FEBRUARY 15, 2012: We’re proud to be launching bushtaxi.org: a tool for organizations and agencies to find talented professionals – photographers, designers, writers, filmmakers – who can meet their communication needs. Global communication is changing rapidly; bushtaxi.org is a vehicle for new, dynamic communication strategies. On the site we’ll also be sharing our stories, projects and experiences.

Explore the site, learn more about the team and check back regularly to hear about our latest projects. You can also subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on facebook, twitter or linkedin.

The opening video on the home page was shot and produced by Christopher Herwig with footage from Peru, Bangladesh and New York, with original music composition and sound editing by Michael Åberg.  Additional footage from Mali by Olivier Malvoisin, with voiceover text written by Kate Thomas. Bushtaxi.org is an original wordpress creation by Jim Shannon.

Inspired by my time in West Africa, I set out to tell the story of our relationship with rain: a force of nature essential to our survival, but one that we cannot control or predict. Photographers often avoid rainy days, as they tend to make dull images. But using camera housings designed for scuba divers, I can enter the heaviest of downpours to look for the beauty and drama of rain, while revealing the hardships and resilience of people living in some of the wettest places on earth. Climate change is exacerbating weather extremes and rain is a major factor in the erosion of economies, displacement of populations and the loss of thousands of lives every year.

Here is some sample footage and photos from chasing the rain in Peru, Bangladesh and Liberia. For more information or to discuss ways  your organization can collaborate on this project please contact us.

Background music: Rain,  by Jeanette Alexander

“Take time,” they say in Liberia, when they see you walking too fast, working too hard, squeezing too much into your day. As a writer working in developing countries in West Africa, and elsewhere in the world, I’m interested in different grasps of the concept of time.

I could be two hours late to a meeting in Senegal (don’t worry, I try to make that a rarity) and somehow still get there before the other person. In London or New York, by then the day would have long moved on without me. In rural France, waiting for two hours for a bus to turn up might ruin someone’s morning; in rural Sierra Leone, it’s an accepted part of the day. There, the art of waiting has been mastered, carried out with grace.

This project explores concepts of time in countries in transition: Liberia, Libya, Guinea-Bissau, Tunisia, a few others. I’m documenting – through words, images, drawings, interviews – how we measure time and, crucially, what happens between those defining moments in a country’s history…between those moments that are caught by the media.

I visit a street in Liberia’s capital Monrovia, where once-grand, 1920s American-style houses are now home to migrants from Nigeria. I visit the site where a legendary 1940s piano bar once stood; in its place, there’s now a computer games booth. In Libya, I capture moments between the Qaddafi regime and the political future; not moments on the battlefield or in the boardroom, but in the homes and, perhaps, in the thoughts of Libyans.

A somewhat philosophical project on time would not be complete without addressing travel and journeys. I look at what happens on the road, when people in developing countries are traveling from one city or country to another – by plane, by bus, by bush taxi. We may not regard them as such, but those times – those moments that take us from one place to another – are ‘places’ too, and I think they deserve to be documented as such.

Soil is the earth’s living skin and provides us with the essentials for life on earth: food production, infiltration and cleansing of water and protection against flooding, habitat for plants, areas for recreation and mental health, micro-climate regulation. It’s such a crucial resource that it can’t be ignored. However, particularly in urban areas, soil is being sealed off due to increased demand for housing and infrastructure.

Amnesty International was compelled to launch a campaign , Don’t Turn Your Back on Girls, after the film was released.

Xanthe went into Cite Soliel, and other dangerous shantytowns in Port-au-Prince, to talk to girls whose lives were ‘lost’ because of the gangs of armed men terrorising their neighbourhoods. Two of the girls lived in hiding because they feared fatal reprisals from the gangs who raped them.

Some people may find the contents of the film distressing.

 Turntables in the Camps  is a project designed to introduce young refugees to the global youth culture of dj-ing and electronic music. Turntables in the Camps conducts workshops and creates dj-ing schools for refugee boys and girls who dream of playing and producing great music but have no resources to do so. The project promotes musical creativity, breaks down boundaries and offers new opportunities for marginalized refugee youths.

Visit turntablesinthecamps.org to read more about the project, which has partnered with The Voice of the Streets, a group that brings together political dissident rappers from Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan on Egyptian soil, in order to remind the world that the struggle for freedom of artistic expression in the Middle East has only just begun.

This series of portraits by Christopher Herwig of women of all ages from around the world, and celebrates their achievements and determination to build a better world for all. Locations include Peru, Liberia, Mali, Bangladesh, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.

For maximum enjoyment click the full screen icon in the bottom right of the image.

May 2008, web video filmed by Olivier Malvoisin in Rwanda and Mali. The video documents the Eye See Project where children from both countries were given the opportunity to learn how to use a camera and explore new ways of expressing themselves and sharing the world around them.