we’ve all seen the headlines the world’s
not safe you can’t trust anyone they
aren’t like us so we know that we’re
living in a divided world right a world
of them and us a world where they don’t
look like us they don’t talk like us and
they certainly don’t behave like us and
we know this because we’ve seen it with
our own two eyes
in the newspaper headlines and the
television reports which tell us how
divided and different the people of the
world are and even if those newspapers
were to maybe exaggerate their headlines
just a little bit just to sell a few
extra copies well that’s okay because
we’ve always got Facebook right and we
all know that everything we read on
Facebook is completely true and accurate
isn’t it I’ve always been fascinated by
the way our vision and our opinions of
the world around us are shaped by the
images we’re presented how a single
photograph has the ability to shift
opinions and change minds it’s that
fascination which first led me to pick
up a camera and become a photographer
and let me tell you there’s never been a
better time to be a photographer this
right now will be the most recorded age
in history and the photographs that we
take today are not just for sharing
online as I hope that everybody will
know we like them these photographs will
be viewed for generations to come
future historians will study and examine
those photographs as they try and
understand our society and the
contributions that we made to them in
many ways
two photographs that we take today will
tell the stories of our age but I can’t
help but wonder what were those stories
be will they really be stories of
division are the people in the world
really that different that’s why I
fought about often and so a couple of
years ago I decided to try and find out
I decided to try and visit as many
people as I could I met people from
dozens of countries spanning six
continents people from Toronto to Tokyo
from Havana to Hanoi and pretty much
this wasn’t a predetermined voyage I
didn’t have a planned route this was a
nomadic journey driven largely by the
stories I discovered you see there’s
something about viewing the world
through the lens of a camera that forces
you to look at things slightly
differently
something about framing a photograph
that requires you to concentrate on the
subject in front of you and take away
all of the other distractions and this
experience allowed me to meet so many
people from so many different
backgrounds and cultures in such a short
period of time that I was able to
explore humanity in a way that few other
people have been able to do and in the
process I learned what lies in the
unexplored space between them and us but
that was much later into my journey
believe it or not the very first thing I
learned from photographing people all
over the world is that people really
like having their photographs taken
everywhere I went on every continent it
seemed that all I to do was say hello
and people would unleash their inner
supermodel and start posing for
photographs in the middle of the street
and telling a complete stranger all
about their daily lives and that took me
by surprise I honestly
affected people to be more resistance so
why did all these people allow a total
stranger to capture their photograph
well it transpires simply that people
all over the world are very cooperative
happy to offer their assistance if they
can be of help and I experienced this
everywhere I went
but perhaps nowhere did it stand out for
me more than in a small fishing village
I discovered in the West African country
of Ghana there’s nothing that can
prepare you for the early morning chaos
of El Mina the noise as you approach
this small fishing port can be unnerving
the cries of the boat captains as they
jostle for position the shouts of the
traders as they argue over their prices
and the hustle of the workers as they
run around carrying everything on their
head but what struck me most was the way
that all these people seemed to be
working together in perfect harmony by
mid-morning the coast line was lined
with thousands of people helping to
repair and organize the fishing nets to
pull the boats onto the safety of the
shore and generally working together for
the greater good this really brought
home to me that just like us this
community understood the value of
working together talking of home
something else to discover as I traveled
all over the world is that despite my
desire to travel for the vast majority
of people there’s no place like home
even if home is in the middle of a
disaster zone in April 1986 an explosion
at the Chernobyl power plant resulted in
the worst nuclear disaster in history in
a matter of moments thousands of square
kilometers were left uninhabitable for
at least 50,000 years to come and even
today the threat of radiation is so
severe that an exclusion zone of more
than
3,500 kilometers is strictly enforced
all around the plants preventing people
from entering in the decades which have
followed nature has been busy
reclaiming the towns and communities
which were left behind today
trees grow in the middle of the town
square that was once the center of the
community the funfair lays abandoned
never to be enjoyed again and the
homework of the children still lies on
the floor where it’s left abandoned as
the children fled and yet despite the
ever-present threat of radiation
poisoning not everybody chose to leave
scattered throughout the exclusion zone
I discovered dozens of mainly elderly
residents who refused to leave known as
the returners they’d struck an uneasy
truce with the local authorities fed up
of trying to remove them from the zone
well I couldn’t understand is why
someone would choose to say in an area
that the rest of the world considered to
be one of the most dangerous places on
the planet because this is where my home
is even one of those returners told me
and I hardly had time to say hello
before it’s explained to me that this
was the house that he built with his own
two hands and he had no intention of
leaving and besides he told me
confidently her 86 years of age he had
other things to worry about other than
the radiation but how did he manage when
even the nearest food stores were many
hours away simple he told me I grow all
my own food before handing me a sample
of his homegrown produce
it’s only after I had a few mouthfuls
that it occurred to me that this was
food grown in the most radioactive soil
on the planets
Avengers laughed at me and he wasn’t the
only one who chosen to stay throughout
the exclusion zone I found many others
for whom the draw of home is too much to
resist
it seems that just like us for these
people home is where the heart lies and
nothing not even fifty thousand years of
radiation is going to force them to
leave now despite the damage that
humanity seems determined to inflict on
our planet something else I discovered
as I traveled was a our planet really is
an amazing place just when I think I’ve
seen everything just when I think I’ve
photographed everything mother nature
will surprise me once again whether it
be the roar of Niagara Falls or the
Peace of a beach in Iceland at 2:00 a.m.
in the summertime when the Sun never
sets or the solace of the ocean as the
all the tranquility of the Mauritian see
our planet is an amazing place and yet
even in a 21st century I still found
that there’s too much sadness in the
world there’s still only too many people
suffering with issues of mental health
of homelessness of substance abuse and
for too many people everyday life is
still a battle and yet everywhere I
traveled I discovered people who were
prepared to fight that battle and
nowhere did I discover this more than in
New York City arriving in the Big Apple
is not a subtle experience New York is
not demure it’s not shy it’s not
retiring it’s big its bold its
in-your-face brash it’s a city where the
American Dream is not just an aspiration
it’s a way of life
and Times Square is where that dream
lives and breathes and explodes against
a backdrop of neon lights every day the
stars of tomorrow descend on Times
Square seeking their fame and fortune by
singing and dancing their hearts out in
the hopes have been discovered happy to
share their experiences with anyone who
cares to say hello I was to discover
that behind every dream lies the reality
of everyday life it’s a struggle one of
those hopefuls told me I never seem to
catch a break so why do you carry on a
stick why do you continue because one
day I’m going to be a star is what he
told me with total sincerity and I
believe him – he was just biding his
time waiting to be discovered and this
sense of hope this sense of optimism in
the face of everyday challenges was
something I discovered everywhere I went
it seems that just like us the people in
New York have their own dreams and
aspirations for the future and the more
people I met and the more places I
visited the more that those headlines
screaming out about the division in the
world and how different the people were
seemed so hot from my experiences
because I was learning that it wasn’t
language which divides us it’s not
culture or religion which separates us I
learned that what lies in the unexplored
space between them and us is perception
we are different because we think we are
different but the more people I met the
more I realized that this was a false
perception human beings are the same all
over the world the people I met were
happy to offer their assistance wherever
and whenever they could the people I met
felt that home was where their heart
lies and the people I met had their
dreams and aspirations for the future
but most of all
the people I met all over the world
wanted nothing more than to be long we
all want to be one of us
so how do we achieve that how do we go
from a world of them and us to a world
where there’s only we I believe the
answer is simple and it starts with a
single word it’s a word that I realize
I’ve been using all over the world that
word is hello such a small word such a
simple word and yet it’s a word that
allows total strangers to begin a
conversation and it’s so doing ceased to
be strangers and it’s my hope that if
only we can choose to use that word more
often the stories that we tell our
future generations through the
photographs that we capture today will
not be stories of division but stories
of unity let those be the stories that
we choose to share so thank you and
hello [Applause]