contact me
christi turner sustainable/photography
news/blog
portfolio
home
bio
links
contact
christi turner
sustainable/photography
welcome to my new site.
images and stories from Madagascar and other unlikely corners of the world... "from the Red Island to the Rhode Island" as i like to say.
a passion for sustainable community development and photography, and my attempt to interweave the two.
all feedback and inquiries welcome.
more content coming soon!
feel free to visit my blog as well,
dropsmakewaves.wordpress.com
My five years in Madagascar were some of the best life has given me, spent working in the field of sustainable community development at both the grassroots and programmatic levels. Living in a rural village and working in long-term partnership with the community as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I helped it to enhance local education through new libraries and schools; to improve community health through new clinics, solar powered vaccine storage and mosquito net distribution; to develop a network of community conservation projects, from artisans’ cooperatives to a nature reserve; and to build a solar-powered community radio station, nurturing it into a hub for local sustainable development activity. As I evolved as a community development coordinator I tried to grow as a photographer as well, using my images to advocate for projects and raise awareness on issues with which I was involved and to share the nuanced, intimate stories of the striking faces, extraordinary ecology and profound experiences with which Madagascar brought me in contact.
I moved to London in from December 2009 to February 2010, seeking new personal and professional growth and challenges. Throwing myself at London’s photography scene and interning at an East London studio, I worked to stretch my technical and creative talents into something worthy of the documentary photographer I hope to be.
I continue to pursue the community media/community-based conservation nexus, designing radio projects with NGOs that work in local natural resource management in the developing world. I see the two pursuits as complementary, and cannot justify letting one or the other fall by the wayside, try as I might.
Prior to the Madagascar chapter were four extraordinary years at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR. LC gave me more than I had hoped for, including a Bachelor of the Arts degree in International Affairs and Foreign Languages, Chairmanship of the International Affairs Symposium, a year studying in the Dominican Republic and interning with a Dominican-Haitian human rights NGO, a Student of the Year Award for that work, and a progressive, engaged, supportive community that has helped me to become the individual that I am today.
I doubt that I ever would have had the confidence and mettle to move from my hometown in Rhode Island, to the opposite end of the United States, and eventually to the opposite end of the world, had it not been for the North Kingstown Rotary Club, who selected me as their 1998 Rotary Exchange Student and sponsored me for a year of study in Chile, and have supported me ever since. I remain grateful to the Rotary and to the countless others who have shown me their support over the years.
“Before I am anything I am human, and in this I am at one with the world.” (Ed Husain)
individual
natural
nocturnal
newport bridge
1
2
music:
conceptual
assignment: WaterWheel
back to portfolio
music (1 of 2)
Phish
live at Comcast Theater, Hartford, CT, 06.17.10
forward to music 2
music (2 of 2)
live at Comcast Theater, Mansfield, MA, 06.22.10
back to music 1
WaterWheel
The WaterWheel Foundation oversees Phish's many charitable activities. In every town where the band plays on tour, WaterWheel partners with a local non-profit and helps them to raise awareness and funds for their cause. These photos were taken in Mansfield, MA on June 22, 2010, where WaterWheel was partnering with the Conservation Law Foundation, which works to protect the New England environment.
Click here for the WaterWheel site.
Click herefor the CLF site.
Here's to Phish for using their enormous popularity to support good causes. If you love the music, join the cause yourself!
community radio the world over, building social justice & sustainable communities:
www.radioactive.org.uk
to purchase photographic prints, prints on canvas, and other items, please visit my storefront at:
www.etsy.com/shop/naturallychristi
roof unit studios, london, where i had the opportunity to learn from some of the UK's best young photographers:
www.roofunit.com
Spotlight Madagascar, a site created by former Peace Corps Volunteer (and colleague in Madagascar) Sara LeHoullier, features news, travel tips, and cultural and political commentary on the "Red Island". Visit her site here: www.spotlightmadagascar.org
Sara LeHoullier's forthcoming publication, a travel companion to Madagascar, will feature my photographs from around the island. For more about the upcoming book (summer 2010) visit its description at the Other Places Publishing site:
Madagascar Travel Companion
if you're in rhode island, stop by Midnight Sun in Wickford to purchase earrings, bags, and photographic prints and cards from madagascar (as well as a variety of wonderful colorful crafts from around the globe). proceeds (from rhode island) support grassroots development projects (on the red island).
christiturnerphotography_gmail.com
current physical location (subject to relocation):
narragansett, RI
news / blog (p.2)
back...
next...
One of my biggest projects as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar was to help found Radio Meva Ankarana, the country's first solar-powered community radio station. (See video on page 1 of the news/blog section). I funded this project through the US Embassy's Democracy & Human Rights Fund. The success of Radio Meva Ankarana was cited in an annual publication of the US State Department, "Supporting Human Rights & Democracy: The US Record 2006".
Click hereto link to the publication, and scroll to page 41 of the document to see the bit about RMA.
I had the rare opportunity to collaborate with a local legend in northwest Madagascar, an anthropologist known as Jao Ankarana in those parts -- "Jao" being the region's most common name, and "Ankarana" being the name of the region -- and otherwise known as Andrew Walsh. Andrew has spent nearly two decades either living in, researching, or teaching about the Ankarana region. I was honored to be assumed his sister, Soa.
Andrew and his colleague Ian Colquhoun, another UWO professor and long-time Madagascar specialist, created a unique study-abroad program for his students at UWO, the University of Western Ontario. The program includes several short-term stays in rural, ecologically- and anthropologically-significant sites in the Ankarana, including the community-managed ecotourist site that I helped to build. Click here to read more about this wonderful collaborative field research course.
Follow this link to a story in my blog to read more about community-based natural resource management and ecotourism in the Ankarana, and how our first year of collaboration with UWO turned out!
news / blog
blog
You can find more descriptive musings, adventures in photography, epic tales of travel and more, at my blog, DropsMakeWaves.
news
Ethical photography and community radio... both passions are tied to my pursuit of effective sustainable development and positive change.
My unending gratitude to Jasleen Kaur Sethifor producing this short promotional film about Radio Meva Ankarana, the solar-power community radio station that I helped to build in northwest Madagascar.
This film, and this radio station, helped me to grow from a community radio enthusiast into a local expert, and spearheaded years of fruitful collaboration with RadioActive, still going strong today.
To read about Radio Meva Ankarana on the RadioActive website, click here.
news / blog (p.3)
In 2008 The Chronicle, Lewis & Clark College's alumni magazine, featured an article about three alumni who all found themselves in Madagascar: Ambassador Niels Marquardt, Director of USAID's Environment Mission Lisa Gaylord, and myself, a Peace Corps Volunteer at the time. Click here to read the article.
newport bridge from jamestown, RI
© christi turner 2010. all rights carefully reserved.
