...The Forest Edge defines where I photograph, write, and work. If you could overlay a map of the world's most biodiverse places and culturally rich areas, these are the places that match up. These are areas where I think the hope lies: these are places were small forest farmers live and work, these are places on the edges of intact rainforest, these are places where communities are impacted by development, and they are places where small (and large) enironmental conservation organizations work.

These are also places of tension. I recently visited forest edges in Sumatra at the beginning of coffee harvest. Forest farmers there had just started a small fair trade cooperative. This occurs in a rainforest where tigers, elephants, and individual rhinocerous still wander through small coffee forests. The farmers were trying to figure out how to conserve biodiversity, maintain their livelihoods, and discourage illegal land clearing inside the park. They had some good ideas. In Borneo, these are places where forest communities are collecting forest seeds and planting them to preserve their own forests, culture, and history. So these are also places of hope too.

This collection of twenty images represents a turning point in my dedication to photography and the people who live along forest edges. The black and white images made in this gallery were taken on film that I developed in the field and air dryed in a small tent. Many of these i mages were made during my time in the Peace Corps in the Philippines, others were made on return trips there. There are also three images from forest edges in Costa Rica.

 

Bamboo Kids, Forest River (enter gallery)...