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THE CADRE ¢ 10

Rob Walker , Copy Editor _

Sonu, a 16 year old girl, and Vishal a 15 year old boy, fell in love in a small village in India. For generations their family, along with a few dozen others, lived around a large mango tree at the center of their village. While the two teenagers were of different castes, neither the higher ranked boy’s family, or the lower ranked girl’s minded that the two would eventually marry. The villagers took issue with it and decreed that the two families kill their children with their own hands. The families hanged and cremated both of them to hide the evidence.

This story was one of many told by Carlos Reyes-Manzo in a lecture about his work and photography at the AVC lecture theater last Friday afternoon. The photograph on the right was taken from the spot the two lovers were hanged and shows an abandoned sari left in a field.

Reyes-Manzo has spent the last 30 years documenting the lives of people all around the world. His work focuses on areas of injustice and inequality, mostly in the most poverty and war-stricken areas in the world. Reyes-Manzo does not consider himself a photojournalist, but a documentarian of human nature.

“The kind of work I do is social documentary,” said Reyes- Manzo. “It’s fine art.”

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Internationally Renowned Photograher

“J am not a photojournalist. I am a social documentarian. I get in

touch with people, I interview them, photograph them and document them. But another part of it is the fine art,

An abandoned sari lies in

Reyes-Manzo.

a field where two teen- age lovers were murdered by their families in an ‘Honour Killing’ in India. — Photograph by Carlos

Speaks at UPEI

Chile, when his plane stopped in England he attracted the attention of immigration officials and was eventually able to claim political asylum. Since

Kherher Falah 4 and his mother Fadoi Ablahad at Caritas in Qaragosh. — Photograph by

Carlos Reyes-Manzo.

showing them in a different light. Tolet then, he has worked fearlessly to you get to know them and love them document the lives of the downtrodden

like I do.”

While working as a journalist and member of the national council of the socialist party in Chile in the 1970’s, Reyes-Manzo, a father of two, was arrested by the Pinochet regime and tortured. He was sent to Panama and eventually was being brought back to Chile. Facing certain death back in

Originally from Chile,

Carlos Reyes-Manzo has been documenting humanity for 30 years through his photo- graphs. — Archive Photo

and abused.

He spoke about visiting Sao Paulo, Brazil and the slums there. He told us how a small boy was shot in the head by Police death squads while standing right next to him. Just because the boy was talking to a journalist. He said he blamed himself for the boys death for many

years and it was extremely difficult to deal with.

“The truth is sometimes I cry. I cry. I cannot cry in front of them, because I have to carry on with my work to document them,” said Reyes- Manzo. “There is a lot of frustration. I understand I can’t fulfill all the roles, we as journalists have a certain role to play.”

“T try to document, to inform and create awareness. I think it’s very important for people to know what’s going on.”

The more people know, the more they can help, says Reyes-Manzo.

Carlos Reyes-Manzo was on Prince Edward Island last week to document children in rural communities, as part of the Children’s Health Applied Research Team’s (CHART) work with children. Vianne Timmons, Vice- President of Academic Development at UPEI, met Reyes-Manzo in Mumbai, India where she was working with children as part of the National Resource Centre for Inclusion and he was photographing them.

“Carlos has been in the rural communities of PEI,” said Timmons. “Documenting Children’s lives there.”

While Reyes-Manzo’s work has taken him all over the world, from Iraq and India to Central America and Ethiopia, this was his first trip to Canada. His work can be found at http:// Www.andespressagency.com ~