Tom Haley caption

The photo of the billboard with political poster was taken in Central Bosnia in 2020. I don’t know the specific political campaign but for me it expresses the contempt that many Bosnians of all identities feel for the political class that is inoperative. Bosnians are fed up with a country that has been in stagnation since the end of the war thirty years ago.

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THOMAS HALEY / PHOTO-JOURNALIST 

 A native Oregonian, Thomas Haley has lived in Paris, France since the early 1970's. He began his career as a photo-researcher for Magnum Photos. In 1983 and for the following thirty years, Haley worked for Sipa Press/Paris, collaborating regularly with the major news weeklies in North America and Europe providing breaking international news coverage as well as feature stories. He has received several professional awards for his work. Since leaving Sipa Press he has become involved in audio-visual production. His first documentary, "American Dreamer" , was awarded first prize for a short film at the Vision du Réel festival in Switzerland (2013). In 2017 he published "Journey Man", a visual memoire of his career in photojournalism.

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INFLUENCE:

I'm not sure that I have a "personal voice" in my photography...?
As professional photojournalists, we are supposed to be "objective" observers, faithful witnesses of the events that we record.  However, our images are obviously conditioned by subjectivity and aesthetic considerations. While we are covering an event, our personal prejudice will find a way of informing our images and we try to give them visual force - within the limits, of course, of what is professionally acceptable. Perhaps my "personal voice" is expressed more by the kinds of subjects I choose to cover than by the images I make.
Amongst those who have influenced me, there are a few photographers. First of all, my photography instructor, Bernie Freemesser, at the University of Oregon. Thru Bernie I discovered Paul Strand and W. Eugene Smith - early mentors who inspired me, thru whom I tried to emulate their ethic and vision.