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A World of Women
Lauren Bush

United States

GALLERY

CONVERSATION

Over the past two years I have made several trips with the UN World Food Program to poor, developing countries. These pictures are just a few of the images I have brought back with me. One thing that has struck me most on my travels has been my encounters with women from different backgrounds and cultures, and it is through them that I have discovered new meaning about what it is to be a woman. The women I have photographed live in impoverished situations where the fight for basic needs is a daily one. Yet the kindness they have shown me, a mere visitor into their reality, has been immense. In Guatemala, it was a woman who invited me into her tidy mud hut to show me how she prepares her family’s meals everyday. In Cambodia, a woman cried to me out of anguish about her husband infecting her and her newly born son with AIDS. In Sri Lanka, I saw women banning together in the face of the 2005 Tsunami disaster. And in Chad, women sat around a tree explaining to me their traditions and beliefs. It is the women in these pictures who have been kind enough to share themselves with me, and because of that I owe so much to all these women. They have changed my view of the world and of womanhood. *** Guatemala: The Guatemalan woman in the bright pink dress stands surrounded by her family in their mountain village. Women have on average right to nine children, and thus it is hard to support such a large family. Guatemala has the highest rate of malnutrition in Latin America. These two girls look at me from behind the shrubs as I take their picture. All the women I encountered in Guatemala seemed modest and shy. I was impressed with how beautiful and put together they presented themselves in their pretty, bright colored dresses; yet they live in dirt huts in the mountains. Sri Lanka: In the wake of the Tsunami, all displaced people were registered by NGOs and with their registration card they could go to a food distribution sight and receive their rations. In one of these distribution huts a woman helps hand out rations. In a displacement camp, an old woman and a small child both look off in distant and worried gazes. The unbelievable sadness of this catastrophe was very present with everyone I encountered, especially for the old and the young who had the least chance of surviving the Tsunami waves. Cambodia: These three work hard in the field to cultivate crops in the flat, barren Chadian landscape. They take a break from their work to talk with us. The girl on the right is in school, but the other two are not enrolled. We discuss their desire to attend to school. These young girls are truly beautiful, and I am grateful that they let me take their picture. A colorful batch of Chadian women sit in the shade avoiding the mid-day sun after working hard to cultivate a field a few miles from their village. The women under the tree smile at me as I take their picture. Together they look like a beautiful tapestry of colors. They are the strongest women I will probably ever meet.

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COMMENTS ABOUT THIS STORY

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Seham Ataullah (United States)
I appreciate and admire these women who are struggling so hard to survive not only for thenselves but for their families. Hats off to these women.

Barsha Hamal (United States)
Lauren,

Thank you for sharing this story. I have great admiration for people who take time to share their experince and inspire others to learn and evolve.

My best wishes to you.
Barsha Hamal

Laura Ward (United States)
I always like looking at images of "daily life" from around the world. They are the most organic of photographic images. People and scenes aren't posed, but rather they exist in real time, in real life. These photographs of Lauren's represent that.

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Lauren Bush
United States

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