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derek guy
derek guy

A story I found about Haiti: In 1999, a group of Haitians were tired of political disorder and dreamed of a better life in the United States. So they built a small, 23-foot boat by hand using pine trees, scrap wood, and used nails. They called the boat "Believe in God."

In a boat powered by nothing but a sail, they somehow made it from Tortuga Island to the Bahamas (about a 90 mile distance). Then from the Bahamas, they set sail again. But a few days and some hundred miles later, their makeshift boat began to sink.

The men on the boat were so dehydrated this point, one slipped in and out of consciousness, unable to stand. They were all resigned to their death. Luckily, they were rescued by the US Coast Guard.

The photographer on that boat was Christopher Anderson, who, 25 years later, snapped the famous photos of the Trump administration for Vanity Fair.

The photos of those Haitian refugees was his first big break, as they earned him the Robert Capa Gold Medal award, which catapulted his career. But at the moment he took the images, he and the other men on the boat thought they were going to die. He had this to say about the experience:

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Some photos of Haitians running in the streets. There's smoke in the background. It looks like political disorder.
A Haitian man stands next to a wall with some barbed wire behind him. The original Magnum caption said the man felt Haiti was a prison and he dreamed of making it to the United States. He wanted to be a rapper.
Some men take a break from building a boat.
A boat sets sail far off into the distance.
Two men on a boat. One is reclining with his hands behind his head, relaxing.
A chaotic moment when a bunch of Haitians on a boat look scared.
Members of the US Coast Guard board a boat.
A man looks tired as a Coast Guard member is behind him.
A man sleeps as a Coast Guard member is behind him.
A photo of Stephen Miller for Vanity Fair.
Excerpt from The Washington Post interview with Christopher Anderson: "Were there moments that you missed? Anything that happened that’s on the cutting room floor? I don’t think there’s anything I missed that I wish I’d gotten. I’ll give you a little anecdote: Stephen Miller was perhaps the most concerned about the portrait session. He asked me, “Should I smile or not smile?” and I said, “How would you want to be portrayed?” We agreed that we would do a bit of both. And then when we were finished, he comes up to me to shake my hand and say goodbye. And he says to me, “You know, you have a lot of power in the discretion you use to be kind to people.” And I looked at him and I said, “You know, you do, too.”"
Excerpt from Magnum. The text is by Anderson: "“A couple of days into our journey, the boat began to sink. We were doomed and we knew it. We started saying goodbye to one another. Strangely, it was quite calm on the boat. There was not much to do except resign oneself to the inevitability of it all. Up to that point, I had not taken many pictures. Everyone on the boat knew I was a photographer, but it somehow had not felt right. It’s difficult to explain. But as the boat sank, David, the Haitian whom I had followed on this journey, said to me, ‘Chris, you’d better start making pictures. We only have an hour to live.’ And so, without much thought, I began making pictures. We were saved at the last moment by a US coast guard cutter that happened upon us, but that’s another story. Much later on, back home safe, I reflected on this question: why make pictures that no one will ever see? The only explanation for me was that the act of photographing had more to do with the explaining of the world to myself than explaining something to someone else. The pictures were about communicating something about my experience, not about reporting literal information. This would be the single most transformative moment of my photographic life.”"

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