IRC reports that as many as 45,000 people die each month in the Congo. Most deaths are due to easily preventable and curable conditions, such as malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia, malnutrition, and neonatal problems and are byproducts of a collapsed healthcare system and a devastated economy.

The people living in the mining towns of eastern Congo are among the worst off. Militia groups and government forces battle on a daily basis for control of the mineral-rich areas where they can exploit gold, coltan, cassiterite and diamonds.

After successive waves of fighting and ten years of war, there are no hospitals, few roads and limited NGO and UN presence because it is too dangerous to work in many of these regions. The West's desire for minerals and gems has contributed to a fundamental breakdown in the social structure. See the project.

People hustled, scored, shot and smoked wherever they could. Friends conned each other for their next hit. They slept on piles of clothes on the floor. The power was shut off; the bathroom unusable; the kitchen filled with garbage. Anything of value was sold off.

For nearly three years, Jessica Dimmock followed this crew documenting what happened to them after eviction, how they fought to get clean, sank deeper into addiction, went to jail, started families and struggled to survive. See the project.

Miller, weary from the battle, lit a cigarette, and Sinco's photograph of that moment became an icon of the Iraq War. But the connection between Sinco and Miller runs deeper. After returning from Iraq, Miller tried to return to his previous life but found his nights haunted by images of war and his life fractured by depression.

This is the story of how Miller struggles to heal his scars of war. But it is also a story of how two disparate lives became connected on a rooftop in Fallouja, and how they both continue to struggle with what happened. See the project.

In Love in the First Person, they document their life as they share their thoughts and fears on the sudden changes in their future. They come to realize that, as Matt says, "Nothing good comes without some sort of struggle", and that beginning a life together is as much about faith as it is about commitment.
See the project.

Combining passages from his book with photographs, video, and Super-8 film, Evidence of My Existence brings to life a deeply personal account of 17 years spent moving from one new story to the next. It is a manic exposition on a life in photojournalism and the consequences of obsessive wanderlust.

For Lo Scalzo, a veteran US News & World Report photographer, as with so many photojournalists, it's about the going. See the project.

Two years after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana on August 29, 2005, the story is no longer about leaving. It's about coming home. For many, that process has not been easy. Tens of thousands of houses still remain empty, a majority of them belonging to the poor. In New Orleans alone, most of the 77,000 rental units have not been rebuilt.

As staggering as the numbers are, though, they cannot do justice to the emotional turmoil left in the hurricane's wake. Just what does it take for a family to start over? How does one survive not only the loss of a house, but the very real economic hardships of paltry insurance payments and lack of jobs, housing, and so many basic needs.

Photojournalist Brenda Ann Kenneally documents the seemingly endless struggles some families face as they set about Finding the Way Home: Two Years After Katrina. See the project.

Zakouma's armed guards have ensured sanctuary for the hundreds of species that reside within the park. At great personal risk, the guards fight a dangerous war against poachers who hunt the animals for their value on the black market or as cultural talismans.

But as perennial rains arrive to replenish the desert landscape, some 3,500 elephants search for better forage outside the park's perimeter, where poachers await them.

Conservationist J. Michael Fay and National Geographic photographer Michael Nichols traveled to Zakouma during the wet season in 2006 to discover the danger just beyond the park borders that threatens the refuge's very existence. See the project.

Strong beliefs in obscure parts of traditional Chinese medicine fuel the development. According to ancient custom, animal parts are imbued with "magical" properties. For the superstitious, eating the flesh of a tiger provides the animal's strength.

Despite scientific studies proving these beliefs wrong, the trade of animals and animal parts continues largely unchecked, fueled by desire, greed and corruption.

The problem seems insurmountable; one way of curbing the rampant killing and to decrease the demand for rare animals is by educating future generations and removing antiquated and false beliefs. See the project.

Creep was created as an extension to a series of shorts called 'Low Morale' which I began to develop during a well-paid, comfortable yet soul-destroying job as a senior designer in a multimedia agency. The countless days spent in the run down converted office, churning out banal multimedia and animation for faceless, lifeless, clueless blue chips had taken their toll on my soul. Creep became my creative escape tunnel.

The video actually started as a lip-syncing experiment with the central Low Morale character but rapidly grew into a cathartic opus that aimed to reflect my job dissatisfaction and the pain caused by a broken relationship. As I'm sure you'll glean from the video, they were indeed happy days. - Laith. See the project.

Making The Party was an attempt to create such an event. I wanted to find out what would happen if a lonely middle-aged man decided he could speak honestly with an adolescent woman--a colleague's daughter--at a company party. Even more, I wanted to evoke the "vivid, continuous dream" of fiction.

The Party began with a script. It is a work of imagination. But I'd also like to believe that it's true. In the end, though, a filmmaker trying to describe his intent is a bit like a filmmaker offering an excuse. Still, one can hope, and hope, for me, is the antidote to loneliness.

And that's a story worth telling. - Eric Maierson. See the project.

The statistics are staggering.

"But we are not only talking of numbers here," says Paddington Mazarura of Zimbabwe, a career professional infected with HIV. "We are talking of people."

Kristen Ashburn's BLOODLINE: AIDS and Family is the story of these men, women and their children.

Ashburn's photographs are heartbreaking. But they also tell us of something more. They remind us of how tenuous our connection is to each other. In doing so, they show that what matters most is the care we give to those in need. See the project.

Here are policemen seated on the floor, eating lunch and laughing, old men taking care of their fields and young girls celebrating at a suburban birthday party.

There is also hardship and tribulation, to be sure; the Iraqi Kurds endured generations of brutality under Saddam Hussein. His genocidal campaigns cost close to 200,000 lives. But as Iraqi Kurdistan documents, the region is mostly peaceful today. The people enjoy more autonomy and women's rights continue to grow stronger.

Documented by photojournalist Ed Kashi during a seven-week stay in 2005, the photographs of Iraqi Kurdistan are presented in flipbook-style animation; gradual changes between still images simulate motion. The thousands of images that comprise this project are as striking as they are bountiful. See the project.

"Most families in my country want their children to go to Europe," Kingsley says. It is in Europe - the new El Dorado - that African immigrants can vastly increase their incomes while also providing for their families back home. So, in May of 2004, Kingsley left Cameroon on what he calls "his mission." What followed was an excruciating six-month journey across half of Africa.

Kingsley's Crossing is the story of one man's willingness to abandon everything - his family, his country, and his friends - in the hopes of finding a better life abroad. Award-winning French photojournalist Olivier Jobard documents the passage. See the project.

In this emotionally charged account of family caregiving, filmmaker Julie Winokur and her husband, photojournalist Ed Kashi, expose their personal lives with unflinching candor. Winokur and Kashi uprooted their two children and their business in order to move 3,000 miles cross-country to care for Winokur's father, Herbie.

At 83, Herbie suffers from dementia and can no longer live alone. Winokur and Kashi are faced with difficult choices and overwhelming responsibility as they charge head on through their Sandwich years. It is a story of love, family dynamics and the immeasurable sacrifice of those who are caught in the middle. See the project.

Farkas, an Emmy award-winning producer and director, was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in May 2000. Not wanting to live the rest of his life with tremors and other symptoms, he decided to undergo Deep Brain Stimulation surgery, a procedure intended to improve his quality of life.

A TV animal to the core, Farkas naturally thought, "Why not make a TV documentary out of it?" Multiple cameras capture the action on the operating table as he flirts with nurses, tells bad jokes and breaks into a song.

As Farkas wrestles with his fear of surgery, he discovers remarkable dedication from his medical team and unabated love and support from his family and friends.
See the project.

The explosion, described by the United Nations as "the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of humanity," released 200 times the radioactive fallout of the two nuclear weapons used at the end of World War II.

The radioactive plume traveled over large parts of the former Soviet Union (including Belarus, Ukraine and Russia), across Europe and reaching as far as Greenland and Asia exposing entire populations to levels up to 100 times the normal background radiation. Magnum photographer Paul Fusco recounts the human aftermath of the tragedy.
See the project.

In the summer of 2004, audio producer Zac Barr partnered with photojournalist Andrew Lichtenstein and began interviewing American families who had lost a loved one in Iraq. The pair traveled to the South, Midwest and Northeast and into family’s homes to record their memories of lost loved ones. At the same time, interactive designer Tim Klimowicz was producing a data-driven representation of coalition fatalities mapped across the dimensions of time and space.

Never Coming Home details a deeply personal and public bereavement, and shows a portrait of grief and sacrifice of families with a hole in their lives, nothing but memory where once there was a living son and brother.
See the project.

Heaven, Earth, Tequila:

Over the past four years, award-winning photographer Douglas Menuez traveled through Jalisco state documenting the traditions from which tequila is born, from the history of the agave plant to how its most famous product became a symbol of Mexico.
See the project.

Friends for Life

Their encounter transformed them forever, as their friendship evolved into a commitment of profound magnitude.

Their story reveals both the beauty and the pain of growing older in America. "Friends for Life" is excerpted from the one-hour film "Aging in America: The Years Ahead" produced by multimedia innovators Ed Kashi and Julie Winokur. See the project.

Producer/Director Ray Farkas provides a glimpse of New Yorkers' first reactions as they try to comprehend the incomprehensible.

Farkas' signature technique is to let his subjects converse amongst themselves, using wireless microphones and long lenses to shoot at a distance. "People are more relaxed talking to someone they know -- friends, family, co-workers -- than they are to strangers -- us," Farkas says.
See the project.

Every week, Schoeller is called upon to capture portraits of the most recognized personalities of our time, from Britney Spears to President Bill Clinton. This German-born photographer spent the last seven years collecting this series of portraits, otherwise known as his "Big Heads." See the project.

1976

The concept of the video was to capture the flair of the Latin influence in the song "1976" by RJD2. See the project.