Tag: Antananarivo
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Favorite Film, Favorite Camera
I finally got around to trying something a photographer friend suggested a couple of years ago. At the time, I was new to film photography and not trying anything too fancy, beyond simply getting the 50, 60, 70-year-old cameras I was finding on eBay to take reasonable pictures (also no small feat). I had discovered…
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Antananarivo’s New Road
Last year in November, Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo unveiled a new road, from the northwest of town to the airport. Within three days, workers were filling potholes, and within a week, the road was closed. In the year since, there have been repeated predictions that the road would be re-tarred and reopend, but nothing has happened. …
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Monsoons in Madagascar: a Blessing and a Curse
Madagascar’s rainy season normally runs from November-ish to February or March. Last year, we hardly even noticed it – beyond a handful of late-night, pretty intense, rainstorms, there was very little rain. And everyone was worried – rice yields were down, the reservoirs were down and we were rationing and storing water – even electricity…
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Anjezika: Antananarivo’s “Waterworld”
This is Anjezika. Once a vibrant fishing and rice-growing village, it has gradually been encircled and choked off by the surrounding city of Antananarivo, Madagascar. Now, nobody grows anymore rice here. A few small fish can be collected from the stagnant water that separates small squares of low-lying land where the people have built their…
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Merry-Go-Round, Madagascar Style
In retrospect, the kids somehow look terrified. But they were having a great time, I assure you!
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Children of the Street: Ankorondrano
A group of about a dozen kids gathers on a small patch of green with a few benches and trees. Basically a large roundabout. Imagine an oblong Dupont Circle, except Starbucks is 3,000 miles away. The sound of traffic is constant. Two young volunteers lug a bag of supplies to a cement bench and quietly…
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Children of the Street: Ambohijatovo
In this third installment on a project Anne and I are involved in, we assist “Zanaky Ny Lalana”(Children of the Street) at yet another location. This week we went to Ambohijatovo, one of the ten locations where Malagasy volunteers for “Teach for Madagascar” currently hold sessions. Teach for Madagascar is a program whereby Malagasy volunteers provide literacy and…
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Love Your Neighbor
Truth be told, we didn’t ask to come to Madagascar just for the lemurs – although they’re a pretty nice bonus. A big reason we came here because we want to try and make a difference, somewhere, in someone’s lives; to have a purpose. But Saturday was a pretty tough day. We started the day…
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Vintage Camera Test: 1930s Franka Rolfix (I think!)
Last week when we visited the Anjezika neighborhood, I brought along a couple of untested vintage cameras from my collection. One of them was this folding camera with virtually no identifying information, other than the brand on the lens and shutter. This is one of the first vintage cameras I bought when I started collecting…
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Scenes from a Moving Car: Antananarivo Commute
When I first got to Antananarivo I would stare out the window during the commute to work, and started taking pictures with my iPhone through the window of the shuttle. The water in the rice paddies has dried up significantly (but not all), and much of the effort has shifted to digging up the mud,…
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Getting Lost in Antananarivo, Just a Mile from Home
Less than a mile from our home is a lake that functions as a water catchment area during the rainy season, but also offers a running trail, a place for young lovers to escape, a livelihood for a small informal community, and maybe a bit of photography. We took a walk there late one recent…
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First Photowalk in Tana
We’ve had a few weeks to settle into the groove here in Antananarivo (pronounce “tananarive” but more frequently shortened to “tana”) and so we figured it was high time we got out and about with our cameras. There is so much going on, and so many fascinating street scenes to photograph here – but we…
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Entering Madagascar
Getting off the plane at Antananarivo, we were greeted by a pleasant, warm humidity…and the occasional raindrop. As our driver took us into the city however, the rain started for real. Soon the rain was gushing down in buckets, and the streets of downtown ‘Tana turned into rivers, and I wondered how some of the…