EnduranceatKickstarter

Endurance:EarthquakeNepalaphotobookby

OmarHavanaWithaforewordbyBernardoBertolucci

incollaborationwithFotoEvidencePress

AstatueofasmilingBuddhasitsamidsttherubbleofatempleinBhaktapur,April26,2015.

OmarHavana isanaward-winningphotojournalist,representedbyGettyImages,whowaslivinginKatmanduonApril25th2015whena7.8magnitudeearthquaketurnedmanypartsofthecountrytorubble. His work from the immediate aftermath of the earthquakewas publishedmore than 1000timesaroundtheworld. Hefollowedthestorylongaftermediainterestwaned,takingtripsaroundthecountrytodocumentboththedestructionandtherecoveryasa testimonytotheenduranceoftheNepalipeople.Contact:omarhavana@omarhavana.com

FotoEvidencewasfoundedin2010topublishbooksfordocumentaryphotographersworkingonlong-termprojectsfocusedonhumanrightsandsocialjustice.Contact:dstuart@fotoevidence.com

EnduranceatKickstarter 2

“Endurance”isBorn

On April 25th, 2015 an earthquake of 7.8magnitude shook Nepal. Almost 9,000 peopledied, more than 22,000 people sufferedinjuries and more than half a million houseswere destroyed. For months aftershocksrocked the country. People occupied thestreets and open spaces in fear. Chaosdominateddailylife.

Onenight,afterrunningallday,photographing,as aftershocks struck repeatedly, I finally fellasleep,huggingmycameras.Someonetouchedme. I immediately thought theymightwant tosteal my cameras but I turned to find an oldwoman, a woman who had lost everything,coveringmewithherquilt.Shesaid,“Weneedto take care of you. You are telling theworldthesituationinourcountry.Atthatmoment,Ibegan“Endurance.”

Awomancriesas she identifies thebodyofhermotherinBhaktapur,April26,2015.

Atfirsttheworldwasinterestedandthemediapublished a river of pictures showing thedestruction but within weeks other storiestook the headlines. Nepal vanished little bylittle from the news while the Nepali peoplecontinued their struggle, fighting as they didfrom day one, to help each other and rebuildoutofthedevastation. “Endurance”tellstheirstory.

BeingThere

Iwitnessedtheearthquakefirsthand.Ihitthestreets of Kathmandu minutes after the firsttremor,racingdownsixflightsofstairswith

mywifeandneighbors.Onourwaydown thewalls started to break apart around us. I wasfilled with fear and had no idea what washappeningbut,asweemergedontothestreet,I felt sure that we were some of the luckypeople.

A body lies under the rubble of a collapsedbuildinginBhaktapur,April26,2015.

Onthestreets, thetearsofpeopletoldmethestory. We had been hit by the devastation ofmotherearth.Wetriedtocallourfamiliesandfriendstotellthemwewerealivebutminutesafter speaking to them, communicationswentdown in Nepal. Just as many people weretrying to reach their loved ones, the countrywascutofffromtheoutsideworld.

For days we all slept on the streets, sharingfearbutalsoloveandcareforeachother.Asaforeigner living in Nepal, I felt I should giveeverything I had inside to tell theworldwhathappened.My love for the country, especiallyfor the people, made me push beyond mystrengthandhelpedmeovercomemyfear.

EnduranceatKickstarter 3

MomentsofJoy

DayspassedwiththesmallairportoverloadedbeforeinternationalrescueteamscouldarriveinKathmandu.Hopehadfaded.Thenumberofpeopleconfirmeddeadincreasedsignificantly.

Whenrescuersdidarrive,anoccasionalrayoflight pierced the darkness of devastation andsorrow. At the ruins of a guesthouse, wheredozensofpeoplehadperished,PembaLama,a15 year-old boy, was rescued alive by NepaliArmyandinternationalrescueteams.

He had survived for five days, surrounded bythe dead bodies of his guesthouse workcolleagues, drinking little drops of watercondensingonat-shirthangingoverhiminthepileofdebris.

AfterPemba, severalmorepeoplewere foundalive,examplesofthestrengthandpersistenceofthepeopleofNepal.

Fifteen year-old Pemba Lama is rescued froma collapsedhotelfivedaysaftertheearthquakehitNepal

Everypersonfoundwascelebratedasavictoryover the rage of mother earth. Little bylittlelifewas coming back toNepal, as bodieswere being cremated day and night,accompanied by the tears of those who hadsurvivedthem.

ThecremationofthedeadwentondayandnightinKathmandu.

EnduranceatKickstarter 4

InspiredByMySubjects

The plight of the Nepali people inspired me,notonlytobeabetterphotographerbuttoaskwhat I coulddo tobeabetterperson. I askedmyself, “how can they still smile after all thathas happened?” Iwanted to understandwhatspiritmade this possible, to understandwhatwas behind their resilience and to capture itwithmyphotography.

Forseveralmonths I traveledaroundNepal,acountryIloved,discoveringstorieslikethatofPembaLama,whosurvivedfivedaysundertherubble,orPawn,whosemotherhuggedandlayoverhimastheearthquakebegan.Shediedbuthesurvivedwithinjuriesonlytohislegs.

PawnPrajapati,15yearsold,sitsonabedwhilehis auntmassages his back and his legs,whichwerebadlyinjuredduringtheearthquake.

From Bhaktapur to Gorkha, fromKathmandu to Sindhupalchowk, everywhere Iwent, the fight of those who I foundimpressed me. People were asking me toenter their homes, to sharea tea, to pose forphotos. “Endurance” little by little became areality.

As I came to gripswithmy own trauma, thestories of those I met served as a kind oftherapy, helping me realize that my trauma was shared. My love for Nepal grewas the people made me feel part of acountry suffering the same trauma. I cried,smiled, felt the pain of those who weresharing a moment with me. I could notlet their stories be forgotten. I felt moreandmorethat itwasmydutytogivethem

voice. To alert the world to thedepthof theirstruggle and the spiritwithwhichtheyfoughttorebuildtheircountry.

Residents salvage awardrobe through the roofoftheirhomeonApril29,2015inBhaktapur.

ThePeopleNottheGovernment

While the Government of Nepal was stillsearchingfortherightwaytorespondtosucha massive disaster, the population did notthink. They went to work. With their barehands they were pulling damaged buildingsdown with ropes, recovering bricks andwooden planks to rebuild their homes, torebuild their country.Againandagain Iheardpeople say, “We will rise again. We will riseagain.”

More than 4 billion dollars were pledged bythe international community to the NepaliGovernment to help the country but, to thisday,Nepalisstillwaitingtoseethefundsbeinginvestedinthosewhoneeditthemost.

International and local organizations arehelpingthoseinneedwithmedicalcare,food,

EnduranceatKickstarter 5

water, rebuilding schools, educating childrenindisplacementcampsbut,overall, itwasthepeopleofNepal,whowereworkingextremelyharddayandnighttorebuildtheirnation.

Sukhman Tamang holds one of his youngestrelatives after landing at his village in theHimalayas with his wife and daughters, twomonthsafterbeingevacuated.

Endurance,TheBook

A colleague once told me, “If the story is nottold, itdoesnot exist.” Iwant the storyof theNepalipeople’s response to the earthquake to

be remembered. “Endurance” will be ahumble tribute to and a legacy for thosewhoareworkinghardtoseetheirnationriseagain.

“Endurance” will include over 70 black andwhite photographs shot across Nepal,immediately after the earthquake and in themonths following. It will be printed in ahardboundedition,measuring20x30cm.

FilmdirectorBernardoBertolucci,whousedimages from “Endurance” for a fundraisingcampaign in Rome to help Nepal, willwrite aforeword. Other contributors include: SouthAfrican photographer Gareth Bright, AFPNepali journalist Paavan Mathema and AmirThapa, Senior Program Officer forInternationalMedicalCorpsNepal.

RenownaroundtheworldforitsextraordinaryHimalayan landscape, Nepal should really berecognized for its extraordinary people.“Endurance” tellsthestoryoftheirresilience,the story of a life spirit that spreads, like thesmiles on their faces, over the streets filledwithdebrisandtheruinsoftheirhomes.

AdisplacedgirlstudiesonahillinfrontoftheBodedisplacementcamponinBhaktapur.Morethan1000peoplewholosttheirhomeslivedinthecampinAugustof2015.

EnduranceatKickstarter 6

TheKickstarterCampaign

InordertopublishEnduranceFotoEvidenceandIneedtoraise$27,000.WearemountingacrowdfundingcampaignatKickstartertomakethisenduringtestamenttostrengthandspiritofthepeopleofNepalareality. If we exceed our goal even modestly we be able to distribute Endurance to libraries and community organizations in Nepal.

Wewelcomedirectbackingforthecampaignbutyoucanalsohelpusreachourgoalbysharingtheprojectpersonallywithotherswhoyouthinkmighthaveaninterestandthroughyoursocialnetwork.

VisitEnduranceatKickstarter.

AboutOmarHavana

OmarHavanawasborninSpainin1975.HeisrepresentedbyGettyImagesandsince2008hehadbeenlivinginAsia.HemovedtoNepalinOctober2014wherehehadbeencoveringawidespectrumofstories,mostlyfocusedonthehumandramas,achievementsandfighttoimprovethesituationofthecountry.

Hisphotosduringtheearthquakewerepublishedbydozensofthemostimportantpublicationsaroundtheworld,includingfrontpagesinTheNewYorkTimes.Hehasalsoshownhisworkinthe2015VisaPourL’ImageFestivalinPerpignanand2015PhotoreporterFestival,bothinFrance.SomeofhisphotosduringtheearthquakehavebeenchosenamongthebestoftheyearbyinternationalmediasuchasTheAtlanticandhisagencyGettyImages.OmarandhiswifeJuliettehavealsogivenconferencesinFranceandSpainonhowtohelpNepalweeksaftertheearthquakehitthecountry.HiscommitmenttoNepalismuchmorethanasaphotographer:heispartofNepal,acountrythathelovesandhecalledhome.

OmarHavana’swebsite:http://omarhavana.com

EnduranceInstagramaccount:https://www.instagram.com/endurance_oh/

EnduranceFacebookPage:https://www.facebook.com/Endurance.OmarHavana/

OmarHavanainthePress

ThestorybehindthephotosofNepal’sdevastatingEarthquake.TIMEMagazine.

OmarHavana.AuCoeurduNepal.ActuPhotoMagazine(Frenchlanguage)

NepalsmilesinfaceofearthquakeinOmarHavana’sphotos.RFIInternational

OmarHavanaalertaanteelolvidotraselterremoto.TheHuffingtonPost(Spanishlanguage)

Aphotographer’stributetoNepaliquakesurvivors’strengthandresilience.SouthChinaMorningPost

AboutFotoEvidence

FotoEvidencewasfoundedin2010bySvetlanaBachevanovawiththeintentionofpublishingtheworkofdocumentaryphotographersworkingonlong-termprojectsthatfocusonsocialjusticeandhumanrights.Inaddition,eachyeartheFotoEvidenceBookAwardpublishesabookforonephotographerwhoseprojectdemonstratescourageandcommitmentinthepursuitofhumanrights.

FotoEvidence’swebsite: FotoEvidence.com