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Young Photographers Bring Post-Earthquake Haiti into Focus

  • View of road
    View from a damaged building on Grand Rue, the main avenue in downtown Port-au-Prince. © Georges Rouzier
  • Man with dead pig
    An open-air slaughterhouse next to Port-au-Prince’s Croix des Bossales market. © Jean Marc Herve Abelard
  • Man in a hole
    In the Martissant section of Port-au-Prince, a man turns on the water supply. Most people have to gather their water from central collection points in the neighborhood. © Barnabas Dieudonne
  • People near a car
    In Port-au-Prince’s Cité de l’Eternel neighborhood, a family stands with a car they’re trying to repair and sell. © Fabienne Douce
  • Man sitting
    A man does his homework in the neighborhood of Cité de l’Eternel, one of the poorest in Port-au-Prince. © Fabienne Douce
  • Busy road
    Much of Grand Rue, the longest boulevard in downtown Port-au-Prince, was severely damaged by the 2010 earthquake. © Georges Rouzier
  • Man carries bag of coal
    A man carries a bag of coal through a bus station. © Estailove Saint-Val
  • People in church
    A couple prays in the remains of Saint Anne Church, which was damaged by the 2010 earthquake. © Junior Jovin
  • Boy cleans car
    A teenager washes a taxi to earn some money. © Milo Milfort
  • Man works on a car
    A young mechanic works on a taxi in a repair shop on Grand Rue. © Estailove Saint-Val
  • Man on a bus
    A public bus in Port-au-Prince is decorated with paintings of religious figures and soccer players. © Yves Osner Dorvil
  • Man in a taxi
    A man gazes out of a public taxi on Grand Rue. © Yves Osner Dorvil

Grand Rue is a major thoroughfare running through downtown Port-au-Prince. “It’s a long one,” says Gael Turine, and as he describes it, “very chaotic.”

It was once the main commercial avenue of the old city, and although Port-au-Prince’s center has shifted, Grand Rue remained, until recently, a vibrant commercial artery with shops, street vendors, artisans, and businesses. Also among this bustle of activity is the epicenter of the city’s underground arts scene, where one can find large-scale sculpture created from scrap metal, cast-off clothes, car parts, and human skulls. But the earthquake that struck Haiti five years ago dealt a serious blow to the avenue.

For Turine, a Brussels-based photographer who conducted a series of photography workshops for young Haitians organized by the Fondation Connaissance et Liberté (FOKAL), the Open Society foundation in Haiti, the Grand Rue provided the perfect place for his students to hone their skills.

The photos they shot became a book, Grand’ Rue, designed by Chiquinquira Garcia and published by the foundation. “Frankly speaking, considering they’re students, I think they did quite a good job,” says Turine, adding that he thinks some of them will go on to become professional photographers. For this reason, Turine taught the students not just how to take a picture, but “editing, sequencing, presentation of the work, how to write a note of introduction, and how to make a budget,” he says.

Turine believes the fact that this week marks the fifth anniversary of the earthquake makes Grand’ Rue all the more powerful as a documentary photography project. “Everybody needs to consider the situation,” he says. “Some of these students come from point zero. Getting a book published in this situation is something huge.”

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