'll document in video and stills the process, the photographers being photographed, and collect their stories about their lives, their photos, and the motivations for those they took.

I've already piqued the interest of an NGO that serves IDPs and orphans in Uganda and a researcher in Western China. But, of course, the biggest mobilizer will be seed funds so that I can do the first round, be it amongst the Inuit of Greenland, youth in Nagorno-Karabakh, children of drug addicts in Guam, or indigenous people of Peru. Additionally, working with youth in Afghanistan and South Sudan tremendously excites me.

Visitor in our compound

2011-07-16T19:10:00.000-07:00


Shot from inside my container looking out, a UNMIS (UN Mission in Sudan) copter buzzing over

The compound my partner(s) and I stayed while in Abyei was the last thing you pass before leaving the town heading south. Across the street the sound of 24-hour generators from the giant UN base hummed and the frequent fly over by helicopters heading to or from Kadugli in South Kordofan helped remind us that we were near a major town.

Usually our only visitors were the occasional goat who would wander through the gaping holes in the fence. I would take the opportunity to exercise and chase it around, usually failing to get them to find the exit. The other normal visitor was the daily arrival of one or many water-boys, boys who deliver water to people or compounds. These boys, usually around the age of 14, have two 44-gallon oil barrels welded together and laying on a cart and pulled by the eternally bored donkey. They'd arrive, check the level on our main tank and then slowly, with dilapidated old 5-gallon jugs, hand transfer water from their tank to ours. This requires climbing up onto an old step stool made from branches and grass, raising the bucket over their head, and pouring it in.

One day a little girl walked up to me, sat down on my front step and stared at me. I grabbed a book, one with pictures, and showed it to her. With very little emotion, she flipped through the book and uttered not a word while I photographed her. As quickly as she came, she then quietly walked away.

Snake themed birthday party

2011-07-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

Kazakhstan growth

2011-04-12T22:15:00.000-07:00

I've been back for almost a week now from a nearly two week trip to the snowy steppe of Kazakhstan. Starting in the capital city of Astana, I was deployed to Uralsk along with seventeen other short term observers volunteering for the Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions & Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) election observation mission. Four hundred of us in total blanketed the country with most having to traverse this massive country via plane.

Astana is a architectural utopian city. That first day a bunch of us walked along the promenade that showcases many of the new buildings built with oil money and meant to house and serve as office space for a huge workforce. The question is, where are these people because very few were seen on this weekday. Most of the buildings are fanciful. They often are bright or unusual colors and frequently lack the cube or routine shapes of other buildings. Several times I saw high rises that I believed to be optical illusions of waves. But, upon closer inspection, the slant of exterior walls or undulating lines were not a trick of the eye but steel and glass artistry.

Uralsk on the other hand is a comfortable but typical Soviet era city, at least architecturally speaking. The photo to the left was taken on our way out of the country, not in Uralsk but a city 200km (125 miles) south of Astana. My troupe of short term observers were scheduled to be the last group to arrive back to the capital. Not only were we intended to arrive over a day later than most of the other teams, but we also were not going to be able to take part in the group debriefing nor partake in the post debrief "surprise" (which was leaked to be a traditional Kazakh musical performance) and hors d'œuvre booze-fest afterwards. But, when our plane was rerouted midflight to take us elsewhere, many of us missed out flights out of the country. Though relatively speaking close to Astana, the final leg involved a scramble to the train station and then a colorful four-hour cattle car trip on a train northward, arriving in the misty dawn hours and sent to the King Hotel to wait for further instructions.

It was a nice bookend, this juxtaposition of the sleek (although noticeably superficial as Astana is reportedly the "second coldest capital city" and as such, extremes of -50° C (-58° F) winters and +50° C (122° F) summers have already weathered man made structures upon closer inspection) and the familiar Soviet decayed simplicity.

How the violence was perceived

2011-03-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

While I was in South Kordofan observing a different electoral process, a small but not inconsequential flash of violence erupted in the market of Abyei. I was eager to get back to see and hear about the events. The market, always depressed, was half empty of sellers. Those who remained had stock levels that were shockingly low. Mostly was remained were vitamin C powder packs and the ubiquitous plastic flimsy furniture.

Painted in childlike lines was this image of a pickup truck mounted gun, one of the normal sights seen in Abyei.

During the course of four days we interviewed a few dozen people directly and indirectly affected by the shootout between northern-aligned peace keepers and local police. Most of the people we met were not comfortable with me photographing them which is the norm throughout our area, outside of children.

This woman, one of many who run tiny tea and coffee stands said that she returned to her stand which sits directly across the street from where the shooting occurred. "Where am I going to go? How would I feed my children if I leave?"

The light was dreadful and getting permission to take one picture took a long time. But, this stands as a good representation of the fatigue seen across the area. They wait for the violence, knowing full well that they have no other options.

Election day

2011-01-16T21:37:00.000-08:00

Voting for the South Sudan referendum began on January 9th and continues for 7 days, ending on the 16th, today. In Warrap state, Twic county and in the major town of Turalei, we visited a station that, like most of the others this deep into voting, was pretty much dead. These boys were waiting outside to watch the excitement occurring inside one of the few permanent (that is, cement) buildings.

A Military Town

2010-12-01T16:56:00.000-08:00

Word was that there existed a center in Abyei territory that was registering people. This is a violation of the code according to the dominant understanding.

We learned about this when one day we decided to wander around in the villages around Agok and simply talk to villagers about their perceptions of the upcoming event - the South Sudan referendum - and the non-event - the Abyei referendum. As we chatted with people in front of their homes, we heard more and more about people going to registration centers, a mere thirty or so minute walk away. Granted Agok is as far as you can go in Abyei before heading into official "South Sudan." But, it still was interesting to hear that people were walking down into Twic county of Warrap state. It wasn't out of desire to vote but simply because they'd been lured down by word of mouth about something going on there. One woman told us that she didn't know what it was, but she'd "vote for Garang," the leader of the South Sudan opposition movement, the SPLA, and dead since 2005.

The search led us to a town made up primarily of soldiers that train and work at an SPLA camp, located on the border. After watching the registration process, fulfilling our duties, a mass of kids approached and I began photographing them. They were dressed in the normal tattered clothes and didn't take note of anything else while I clicked away. But, when I got home and viewed these images on my computer, I saw that nearly every one showed scars of disease, open wounds, deformities and tribal markings.

The next day we stopped at a few public places. One of which was a water pump were people from near and far come to pump fresh water and chat. As we sat amongst 30 or 40 people asking increasingly simpler and simpler questions, the realization of the uphill struggle Sudan has became all the more apparent. We wanted to hear their impressions of the referendum when some of these people didn't even know the fighting was over. A few people didn't understand what we meant by "government." Many hadn't even had one day of formal education. I sat surrounded, my Canon 5D in my lap but couldn't raise it and focus on their brutalized faces and bodies. It felt too exploitative. Afterwards, my interpreter told me that that was wise because photography is frowned upon there amongst the Twic Dinka.

Watching the airstrip

2010-11-23T13:37:00.000-08:00

The airstrip in Agok is little more than a long dirt path where planes often have to abort landing if goats wander into the path.

Leaving for Juba, Saskia and I arrived about 15 minutes before the scheduled flight but the camp manager was there far ahead of time to ensure that goats don't interfere with his R&R flight out. On the way back, we taxied along towards the spot where the Toyota Land Rovers waited for the institutional occupants of the plane. I saw a man holding a spear standing on the edge watching our little plane and clicked the above photo as we whizzed by, a lone figure framed by dry grass.

Abyei and the UN

2010-11-23T09:26:00.000-08:00

I was sitting drinking hibiscus tea when the regularly scheduled UNMIS (United Nations Mission in Sudan) helicopter arrived, kicking up a massive cloud of dust. No one seemed to really noticed though and continued walking or working oblivious. The dust here is everywhere to the degree that at night, if you look at lights from the UN or the rare light in Abyei town, you see that the air is impregnated with it.

For this picture, I was lucky to have been carrying my partner's point and shoot Canon. As I saw what was about to happen, I quickly pulled it out my pocket and begun snapping away. The difficulty of transporting my exceptional but bulky camera, a Canon 5d with large 24-105 lens, means that I often leave it behind either in the car when I go into meetings or at home. The nature of the work I am doing here added onto the nature of the paranoia of Sudanese including those here in Abyei means that photo opportunities are hard to come by or hard to grasp. That is, it is hard to mix politics/human rights observation with photography when the people suspiciously wonder what our intentions are.

I feel it would be best to add a small point-and-shoot into my bag, one that still shoots RAW but allows me the flexibility for such moments when quality isn't paramount but instead spontaneity.

Spectators at football game

2010-11-15T17:56:00.000-08:00

Outside the compound I've lived in for the last few months there is a open dirt field that is generally speaking flat compared to other areas. Four by fours that traverse the space to enter and exit the Goal (Ireland) compound at the back of the square usually skirt the field, avoiding the tree branches that are stuck into the clay earth securely. A few times a week I will hear cheering and activity but never had ventured out to watch the football game. My understanding is that there are local teams but on this day the teams were a rag tag mix of ages against the UN Mission in Sudan Zambian contingent who'd traveled an hour south for this.

Most of the people paid only momentary attention to the presence of a hwaja (foreigner) in the midst of all an all African group of spectators.

Khartoum taxi ride

2010-11-07T13:36:00.000-08:00

Our original plan called for us to leave the midterm briefing in Juba, fly north to Khartoum and immediately fly down to Kadugli on a UN flight followed by a UN helicopter back to Abyei. But, the commercial flight to Khartoum was cancelled which postponed by over a week.

Khartoum taxis are always interesting and some times whimsically arty. This mini van was crammed full of articles for navigation and coughed as if it was on its last legs as we zipped across town from our Carter Center apartment on one side of town to a meeting on the other side.

Surrounding area

2010-10-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday and there is nothing to do. Our compound is far out of town and the road is such that walking anywhere expends considerable energy in direct sun. My partner and I took a short walk down the road that leads out of town to our compound, going as far as the Medecines San Frontieres outpatient clinic and back.

These are the homes we see, trees that dot this road and every road. There is very diversity.

Abyei rally for solidarity

2010-10-09T13:29:00.000-07:00

Day 23 - Hundreds gathered in a twice-monthly rally on the 9th and the 22nd to hear of news surrounding the imminent referenda - one to determine the fate of the states of South Sudan and the other to determine if the area of Abyei will be aligned with the northern state of Kordofan or southern state of Warrap.

The rally we'd heard about was to be held at three in the afternoon, already rather late for us considering we needed to be in Agok by 5 for safety sake and the 27 miles to get there takes two hours.

We met a potential interpreter, a very mild mannered man with a larger than normal afro. As we waited for the event to start, he told us about customs of the Dinka Ngok such as facial scarification and knocking of the bottom four front teeth, pointing out that very few still stick to these long held traditions since 1972, the year the last part of the civil war began. People were displaced by the tens of thousands, upsetting families and disconnecting people from their customs.

People were engaged by the tri-lingual presentation. But, unfortunately with only thirty minutes of observation, we had to get on the road at 5:30. The final quarter of our journey was done in pitch dark on a horrendous road.

2010-10-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

Evenings are frequently spent sitting in front of my tent reading, talking, or just staring off. This evening we heard a rumble followed a mere five seconds later by an abrupt change from near completely still air to powerful gusts which quickly blew over a fence delineating the living area from the work area of the Mercy Corps Agok compound. Accompanying this, the sky opened and rain poured down ferocity.

We knew then that the next day would be a dead day. Never the less, we tried to go out but quickly turned around. The water deposited on the ground turned the slick ground into a gooey mess and there is nothing to be done but wait for the sun to firm it up a bit.

Dinka cows

2010-10-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

The Dinka are the largest tribe of the South with the Ngok subtribe as the main inhabitant of the Abyei area. There aren't days where we don't wallow for some period of time through the ever moving herds of cows, many with amazingly large horns, like a antelope-cow mix.

Mercy Corps, Agok

2010-10-01T13:26:00.000-07:00

Mercy Corps has two compounds in the Abyei region. One is located in Abyei town proper, nestled behind a reportedly impressive brick wall, barbed wire, and broken glass. As we prepared to deploy to the region, the logistics officer in Juba told my partner and I that Mercy Corps is apprehensive about putting anyone there overnight. There are a few near certainties. Fighting will break out before the referendum and it will start in Abyei town. Site of the old UNDP compound, this was one of the first places destroyed in the attacks of May 2008. This ominous history excites and scares me.

After nearly eight hours of driving up from Wau, we arrived to the other Mercy Corps compound, the one in the south of Abyei region very near to the border with Warrap state. Our contact, an American named Jake, greeted us with a blank stare and showed us to our tents. These are heavy duty but old and delapidated canvas structures placed on brick and cement foundations. Dotting the area are sixteen tents with another eight foundations ready should a humanitarian crisis rise.

One of the previous camp managers filled old powdered milk containers with cement and attached them to a pipe. This is the gym.

Beds are generally weak metal formed into frames, string woven to create a firm surface upon which very thin foam mattresses are placed. The landscape around the compound and the greater area is littered with the twisted carcasses of old furniture.

Showers are four stalls, all with sticking doors, made of corrugated steel and gravity fed showers. The giant tank that provides the water is filled by hand daily by men who arrive, climb up, and bucket in bit by bit. So, when I shower I try my best to conserve. In the morning the water is cold. At the end of the day when a shower sounds great in order to wash off the dust and sweat of the day, the water is too hot, warmed by the intense sun. I learned the first night not to go in after dark because a swarm of bugs and frogs live under the hanging bulbs illuminating the area.

Battling the mud

2010-09-30T13:25:00.000-07:00

From the first day after we arrived to Agok we were struck by the ubiquitous goo. This is not to say that I was surprised by dirt but by the quality of it.

The distance between Agok, which lies on the southernmost border of the region referred to as Abyei, to the town named Abyei is a mere 33km but on the first day we headed out in our company Toyota Land Cruiser, our Sudanese driver who is a member of the dominant ethnic group and tribe from the region very capably at the wheel, I could feel that we moved over the ground in an obvious manner, never fully connected but floating on a layer of slippery clay.

On this day that I took these images, we'd been driving already the two hour painful trip for a few days when we had to stop to survey the damage and allow Adam to make mental notes on the best process to bulldoze through. Though the ground is slick like butter, with every step my shoes became thicker with mud so that within a few steps I'd grown an additional six inches. Adam walked a few steps and looked at the undulations caused by frequent trucks such as the one you see half tipped over as well as frequent UN World Food Program caravans that transport much needed food supplies from Abyei town to remote villages throughout the area. Interestingly, the few people we've spoken to have commented that the road from the north of the country to Abyei is in good condition. But, once you leave the main town, the quality drops precipitously. Road crews are reportedly blocked from repairing the potholes. This is explained by the understanding that should fighting break out the northern military forces, who are supported by the very people who are responsible for maintaining the roads, will be able to reach the town and defend it with decent speed. On the other hand, the southern military which is legally bound to stay in the state below Abyei region will be slowed down due to the condition of the path. We'll look into this further as time goes on.

There are few colors here. The ground is a reddish brown, the sky a brilliant blue and the grass green. But, other than that, the intense sun washes everything. Heavy duty tents such as the ones that we live in currently are tattered and eaten so I understand how tarps, may of which are giveaways by the UN departments, that line many of the houses and most of the businesses are mere tattered sheets that flap in the light breezes and split in lines allowing the penetrating sun in as well as the torrential rains when they come, like clockwork every few days.

Sudan - Day 12

2010-09-28T06:28:00.000-07:00

Child in Wau, Bahr El-Ghazal state, Sudan

From the vantage point of the finest roof-top terrace, or any terrace for that matter, in Sudan, the streets of Wau, reportedly the second largest town in Southern Sudan was laid out.

Fresno in the Sun

2010-08-05T22:45:00.000-07:00

I moved up to full-frame on Saturday when I received in the post the Canon Eos 5D body I purchased from an aerial photographer who sold it on Ebay. The next day I gathered together some friends, coordinated a wardrobe and we headed to an abandoned building across the street from my studio.

We started out trying out poses in the boarded up windows of this old office building. The plaster where the wood and the brick met gave the wall all the more texture but also was very messy.

My original idea was that I wanted dramatic poses with hard lines of the body - such as hands firmly on hips staring defiantly at the camera or off. But these didn't work and so we changed things up and softened poses.

I like the contemplative looks and diagonal lines of their bodies, sometimes indicating potential action and other times in repose.

There is a wonderful staircase in the back of the building with a chain link fence that ran along one side of the stairs and barbed wire strung up impotently to deter trespassers. We used an external flash unit with transmitter to throw light on her and thus reduce the white out in the background to good effect.

Head Shots IV

2010-08-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

Head Shots V

2010-08-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

Head Shots III

2010-07-27T21:19:00.002-07:00

Graphic Designer

Head Shots II

2010-07-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

Head Shots

2010-07-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hostess

Portrait

2010-06-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

I got my friend Elizabeth in the studio and despite her assurance that she's camera shy, we had a good time trying out some ideas.

With the exception of occasionally looking into the viewfinder, I rarely gave her a chance to fixate on the fact that I was photographing her. I talked and she talked and the conversation flowed and then I'd squeeze the shutter release and catch her mid word or expression.

Fun with an Umbrella

2010-06-07T22:51:00.000-07:00

I had a bunch of ideas going into this shoot. But, mostly I just brought a bunch of props and aimed to see what would ignite our imagination. In the beginning, we both jumped from one idea to another too fast while not really exhausting the potential before excitement and silliness pulled us another direction.

My niece loved the imaginative uses of the fan and was pretending that she's in a battle with it. While she boxed with it, I clicked off a few dozen frames before she got bored and started rummaging through the box of pink gloves, glasses, bracelets and other accessories.

The most time we spent was with an old broken umbrella and a pair of silver rubber boots. Unfortunately, I didn't consider that the floor looks dreadful and my white backdrop was forgotten at home.

I scheduled two hours in the studio with her thinking she'd lose interest before then. So, I was surprised when I looked at my watch and saw that nearly four hours had passed and we were still going.

Painted and ready to use

2010-05-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a longer process than I anticipated. But, I was able to bring in my lighting tonight and will do a shoot tomorrow after work. I returned from a weekend in Dos Palos helping my father by photographing members of his congregation for a church directory. With the walls freshly painted two days ago, with the assistance of my parents, I set everything up and clicked off a few test shots with me filling in as model.

In the studio next to mine, I heard a person attaching canvas to frame with a power stapler. Click. Click. Click. Click. The clicking of my shutter, triggered by an infra red controller in my hand that never has worked, requiring me to be tethered to its 18 inch wired cord, fell into the same beat.

Los Angeles

2010-05-09T22:50:00.000-07:00

I went down to Los Angeles in order to run in a 5km benefit for cancer research into women's cancers sponsored by Revlon and found myself with extra time to walk around the downtown area, photographing beautiful buildings.

The weather was very nice for photography as it began overcast lending few harsh shadows in the beginning of the day. I came upon a Chinese cultural center butted up against a small pedestrian shopping area full of Mexican arts, crafts and performers.

Mainly older men in cowboy hats populated the square when first I came through. Though I started off shooting them surreptitiously, I threw that technique off quickly. This has always been a hang up of mine where I dislike invading on people without asking permission. But, I more so hate the change in a person's face that occurs once they know they are being photographed. This change, running the spectrum from minor tensing to striking a pose, so often ruins the photo I am going for. These four people on the bench luckily didn't see me despite the fact that I was standing in the middle of the plaza pointing my Canon D30 DSLR at them (73mm, f8, 1/250sec). Finally, I found myself in China Town where again became fixated on the hanging lanterns.

The Studio

2010-05-03T22:05:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I received the keys to my photo studio and eagerly went home to gather all my lighting equipment that up to now has had to be packed away into the myriad of travel cases after each and every photo shoot. With the assistance of my father, we drove back across town (or technically, from the north of one city to the south of an adjoining one) to unpack them in their new, permanent home.

I'd like to say that this photo makes it look smaller than it is, and that would be somewhat true. But, the 15x25ft studio the owner estimated, turns out to be a bit over 9ft x 15ft - big enough for a beginning but...cozy to say the least.

I have a project in the near future that would've been nice to have the controlled environment that a studio affords. But, the door way both to the building and my studio aren't wide enough to accommodate a Harley Davidson. Knowing this ahead of time, I've found an old garage to photograph a woman I know on a vintage-look hot rod I've arranged to borrow. Actually, I saw and wanted to shoot something contradictory inside this garage before being approached to do this shoot. The garage is in very weathered shape and every surface is mottled wood or flaking paint. Shelves line the inside and holes allow slivers of light in. When I first set eyes on it, I thought it would be great to do a fashion shoot inside, imagining a man and/or woman in their city finery modeling inside. With luck, the garage won't fall over before or during the first photo shoot.

With Arthop (the first Thursday of the month when studios and galleries here in Fresno are open late and people go out en masse to see what is new) imminent, I'm going to try to get fully settled in and some works up on the wall in the next few days. A friend and fellow photographer matted and framed a few of his pieces after I encouraged him to give me something to hang. So, with those three plus a few of mine that I can pull together quickly, the walls should look good enough for a pre-grand opening hang out.

Ramping up

2010-04-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

With a deposit put down on a art studio in downtown Fresno and additional lighting purchased from BH Photo, I'm excited to move into a permanent home and have started to formulate tangible ideas for portraits and other studio photographs which will require props propos and more props.

Santa Cruz

2010-04-04T22:46:00.000-07:00

Boardwalk carnival ride

World AIDS Day Dancers

2009-12-01T22:50:00.000-08:00


Flamenco Dancers