Life At Negative 10 Degrees F

Gained perspective for winter life in a Colorado mountain town in this last storm…

Constant feeding of the perpetually starving wood stove requiring snowy slogs to the woodpile, loading bins, sledding them back… Digging out the push snowblower that in a few hours lives beneath a couple feet of drifted snow… The extra five minutes to add or remove several layers of clothing upon every entry and exit.

Just walking the dog becomes a near epic mini-adventure with neighborhood moose to be attentive too, frozen puppy paws from thrown booties… At a certain point it seems more calories are burned just meeting basic necessities for survival than can be easily consumed… The Nederland gym - Hiking to the mailbox…

More images of Ned snow life at Tandem Stills and Motion… When sometime model and adventure photographer and explorer Caroline Bennett isn't in survival mode in Ned she is often in the Amazon and other awesome places… You can check out some of her amazing work here, and at instagram: @carobennett

The Humanity in Others

I received an email last night.

I love the legacy in dialogue that a powerful image can promote. It keeps them poignant as an agent for positive change - These voices are the breath of life that animate an image beyond the sliver of static time captured…

This note is from a woman in Chicago...

  Congratulations on the honorable mention [via IPA]. I look at your photos every so often, and I just discovered that you got this recognition. I really like these sensitive images of the kids in Dakar. Those boys who appear to be friends are really nice pics. One can imagine the challenge of encountering a vastly different place and finding the essence of it on film in such a short amount of time. I think you captured something which comes through which is understandable. There is a kind of genuine openness in the people's faces and spirits. This is a reminder to myself in this kind of hectic urban area to look for the humanity in others. -Mary 

A few more of my favorite images from Dakar… all images ©Bennett Barthelemy

Youths catch coins thrown from tourists arriving on a ferry to Goree Island, Senegal

The principal of a local community school in Dakar, CAFT Senegal working to help change the statistic that nearly half of Dakar youth work and/or cannot afford to attend school - about 50% of Dakar live in poverty...

A man stands in the Doorway Of No Return, Goree Island Senegal… Millions of slaves passed through this western-most point of Africa bound for the New World...

Women learning to read and write Wolof and French under new programs aimed at changing the over 50% illiteracy rate in Dakar.

A teacher at CAFT Senegal and a president of the Senegal chapter of Citoyen Des Rues learn activities and cooperative games to share with youth as part of a training via Play For Peace, an international non profit sharing methodology with some 30 countries.

Dakar Youth -International Photo Awards, Deeper Perspective

Found out today that I won Honorable Mention for a set of five images shot in Dakar, Senegal in November, 2013 via IPA (International Photography Awards). 

The Honorable Mention category put me alongside heroes such as Ed Kashi - with his photo essay on Syrian refugee children… Incredibly honored to be recognized this way… My first time bridging into this world to document work of international NGOs with photography/digital storytelling for a cause…

 I am excited to continue on this path… In 10 Days in Dakar I was introduced to many incredible individuals and the organizations they work for… These included Play For Peace, CAFT Senegal, Citoyen Des Rues, and was also granted an interview with USAID and their West African director for Education projects for greater perspective…

My sincere hope is that in some small way these images and this gallery via IPA will help the work that continues for youth in Senegal. 

My first attempt at a muli-media project is housed here, at Social Documentary Network, that has more images and a short video…

On the Play For Peace website you can also view a scrolling slideshow of my work by clicking here… 

Lived Magic

There are moments, split seconds usually, where there might be three things in motion and a specific nexus (perhaps coalescence) of light and form. Being aware and a part of this equation - and then capturing a piece of it - is always a fun challenge…

A little sliver of lived magic that keeps me going...

Bridging Companies and Wildernesses…

Wearing a sweeeeeet shirt from Tasc Performance for climbing and long trail runs lately, bamboo and merino blend…  

The mid-winter sojourn into Utah for the Outdoor Retailer (OR) Trade Show in Salt Lake City is always a surreal and worthwhile experience. A chance to reconnect with the tribe of dedicated, diehard adventurers and explorers, storytellers, company reps, presidents of companies, media/pr firms that choose the outdoor reality as their lingua franca of existence. Super inspiring to be immersed in this world of new products, synergy of focus - for the coming years work/play.

In snow, at altitude,  humid environments - I use gear and clothing to its extreme edge and often beyond, as visual storyteller/writer/guide trying to explore the most remote and wildest places I can get to.

For me the trade show re-emphasizes the human component in this often frenetic world of adrenaline and travel. I am reminded of where products are made, the family that might run an apparel company and get to hear their story, learn about where the merino wool is sourced from, realize that I can be way more comfortable and less stressed than imagined… I can play in the mountains whilst there and make plans for overlap of work with incredible visual storytellers that I might idolize and dream about working with. There is much fuel to be found there… Akin to building of necessary chi in meditation that I am all too often too consumed otherwise to engage…

The OR show also offers the ability to glimpse the philanthropic side of outdoor industry companies, learn what they support and stand for in this heavily challenged world of rampant consumerism, shifting climates, knee-jerk politics - and approach that hoped for balance between product and need to continue to explore and share this world as conscientiously as possible…

I am quite hopeful for this new year of exploring with some quality gear/apparel and feeling pretty good about the companies and crew of athletes, models, visual storytellers and friends, old and new, that will be part of these continued journeys.

Adventure photographer/visual storyteller, explorer, media strategist, and model Caroline Bennett finding out just how awesome Kahtoola Microspikes are for kicking snow into my face :) 

Having way too much fun with the new Olloclip lenses for iPhone…

Photographer and model Maggie McDermut checking out the new NASA technology in Optic Nerve eyewear