Published: March 24, 2007 11:02 pm      

Local photographer returning to Rwanda

Look into the eyes of Paul Corbit Brown’s photographs, and there’s little — if any — need for explanation.

The pictures he has taken during his last two visits to Rwanda tell two stories simultaneously: one of hardship and pain, and yet another of hope.

His subjects there are the children who sleep on heaps of garbage and spend their days on the street. Many of them are the orphans left behind after extremist militia groups killed some 800,000 people in a three-month period in 1994.

Now, this West Virginia photographer finds himself drawn back to Rwanda — not just to take pictures, but to establish a permanent food bank, ensure children have clean drinking water and possibly even help further someone’s cause helping girls learn to sew.

He also wants to build a free clinic and has spoken about doing so with a doctor in Rwanda who is committed to helping care for the street children. And some day, Brown would like to see young men learn a trade skill, possibly motorcycle mechanics, since that seems to be the area’s most popular form of mobile transportation.

Brown, a former Register-Herald photographer, is a native West Virginian who has made a career producing images that further the goals of human rights, social justice and environmental responsibility. His projects — funded mainly by the prints he sells — have taken him to Israel and Palestine, Jamaica, Laos, Russia and all of the United States.

“I’ve seen starving kids all over the planet,” he said, “but there was something about these children that they just reached out to me, not with an empty, begging hand, but they gave me something, some sign of hope, of kindness.”

Brown tells a story about how, even though they were young and starving, some parentless street children he helped feed offered him their food before they would eat it themselves.

“One boy was so insistent,” he said. “How would they know to do that? It shows that there is something basically good inside of us.”

Even gifts as simple as pens and paper are cherished by those children, he said.

“They want to learn. And that’s hope. It’s something we can build on.”

The situation is bad. The children, many of them witnesses to the slaughter of their own families, carry on a painful legacy. Teenage boys huff glue; they tell Brown it’s because it eases the pain.

“Which pain is that?” Brown asked.

“You know. The pain of being hungry. The pain of being alone,” a boy answers.

But behind angry eyes, behind tearful eyes, Brown sees hope for a better future, and somehow, that hope is communicated through his photographs.

Brown is hoping to leave for his next trip to Rwanda in April, should his fundraising be successful. He encourages those who want to help to purchase prints rather than simply make donations.

“I want people who write those checks to have something sitting in front of them, something that will remind them that they made a difference, so that they can have some ownership of what we can be,” he said.

To donate, purchase photographs or view Brown’s work, visit the Web site www.paulcorbit brown.com.

— E-mail: bnaudrey@register-herald.com