Reza: The Power of Visual Storytelling

For the past 30 years, REZA has traveled the world bearing witness to moments of war and peace, as a photographer. He has been awarded numerous prizes, including the World Press Photo Award and the Infinity Award. REZA is committed to training women and children, through workshops in visual media and communications to help them strive for a better life. REZA talks about the power of visual media to stimulate social changes and to reveal the beauty of humanity.

This is the poem that Reza speaks to early in his Talk:

I said: what about my eyes?
He said: Keep them on the road.

I said: What about my passion?
He said: Keep it burning.

I said: What about my heart?
He said: Tell me what you hold inside it?

I said: Pain and sorrow.
He said: Stay with it. The wound is the place where the Light enters you.

Reference: I said: What about my eyes? by Rumi.

I love the quiet spirit and understated passion with which Reza speaks.  When I captured his TED Talk in my Dr. Ron Art journal, I attached a kind of Post It:  Someday I will buy an SLR with high pixels, and my photography will live again. Like him, I believe in the power of art in general to do good for people, to lend meaning in their lives, and to effect change for the better.  I don't know how close I actually am with any of my art projects, but of late I felt that I was getting closer.  Now, for instance, I have the means to buy an SLR (single lens reflex) camera.