Mark Tuschman

As I have grown older, I have become increasingly motivated to use my photography to communicate in a more socially conscious way – to expose people to both the degree of human suffering that exists in today’s world, as well as to the courage and fortitude thatpeople manifest to overcome it. During the course of my travels, it has been easy to imagine having been born into completely different circumstances, in which I would havebeen shaped by radically different environments, cultures, and worldviews. Indeed, I knowthat I have been privileged and fortunate to have been born into an affluent culture with tremendous opportunities. I believe that it is especially important for people in our society to understand other cultures and the enormous difficulties that people in other countries face daily in order to simply survive. The human condition is wrought with great uncertainty and suffering, and yet the human spirit and the hope for a better life can grow even stronger in the face of adversity. I am constantly inspired by the profound fortitude ofpeople living in difficult conditions, and the empathy and commitment of the many people who aid and give counsel to those less fortunate.

I believe that it is my moral obligation to use whatever talents I have as a photographer to transcend our limited worldviews and to help bridge the gap between cultures of affluence and poverty. Since photography is a universal language, I hope that my images will move viewers to respond not only with empathy, but also with action. I try to photograph people with compassion and dignity, in the hope of communicating our interrelatedness. In the words of Sebastião Salgado, whose work I greatly admire, “If you take a picture of a human that does not make him noble, there is no reason to take this picture. That is my way of seeing things.”