John Kaplan. Transcendant Photojournalist and Humanitarian.

[stephendare]

John Kaplan is an old friend.  We met in Muncie Indiana of all places, and he was fresh from his early travels in China.

His amazing future wife, Li Ren, was from the University of Beijeng, the Chair studying the easternization of the West, and they had just met and were falling in love. ( Later, I catered their wedding, which was like a who's who of international publishing.)

John has travelled the planet, and photographed things which most people only imagine even happening, and I am proud to have been able to see many of the photos that the rest of the world has not---despite his many awards and honors, not every photo can be displayed.

He won the Pulitzer for a project called "21", which was a photo essay about the lives of very different 21 year olds around the country, but that was only the beginning of his amazing career.

My favorite body of work is his colorful, wonderful work in Cuba.  Very beautiful and humane, John is able to get people in moments of intimate beauty.

His most compelling work, in my mind anyways, is the work he did photographing the survivors of Torture in the Sierra Leone/Liberia War.   John caught people in the act of surviving and transcending the suffering, and the accompanying text with the photos is heartbreaking because he also found forgiveness from the victims for their torturers.

By happenstance, we both left Muncie at about the same time for Florida, me to come home, and he to take a position at UF, teaching Photojournalism.

Hes an unsung resource in these parts, and people should know more about this giant.

Here is his website:
http://johnkaplan.com/pages/index2.html

Here are some shots from 21, all of 21 year olds









and here are some from Cuba









And a few from Surviving Torture

[Miss Fixit]

Thanks for sharing this, Stephen.  John's work is amazing.  Think I'll try to make it to 5 Points next Thursday.