Zoriah: Pakistan Earthquake and What the Eye Sees

Zoriah has posted a gallery of images from the Northern Pakistan Earthquake, also known as the Kashmir Earthquake. Several of them follow the jump on this page. I also asked him to write a few words. They are worth reading closely.

Here they are:

People often ask me to compare disasters and I find myself struggling to provide them with an answer that feels truthful. In all honesty, after five years of focusing on disasters and humanitarian crisis, I find that everything begins to look the same. Faces, no matter which country or continent they hail from, closely resemble each other when they are framed in rubble and surrounded by smoke. Buildings and trees and landscapes look about the same when they are flattened on the ground, whether the cause was a hijacked airplane, a massive wave or powerful tremor. It is often far too easy for me see a disaster zone as nothing more than a familiar scene, another day of work.

Whenever I get this feeling that I am back in the mundane, I try to look in the eyes of the people I photograph. I try to remember that although this has become a common site for me, this is the extraordinary for those that it affects. I think that the western world , armchair observes of disaster and strife, need to dig deep inside themselves and try to realize that even though the news is their entertainment, it is also quite real. They need to open their eyes to the fact that beyond the now familiar pictures presented to them on their morning paper and on the evening news, there are people struggling with a situation that has turned their lives upside down. I believe that as photographers we need to focus more on documenting emotion in our photos and that editors must make sure that these images, no matter how graphic and painful, reach the eyes of the people that can actually make a difference. In actuality, it is our job to open peoples eyes. To create works of art that touch peoples hearts and open their minds, showing them not only what someone else’s life looks like, but what it feels like.