Bearing Witness Paul Choy Bearing Witness Paul Choy

The Village With No Name

Cut off from the outside world, the inhabitants of this village with no name, located deep in the forest of Madagascar, have learned to become almost entirely self-sufficient. With no running water or electricity, everything in the village had to be done by hand. Are there lessons we can learn from their experiences?

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Thoughts Paul Choy Thoughts Paul Choy

The Spirit of Football

Money and sport have always been uncomfortable teammates, but in the end, it has always felt like sport came first. But this World Cup feels different. Does the 2022 World Cup mark the moment when money takes the lead and sport is left to follow after?

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Thoughts Paul Choy Thoughts Paul Choy

A Box of Memories

Do you remember photographs? I mean real photographs — the kind you hold in your hand, not view on your phone. For those who are too young to remember (or those of you who are old enough but want to enjoy a walk down memory lane), let me share with you what is was like to capture moments on film rather than on a sensor.

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Extraordinary People Paul Choy Extraordinary People Paul Choy

Mental Health and Fame

At the age of 16, Janet Devlin became an overnight star. By the age of 20, she was an alcoholic. To her adoring fans, the singer from Northern Ireland had the world at her feet, but away from the public eye, her mental health was spiralling out of control.

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Thoughts Paul Choy Thoughts Paul Choy

Is Photography Dead?

If what we read on the Internet is to be believed (and who doesn't believe everything they read on the Internet?), photography is dying before our eyes. But is it, or are we simply entering a new phase of the creative age?

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Bearing Witness Paul Choy Bearing Witness Paul Choy

Trafficked

Despite the pain of leaving her children behind in Madagascar, Janine (not her real name) was full of hope for the future when she arrived in Mauritius to begin a new career in the restaurant industry. Instead she discovered she had been trafficked into a brutal world of prostitution and sexual violence. This is her story.

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Experiences, Natural World Paul Choy Experiences, Natural World Paul Choy

The Roof of Africa

As a documentary photographer and writer, I am used to challenging assignments in far-off places. But as I stood, exhausted from many days of sleep and oxygen deprivation, staring up at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest freestanding mountain in the world, I couldn't help but wonder if this would finally be a challenge too far?

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Bearing Witness Paul Choy Bearing Witness Paul Choy

The Killing Fields

In the four years that it ruled over Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the deaths of an estimated two million people. Mass graves were still being discovered years after the fall of the regime, such was their disregard for humanity. To date, over 20,000 burial sites have been identified; the United Nations have declared these as the sites of multiple crimes against humanity. The people of Cambodia simply call them the Killing Fields.

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Thoughts Paul Choy Thoughts Paul Choy

The Fight

The two children circled cautiously for a few moments, each unsure of the other, until suddenly, the smaller of the two punched the taller boy straight in the face and didn't stop punching until the job was done. Thai Boxing is not for the faint-hearted. But the real fight is not being fought on the mats; there is a far more significant challenge that all sports must soon face.

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Bearing Witness Paul Choy Bearing Witness Paul Choy

Water!

Look at this photograph; what do you see? On the surface, it is a story of everyday poverty in the 21st century but, as I have learned, there is always more to every story if we are prepared to look deeper into the narrative.

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Bearing Witness Paul Choy Bearing Witness Paul Choy

A Mother's Anguish

I have always been drawn to the eyes of the people I meet. As a window to the soul, our eyes show truth no matter what face we choose to display to the world. And so it was with this mother I met in a quiet fishing village on the outskirts of Mumbai.

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Bearing Witness Paul Choy Bearing Witness Paul Choy

Faceless, Forgotten

As war and conflict continue to ravage the Middle East, record numbers of refugees have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety. They have become the faceless, forgotten people whose individual stories have been lost along the way.

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Experiences Paul Choy Experiences Paul Choy

Rite of Passage

As a photographer, I have always aspired to create photographs that have never been seen before: unique and spontaneous moments. But capturing certain photographs have become almost a rite of passage for any travelling photographer – even if they have been photographed thousands of times. This one is mine.

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Thoughts Paul Choy Thoughts Paul Choy

Why Do We Travel?

As I have learned through experience, having travelled around the world many times over, there is very little glamorous about travelling. And yet, we keep doing it. The question I ask myself is, why?

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Experiences Paul Choy Experiences Paul Choy

A Bridge Too Far …

This is story of the most dangerous photograph I have ever taken. I didn’t plan for it to be so dangerous photograph but I made the mistake of ignoring the little voice of reason inside my head, and pretty soon everything was going downhill, in more ways than one.

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Thoughts Paul Choy Thoughts Paul Choy

Never Forgotten

September 11, 2001, was meant to be just another day in the office for Milton G. Bustillo as he made his way to his office on the 103rd floor of World Trade Center's North Tower. And then the planes hit, and the world changed forever.

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Experiences Paul Choy Experiences Paul Choy

Facing my Fears

As I stood at the mountain base, contemplating the climb, Pieter Both mountain formed an imposing sight. With its sharp vertical drops below and sheer cliff face above, the summit's climb is as much a mental challenge as physical.

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Thoughts Paul Choy Thoughts Paul Choy

Stepping Out

Over the years, certain photographs I have captured have come to speak to me. These are necessarily the prettiest of images or the most technically correct. Some aren't even that special, as far as a photograph goes, yet they still stand out in my mind. This is one of those photographs.

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Thoughts Paul Choy Thoughts Paul Choy

Why?

We need to have a conversation about homelessness. All across the world, people hurry about their daily lives, hardly noticing as their fellow human beings prepare a bed of cardboard boxes and plastic sheets. The conversation we need to have is, why?

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