Azerbaijan

This is the skyline of Baku as seen through the trash-fire haze of the outer Balakhani oil fields. The oil fields are mostly used up, but a few pumps continue to operate amidst the ghost derricks and the burning dump. Baku is regularly rated the most polluted city in the world. This old woman is standing on a side street in Sumgayit, the former hub of Azeri chemicals production. One of the main tourist draws here is a Baby Cemetery honoring those who died in infancy as a result of Soviet pollution, which was of a magnitude worse than it is even today. My article about oil and human rights in Azerbaijan is here.

2008 New Hampshire Primary

This little girl turned around and looked at me right as I was focusing a shot on Obama from across the distance of an airplane hanger. I have no idea how or why she settled on my camera among all the others. The next day I attended a Mike Huckabee rally starring Chuck Norris, which I wrote about here.