I am not a Christmas-person, but I still wish you all a Happy Christmas!
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Philip Jones Griffiths (12.07):
- “You didn’t asked me how I spent Christmas this year”
- “Ok Philip, how did you spend Christmas?”
- “Oh, I am glad that you ask. I spent the days reading the book of Bertrand Russell: Why I am not a Christian.”
Soon all images on my archive…
Stonehenge at 6 am
Stonehenge at 7h30am
Ritual in between the stones
Energy heeling
Ritual at Avebury
Hitting the gong
Thanks to the people that donated something to Haiti!
Just to let you know what I will do with your donations:
I will go back to the children that I photographed and see what is best to help them. So I will buy medicines, beds and food. Some few children I will send to school. If anyone is interested in a sponsorship of one of the children in my pictures, I can arrange that with an NGO. I am planning as well to open my own NGO, but I need people that will help me to do the paperwork. Anyone who would like to help me with that - please write me an email: alice.smeets (at) gmail.com
If you want to have informations about NGOs in Haiti and if you can trust them - ask me and I can tell you about many of them.
Just to let you know: I sell my pictures as prints and donate 30% of the money to the children in Haiti.
First of all, many thanks to everyone who congratulated me. I’m said, that I haven’t got the time to answer every email, but I read them all and I’m happy about what you wrote! It’s a weird feeling to write a post on my blog now, because I know it is read by many more people than before. I will do my best to keep it quick and interesting 
On Friday morning me and my boyfriend Frederic left Eupen to drive to Stonehenge in England, because I knew that there was going to be a pagan and druid- ceremony on Sunday morning (I am doing a long-term project on modern witchcraft and paganism to make a photography book out of it). In Avebury, which is another stonecircle very close to Stonehenge were two other rituals as well planned - one on Saturday and one on Sunday. I expected more from the gatherings: that there would be more magical - especially the one in Stonehenge. But it was so crowded with people that just wanted to see what was going on and also with many press photographers that were (as it seemed) making competitions about who uses their flash more often, that the ritual itself got often interrupted. In Avebury it was a lot quiter, but not much was going on and they’ve held it very short. I will put the images soon on my archive, there is nothing exceptional, but I did my best.
After visiting London and the room I decided to rent for the next year (with two cool gay roommates), we are now in Dover waiting for the ferry to bring us back to Belgium. On the 02.01 I will definitely move to London and then see what the new year brings.
Hey jupiii - it is official. I was so nervous and excited about it – I won the Unicef Picture of the year 2008. I cannot express how happy I am. It’s not only great because my work as a photographer gets recognition (I am just at the beginning of my career and all the winners of the years before were great and famous photojournalists), but also and much more important – eventually many people will turn there eyes on Haitis children. I hope that everyone now gets their ass up and donates just a small amount – if we all pull the same string, we will cause change. To say it in Obamas words: Yes we can. Let’s help Haiti. Please donate a little bit of money to organizations that help Haiti to help themselves. I also collect donations for the children that you see on my pictures. I assure that every cent will reach Haiti. I will return to Haiti in March 2009 and one of my missions will be to find that little girl again that you see on the winning image. I want to help her and send her to school.
I also speak to the young people – we all can cause change. I am myself 21 years old and can assure that no-one will aver regret to have helped some people in need.
Many thanks again to Unicef and to the jury of the Award for giving my pictures attention and importance. I sometimes had self-doubts and wondered if it was right thing what I was doing – this prize shows me that it is.
Many thanks also for every email you all sent me! Unfortunately I cannot answer all, but I will try to respond to as many people as possible.
Underneath you’ll find my speech of today’s press conference – but it’s only in German.
Thank you all for visiting my blog and homepage (and one last person to thank is Susan Brandenberger (sylver_sb (at) gmx.net) for designing and creating this beautiful homepage).
Also please have a look at my friends work at www.outoffocus.be
And please never forget the work of Philip Jones Griffiths, one of the best photographers ever – who was the very first person that saw the winning image and told me that it was one of my bests. He was my mentor, he was my hero, he was like my second father and I miss him every day. I encourage everyone (especially young photographers who seek for inspiration) to have a look in his book “Vietnam Inc”.
… Alice….
The speech of the 18th of December in Berlin for the award ceremony:
Guten Tag meine Damen und Herren,
Erst einmal möchte ich mich ganz herzlich bei der Jury bedanken die meiner Arbeit durch den Preis Anerkennung verleiht und somit die Aufmerksamkeit der Öffentlichkeit auf Haitis Kinder lenkt.
Haitis Probleme – Armut, Krankheiten, Korruption… – sind in letzter Zeit nicht mehr so präsent in den Medien und von daher auch nicht mehr in den Köpfen der Menschen.
Oft habe ich versucht, die Bilder dieses persönlichen Projektes Zeitschriften anzubieten… doch meist bekam ich die gleiche Antwort: “Vielen Dank, aber Haiti liegt momentan nicht in unserem Interessebereich” oder “Die Geschichte ist zu negativ für unsere Leser”. Trotzdem habe ich weiterhin an die Wichtigkeit dieser Geschichte geglaubt und gehofft, irgendwann Menschen zu finden, die das genauso sehen – deswegen nochmals DANKE an die Jury und DANKE an UNICEF für den Preis.
Auch danken möchte ich allen Personen, die mir diese Reportage ermöglicht haben, vor allem der Berliner Hilfsorganisation Haiti Care und meinen Eltern für ihre Unterstützung.
Lassen Sie mich kurz meinen fotografischen Werdegang erklären, bevor wir uns den Bildern und Erfahrungen in Haiti zuwenden.
Mein Name ist Alice Smeets, ich bin 21 Jahre alt und komme aus der deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft Belgiens. Vor 2 Jahren habe ich mit dem Fotografieren begonnen. Nach einem Workshop mit Philip Jones Griffiths, der dieses Jahr verstorbene berühmte Magnum Fotograf, bekam ich die große Chance, ihm bei seiner Arbeit in London zu assistieren. Er hat mir vieles beigebracht – unter anderem, dass Fotojournalisten alle eine Wahl haben im Leben: “Wir können entweder über vieles weit und oberflächlich berichten – oder über eine kleine Auswahl nah und tiefgründig”. Ich habe mich für die zweite Möglichkeit entschieden.
Slideshow und Erklärung der Bilder
Zum Schluss möchte ich noch folgendes hinzufügen: Philip Jones Griffiths, mein Mentor und für mich einer der besten Fotografen aller Zeiten, sprach immer davon, echte Bilder zu machen - für Menschen, die ihre Augen nicht verschließen wollen.
Ich hoffe, dass ich heute und weiterhin auf Menschen dieser Art treffe und wir alle nicht die Augen verschließen vor dem Elend und dem Leiden der Kinder Haitis, sondern stattdessen hinschauen und helfen. Ich möchte dazu beitragen, dass Haiti nicht vergessen wird. Denn die Haitianer haben die Hoffnung nicht aufgegeben.