25.10.08

my afternoon with annie leibovitz

boy, we've been feeling culturally deprived recently. its been since late august that we've done anything remotely to fill our 'creative' souls and we've been foaming at the mouth since then to do something, anything to fill this void. there just hasn't been much of interest on in london recently. we've seen most of what's great already and trying to save our pennies can dampen any efforts for we do want to do {the r.o.h's nutracker and their £50/$100 tickets come to mind}. so, we were pretty excited to go see an entire exhibition at the national portrait gallery, 'annie leibovitiz: a photographers life'. all i can say afterwards is my 'culture' cup now runneth over.

i love annie leibovitz and i am so drawn into her pictures. i saw some of her prints earlier this year at a vanity fair exhibition and am familiar with her work from various magazines, etc {including vanity fair}. what struck me about this exhibition was the professional and personal photos mixed together and how poignant they were---especially in respect to the photos of the loss of her partner, susan sontag. i felt a bit drained after the exhibition, which i think is a sign of 'true' art; something that captures the emotions and passions of the moment and shares these with others as a gift. i guess that's why i have grown to love art so much is that i feel like i'm making emotional connections on almost a primal level.

there were a lot of photos in the exhibition and i have way too many favorites to try to choose, so here's just a few that caught my eye :

queen elizabeth © Annie Leibovitz

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© Annie Leibovitz

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© Annie Leibovitz

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Her mother © Annie Leibovitz

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3.10.08

faraway friends

lucy & her adopted daughter

back in 2007 i first did a post on my work with the gan sabra society--since then i've managed to grow even closer to the owner lucy {see above} and i am continually amazed with her strength & inspiration. she is my age--in her early 30's and what she does for these kids infected with hiv/aids through no fault of their own is just amazing. i don't know how she does it, but she continues to be a mum to these orphans who have had such horrific tragedy & difficulties to deal with at such an early age.

the youngest members of gansabra

its hard for me to not feel guilty sometimes about doing more for them--i wish i had the money to buy them all new clothes, to completely pay off their mortgage so that lucy doesn't stay up at night worrying. i do what & when i can though which is ok for now and even though they always say how much encouragement & hope i give, what they have given to me back is twice as much if not more.

posing for the camera

building forts

to them its not about the possessions- the new t.v. {although they are loving watching 'heroes' re-runs at the moment}, the clothes or a fancy house--its about being happy and just being kids.


studying hard

even still they never stop working very hard for a better life {unfortunately in this area of india many with hiv/aids are lucky to reach their teens}.

lucy knows what education will give to these children---nearly all are always studying and many are even the top of their class! they are really trying to follow the example lucy is setting--she just earned a masters degree in social work from mizoram university.

i think everyone who comes into your life are there to be our greatest teachers for that specific moment in time. i'm so thankful for lucy & the children at gan sabra for coming into my life & what they teach me on a regular basis. although i forget my blessings sometimes, my friends in india teach me to never underestimate the power of positive thinking, hope & the real meaning of gratitude. i pray that one day soon {hopefully next year} i will get to visit and shower each & everyone of them with millions of hugs & kisses.

anyway, i'd like to end with a moving letter the children wrote to lucy on christmas. this was previously posted on gansabra's blog and is in lucy's own words:

I want to share with you what the children at Gan Sabra did-their gift to me for Christmas. On 24th December the children gathered around me and gave me envelops-the used envelops- inside there was letter written for me (separately from boy and girls). I was wondering why they gave me that and i started reading, it was writte by them and here it goes:

''Loving Mother

Christmas Blessing to you. this is christmas we want to give you many gifts. but we dont have things. But Mum, we love you and this christmas you know that we love you and we are telling you again.

You too love us and our family is happy. Our real parents died before now you are our parents. you teach us good things we will always keep them. you provide tasty food, medicines and toys too thank you. we will be good.

God bless you.

(sign by each child themselves and sign for by elder ones for those who cannot write)''

the best christmas gift i ever received and i believe the best ever always.

lucy


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if you want to help gansabra in any way this holiday season they are in dire need of blankets & bedding. they have recently had more children admissions and their supplies have remained the same. the winter for this year is being predicted as going to be colder than usual and lucy recently wrote to me saying how worried she is about staying warm. for address of the orphanage & further details on assistance this christmas please contact me {see side-bar}. if you can't afford to send something, adding them to your christmas card list would brighten their day.