[applause] >> this is my first ever slide show. many years ago, i had two cameras, and i had a still camera and a super 8 camera, and i would take out both cameras and film and shoot everything that we could, and quite often, we would actually develop some of the still photography ourselves for, you know, for better or for worse. i've had an interest in photography for many year, and i was traveling far and wide, and i said, i better bring a camera with me, and as we wanted to do more, the gear amped up, but as an amateur photographer as honestly that's all i am, and you'll suffer through that, you'll see, and i saw there's more to get, and over the year, i tried to do that, and i've been dragging camera gear with me all over the world, and it's why i stand like this now. if you drag that awful backpack

and it is small enough to get on the plane, and they want you to take it somewhere else, and we are burdened with this appetite to document things with a camera, and it's nearly torn from your body in tougher rooms in the world, but you have to haul it with you, and sometimes the back hurts as much as, well, sometimes your feelings are hurt with what you see. here we go with the slide show. oh, the first one started. let's get the lightings going. all right. this is afghanistan, and i was in the back of a chinook helicopter, coming back from a day visiting four bases on the afghanistan-pakistan border. we were at coast and we are choppering back to the air base near kabul, and going through the mountains there, and it's a good day. you know it's a good day because the back is down. he's watching outside. there is an apache or back hawk

over there on the side watching us. on bad days, the gate is up, and there's a gunpointing out. on good days, the gate is down. that soldier was sitting there with a mt. dew bottle spitting out tobacco from his cheek. i snuck up behind him and took that photo. in these environments, quite often, there's no safety belts or saying buckle up. if you fall off, well, you're screwed. [laughter] this is -- what's a bit of what is left on highway 80. this is kuwait, otherwise known as the highway of death. as you know during desert storm, i guess whoever called in the air strike, and the iraqi men and soldiers were fleeing back to iraq out of kuwait knowing the gig was up, and the military

forces went overhead and basically killed every single person underneath and bulldozers and cranes swept everything to the side, and highway 80 is an extreme vast space with the howling wind and sand storms called the kuwait fog that comes every afternoon. soldiers would not let me play in the wreckage because something could have exploded, but this is a half-life in the sand from now until whenever. that's what a war looks like at the end of it. those are vehicles driven by people whose bones are probably still in that sand. this is a daily patrol over baghdad. this is iraq, and this is a black hawk sitting opposite this guy who is armed, looking down that, machine gun is active, and they go over the streets to ensure everybody is behaving

themselves, and i went every single day on a black hawk to visit different bases. most of the bases i went to, someone died on that base. within 24 hours of my visit, i was surrounded by very sad, very grim soldiers, and at night, i slept in different locations in the green zone, and all night long all you here is gunfire. one soldier, he thought i would be upset to learn the truth. i said, sounds like you got gunfire out there. he said, oh, they are just celebrating after a sock -- soccer game. i was like, pal, it's 2 in the morning. i was in in a mortar attack, but the concussion was like a first going into my breastbone, and they warned me, and they say,

see, sir, told you. one guy dove and hit the ground because he sensed it. everybody laughed at him and trees trying to save face. he said, oh, i slipped. even i laughed. [laughter] back in this air base, this is left over soviet war junk that left when they left afghanistan quickly. a lot of it is unsafe to walk on. you see mine signs, and that looks like a tank and a jet part that was shot out of the sky by a stinger missile supplied by your tax dollar. this is -- [laughter] i took the photo because i admire the fun graphic at the bottom. this is in beautiful downtown tehran where there's a perpetual traffic jam, and i saw that bush

gray -- grafetti. my tour spy who doesn't want me to see anything, i said, look at that, that's funny. he said don't look. i jumped out of the car, and he couldn't follow me. there's no way i'm leaving tehran, iran without that photograph, and so i took a few snaps, jumped back into the car which managed to go half a block down the street, and he said that is forbidden. i said, it's too late, pal. [laughter] i think it's cute. i hope that all of you, and it's a big wish, but i hope all of you get a chance to go to iran one day. i met nothing other than wonderful people, good food, and the ice cream is phenomenal. they want me to come back, and i said come to new york, come to l.a., you know, for a minute, but you have to see the eastern sea board and eat real pizza, and i hope they do, and i hope

you do. this is bangkok, thailand. this is 5 man, his gig, crawling up and down the street pushing this bowl ahead of him, and i used this shot because you can see the feet of people walking by him paying him no mind. i stood on a shop, and i watched him crawl for quite a while. i gave him the wink. i got in front of him, because there's a wonderful expression on his face. it's -- he -- it's an earnest look of optimism to me, or maybe i read it wrong, but he's in the rain, crawling back and forth, and i put hopefully a nice chunk of change in his jar for him, and that's his gig. i asked people who visit there regularly, i said have you seen the guy with no legs? oh, that guy, he's always there. this is his beat. this is what he does.

this is burma. i've been to every country in southeast asia many, many times. the people are heart breakingly gentle, at least to me. we went to burma, and this is north of rangoon, a few hour, and that's where i learned that monks get one hour to eat, one hour a day, and that's why some of the bowls are really big, and this was the biggest bowl of rice i had ever seen in my life, and they were so busy preparing for the meal, they didn't mind me getting shoulder to shoulder to get this interesting vantage point, and they are very friendly, but i had no idea it's just an hour, so that hours is very, very special. the rest of the day, they give out blessings and basically prepare for the next meal. this is a river where up north, me and this crazy film crew, we

tried to sneak across the river in pyongyang. we wanted to document this destruction. some of you remember when cnn had sneaky cams going in there with their night vision goggles getting footage. we found every cop we could and offered them money to allow us to get on the ferry to cross the river to get into the region. it's the first country i ever been in where i tried to pay off a cop and it didn't work. [laughter] i think they are basically afraid of the senior general at that time, and news bulletin, burma had the new election, and they have a new man in charge and abolished the title "senior general." there's now a president. apparently he's moderate and had open meetings, so maybe things are looking better for the good people of burr burma. they deserve a break. it's a beautiful country,

largest in southeast asia, a phases nateing -- fascinating place. you get to the pulse ating part of any town, guy not market. it's where everyone comes to dish the dirt, by the food, colors are amazing, it's great, and people are hustling and bustling. one. interesting things is there's many different peoples in burma, lots of tribes. many much them have border and disputes, but when you walk the streets, you see many different peoples of the world in theville raj, and looking closely, there's different face types and skin tone, all beautiful, but it's a duck billed platypus was a country, it would be burma. it's a fascinating place. i centered on the beautiful woman in the middle doing her work, and every seven or 20

minutes the market changes, everybody gets up and moves, and this morphed and change by the time i walked back through a half hour later. this is chang, thailand, summer 2008, and i found ronald mcdonald's statue to be insulting to this woman, and i have a big problem with globalization and how america or the west washes up on other shores, and thailand, to see a mcdonalds here, which admittedly is a vacation town, to see that as you look in the background, you can see the sign of a subway. you can go to tieland and never really leave home, and to put the people of thailand into these uniforms, to me, it's like putting sunglasses on a dog at a frat party blowing pot smoke into its face. it's cheap. they see the blazing in the insult into this woman, and i took that photo, and i wouldn't mind it if i smelled smoke after i walked out of this place

tonight and it was every mcdonald's in america being torched. [laughter] as we know, the french, they get very reactive, still high on the storm, and every once in awhile they pick a a mcdonalds and wreck it. they just beat it up. [laughter] they kick the mcdonalds in the stomach, and mcdonalds will be fine, they'll be fine. [laughter] this is the ninth ward in beautiful new orleans here in the united states of america, and this woman is gayle. she used to live in this home until the floods came. she never swam in her life, and she took our granddaughter over her head and held her granddaughter over her head, the water was up to her nose, walked out with her daughter and granddaughter through water that was economy high or higher, and they escaped, and she came back to the house for the purpose of an interview that i did years ago, and i interviewed her for

quite a while, and now she lives in a neighborhood with drive by shootings, gang run, and it's terrifies because she lives there with her daughter and granddaughter. she said something beautiful and sad to me saying i loved this house, and she loved it so much she put an extra "ed" on love. i said you must have loved it. you added more syllables, and that was her attitude. she lost big, but she got herself, daughter, and granddaughter out safely. a lot of people in the ninth ward didn't do as well. this is deeper down in the ninth ward what the neighborhoods look like. people gave up because the houses, you can't rebuild them. they are so tox mid by whatever was in the water that it's in the beams of the house. it's not worth rebuilding, and no one has the funds to start again. this was a house.

that was the front porch. this says sometimes how we run things and treat each other in this country. it's the land of plenty, but sometimes when you are close, it's emptiness and talk to get someone elected. it's a sad photo. all you hear are the occasional tweeting of the bird and the pounding of a nail someone, someone trying to rebuild. i interviewed a man across the street from here, the only guy who stayed, and he saw the wall of water, jumped into his fishing boat, and he was above the houses, and spent two days in his boat with his friend, chubby, and they went from roof to roof, picking up dead bodies and survivors taking them to the coast guard. he said my boat never ran out of gas and i never slept, god intervened. i said is it hard to remember these things? he said, no, i was fine until

you guyed showed up and made me do this interview. [laughter] this shows you peoplement to move on, you know? get ready for this. tonight's evening, we're going to be ricocheting all over the world like jump cutting to where your neck hurts. this is a place called the plain of jars. i saw this years ago, and i said, i'm going to that place. a lot of history of this has been obliterated. you see a jar. the theory is because they have found ash and cremated bone fragments of humans inside, they think maybe the rich were cremated and put in the jars. the guy made a joke saying it's where people made the liquor for the big hoe-downs outside, but what it really is is up for

speculation, but they think it was an aboveground bury right. they are still excavating inside the jars. it's a rolling field of jars. some are fallen over, some are still on, but what you also see are craters in the ground, and that's where nixon and kissinger carried out bombing raids to, and a lot is unsafe to walk on because of unexploded order nants. there's a slice of history here under this great sky, and then you see remanents of kissinger and nixon's america in southeast asia. they brought the ravens, the bombing guys, brought them here saying here's what you did. they are grown men just taking their orders, but they were in tears seeing how they ruined this beautiful part of the country. this is a one-day drive for me. it was -- i was determined to see it. i drove through the mountains

for 16 hours to get there, but it was wort every moment of it. this is cambodia, and all of you know what pull pot did to the good people of cambodia. ten miles out is the chang killing fields, the most famous of the killing fields, and certainly there's many in cambodia, but this is the most well known one, and the front is a buddhist structure, and there's thousands of skulls, and it just says pray for the skulls, but please don't touch them. they suffered enough. beyond that you pay a couple bucks and walk into what looks like a small golf course and they are shallow graves where they excavated ten bodies from this. you were taken as a prisoner, an enemy of the state, and taken to the slang interrogation building, an old school, and they water boarded you, put your head in a cage full of hornets

until you admitted you were helping, and if they ran out of bullets, they would use a big stick, and infants were taken by the angles, someone head first into a tree, and you can go see that. if you look on the ground, there's bone fragments, teeth, bullets, bits of bailing wire and clothing that come out of the ground during the rainy season every year. i spent quite a bit of time picking up bone fragments. this is southern vietnam, saigon, my first trip to vietnam that i wanted to go to if many, many years. the legend is everyone in vietnam that everyone is

friendly, and i found that to be true. they are friendly because they are nice people. the rear view of their country is a lot of war, death, pain, and sacrifice, so they want the future. the rear view, they have that history, so they are looking forward. also, they see themselves as the victor in vietnam. they call it the american war. when i meet people there, the smile is big, and the sub text is like welcome to vietnam, you war loser, you. [laughter] these people won because they are still there, still alive, the flags fly all over the place. for those of you who have been, your opinion probably is like mine. it's a lovely country, people are amazing, and they are working hard to move forward. these ducks who look cute and funny to me, their little feet are wired together at the bottom of the bag. they will be soup by the evening. i saw a man go by, i was in a car, and i was trying to crawl through tunnels, and there's

town, and i see a man like a cloud of ducks, a motorbike, two wheels, a human head, and a duck. i said if i'm seeing that again, i waited. a man and woman go by with not so many ducks, but ducks, and they looked hilarious. they were part of the big show. look at them. you see both of them are smiling because i'm a guy hanging out of a car trying to get the shot with the driver guy holding on to my legs, just determined to get the shot. when you're an amateur, you try harder. [laughter] well, look where we are. saudi arabia. i made friends with a guy whose father is one of the ten richest men in the world. he's in shipping. whatever that means. [laughter] he said come to my father's plays tonight. first time it's been asked of me. of course, i went. [laughter] this is one of the many mansions on the plays property. he has three wives, all three were traveling at the time, but

come on in, check it out. 24 is one living room on one floor of one of the mansions. the women were traveling, yet the entire building was air-conditioned, all the lights were on, and in our honor, the rooms had food and tea service and people staring at the floor waiting to serve us. after three and a half hours going true the mansions on the property, they have a pool that goes like a snake through the palaces. you can swim or kayak through the mansions. [laughter] i'm not trying to put this family in the pa seniortive, but this just basically says i have more money than is good and no taste at all. [laughter] the rooms were freezing cold, and yet outside, it's the desert. you can fry an egg on your face outside, and the power it takes to keep the building cold, you could power the american midwest. it was basically a lesson in too much money is a bad thing.

[laughter] this is -- [laughter] [applause] oh, welcome to beautiful -- i was walking down the street, and i see a woman with a black flag t-shirt. again, globalization is whacky, isn't it? how the west rolls up on other shore, and i would love to be able to explain to the woman the irony of this moment. [laughter] and at the moment -- at that moment, two kids on a motorbike came up and recognized me, and they said, dude, what are you doing here? i said, well, i get around. can you explain to the woman how hi hilarious this whole thing is? i'm trying to show her the tattoo, and she's like buy some cigarettes. in the local market, they got across to her, uh-huh, completely nonplussed. i got nothing from her. i didn't buy cig rates that --

cigarettes that day, and that's the last thing i expected somebody to be wearing there. [laughter] these two guys are pants makers. they are making trousers as you can see. the one is making denim genes. this is on the outskirts of a slum that i wandered around making friends with people, and as soon as i pulled up my camera, he starts dancing. he goes into a scene, and he says when i'm dancing, i'm taking a photo of you. i said, quid pro quo, good deal. he's putting it on for us, and it was a good day. [laughter] this is a cemetery, and they have fairly, you know, not a whole lot of sympathy in the muslim half, you can't live there, you live in the christian half. this was told to me. people live there. i walked in and they said who is

the dripping with sweat weird tattooed man. they said what are you doing here? i have a standard ice breaker one liner. i'm here to meet you. i stick my hand out and i'm henry, what's happening? it has not got me killed yet, and so far all is well, and so in some places as you know, you pull a camera out and every kid in the world wants their photo taken, and so this young man in the front with this amazing expression of determination, defiance, and maybe he was late for something, and i was holding him up -- [laughter] but everyone else is being the young kid, and he's like the ceo of a company. [laughter] i figured that was kind of fun to keep in the batch. this is bangladesh, and i got there, and i was greeted, it was a man with no arms beating on the side of my car window wanted money. you find humor whenever you can

because otherwise you cry all the time. i said how can i give you money, you have no hands? [laughter] i was just trying that out. [laughter] well, i didn't know what to do, and he has a friend who has one hand, and they work as a double act, and so i made a contribution hopefully they divvied it up 50/50, but that was the first heads in bangladesh was a man with stumps beating on my taxi. it's a wonderful country, but a lot of people that are up against it, and one point, i met a couple, and they, you know, are working for some ngo there, and they said what are you doing here 1234 i said i wanted to see stuff. they said if you want to see something interesting, there's a slum the size of, you know, a whole country. i said how do i find it? walk out the bang of the hotel -- back of the hotel, and walk, you can't miss it. i spent a few days walking around that slum. there was a pile of garbage, and this family was garbage picking,

and the mother and father were busy picking garbage and this indescribely beautiful girl saw me. i held up the camera, she nodded, i took photo, and the parents were just working, gathering food, and she was incredibly beautiful, allowed me to take her photograph, and i snuck off. this is how people find their food, and on the streets, go that way a mile, the city streets, and the gar bodily injury is in piles in the heat, and young kids dive in like it's water, and they swim through the garbage and get something in their hand, pop it in their mouth, and it's hard to imagine american kids having to do that, but, you never know. this is some of those kids i'm talking about. this is the streets outside of the slum. the reason i like this photo is because the kids are all beautiful, but i love their physicality. it's like a scene from a dicken's novel. they hang together to keep it working, and you can tell they

are very, very close, and i don't know if they are related, but all of those expressions are just so animated and fantastic and defiant where no mat where the situations are, they are amazing adaptable creatures, and i know it sounds cold, but it's true. you see people in pretty objectionable environments, and they bear up magnificently like these kids are just superstars. this is a man -- about, oh, 50 meters behind those kids, and i visited the first day i was there, and i said, you know, you know english? he said, yeah. i said i don't have money, but i want to come back in a day and give you money and take photos of you because you have a great look. he's at this, you know, outside of some store, and he said that would be okay. i came back the next day, and i said remember me? he said, yeah. i put in money into the bowl in front of him, and i took some photos, and he struck his head to the side bringing out the

lines of his face and the way that lens lined everything up, i said that's my photo. i took it, thanked him, and went on my way. back another day in the slum, and the garbage piles of that city seem to end up in the slum. these are men with bolt cutters in their hands cutting off the heads of syringes. i said do you speak english? the guy in piping say, yeah. i said, do you realize how dangerous what you are doing is? he said, yeah, he picked up a syringe and stabbed his friends face who said, hey, i thought you liked me. [laughter] you see the heads of needles on the ground, and they have sandals on, but they are almost bear footstepping on whatever those needles hold, and i felt like some old uncle, you are being careful. they said, yes. i said will you continue to be careful? they said, we will.

i said, okay. next to them men were cutting open iv bags and cutting them out. i hope it gets recycled and not to the hospital where they use them again, but nothing gets wasted in this place. the plastic is being used for something. this is -- this isalcua, india, and i spent quite a bit of time there. it's good. it gives you good lessons in life. everything is different in india, not better or worse, just different. the first time i went, i had dreams about india the first three or four nights i came home. every time i return, i wake up in a hotel or my bed thinking i'm back in india. i can't shake it. this is at the end of the day when any picture you take is perfect. the sun coats everything. this man and dog were out all day on the streets, and they are taking a snooze. i sat in front of them, neither

walk up, i took pictures and went on my way. it was incredibly hot. this guy, i don't know, how many dead bodies you have ben around, but unfortunately, some of you have. in my opinion, my experience, there's nothing more still in the world nan a human corp.s with you can put a rock on the table it sits still because we expect it to, but even humans when they are out cold, bored to death at a slide show, you see movement, but when a human is dead, it's complete lack of movement, startling thing, we expect them to jump up, and when i came upon him, i had that deja vu moment of that's a dead body. i sat with him quite a while looking for any signs of movement. there's a lot of flies on him as you can see. i thought i saw his chest hair move, and i hope -- i took that as res pir ration, and i hope i'm right about that, but it

would have just been the flies moving the hair around because the flies descended on him thickly. i don't know whether he's alive or dead. i hope certainly that he's alive. this is -- this is in new dellly. this is, as you can see, on the the right, they are caucasian man cans, and this was -- i don't know the right way to describe it, subtle lee violent and kind of quietly awful. i just think of suffocation like bags over the head, don't be yourself, don't show your face, you're somehow not welcome, and to see kids with their faces covered. there's just something really horrible about this photo, and so i took it, and i went back to my room that night, and just kept looking at it, and i held on it it just because of the awfulness of it, and i don't know why the merchant put the bags over the faces, but the thought of these people faceless, i don't know, it's very sad. now we're in a beautiful central

india at the town of bopaul, and early hours of december 3, 1984, a tank 610 full of tons of mic, 5 component part of sivin, and the mic is okay on its own, but water introduced in liquid form to this, it's unstable and very explosive. somehow water got into tank 610, the tank exploded. the scrubbers, machines that stabilize outgoing gas around the factory won't be harmed, but neither of the scrubbers worked, so tons of aerosol escaped out, of the plant and killed thousands and thousands of people. reports on the death toll vary. if you're union carbide you say, oh, four people, all went home

safely, but people suing say there's many thousands. the number is more than 8,000, but you hear up to 20,000. in any case, a lot of people died. the surrounding area, immediately, the outlaying areas, slower, and to this day they test soil and water around this old plant, and there's toxins in the soil up to three kilometers away. when they made this product are as lethal as the chemicals they used, they dumped them in the backyard of this, and they go into the soil, into the ground water, and people pump from the local wells, and they drink it, and to this day they suffer rashes, mental problems, sexual reproductive health problem, and i went there on the 21st anniversary to see what i could find, and this is the outside of it. i went there, and i found this terrified cab driver looking at me saying maniac, but he didn't

speak english, but i yelled enough saying union carbide, and he finally took me. i said park, i'll be right back, and i snuck into union carbide, i went up to the front at first, and i do the silly american tourist thing because you can always get away with it. i walked to the front gate and two men waved me away, and i figured there was a welcome, so i walk past them taking -- no, no, no, not today pal. i flew too young too long -- too long to get there. i went around the back. i said this is easy. i saw the armed men on motorbike, and i dived and hit the ground. i don't have a great appetite for that anxiety, so i was sweating buckets, my heart rate was up, lost four pounds, but they have a lot of ground to

cover. i went that way, had a few minutes, hopped through a broken window into the building. this is the control panel that controls the tanks, and i found tank 610mit, and i stood in the place where days before a man went oh, no, we're screwed. the sign you say on the top right is irony at its best. every year they have a memorial to get together with open mic on stage to talk about who and what they lost, and i sat there all day with a bunch of people in furry yelling on the stage, stomping feet and balling up their fists. a man recognized me, a journalist said what are you doing here? i said i'm here to learn. i said what's going to happen? he said, well, they'll take this effigy of warren anderson, that's the big guy, he was the

ceo at the time, take it down there and light it on fire. i said then what happens? then they all go happen. i said what will you do? write a big piece on it and the local newspaper cuts it down to one square i inch. he said you're the only foreigner and i'm the only journalist, and basically it's forgotten. i said is your government corrupt? he said, yeah, a little. the fix is in, and the good people got screwed, and warren anderson will never see a day in jail. this is one the many slums around here, and i walked in, and this young man with the striped shirt said take me picture. i said, yes, sir. i quickly got the settings, took the picture and showed it to him, and he said, okay, you can go. [laughter] i thought nothing of the photo, and i got back to the room that night, and i looked at the photograph, and i really liked it. i love the physicality, again,

the closeness of the people. i liked how the kid in blue is touching his friend and looking off camera and how the camera in the striped shirt is looking right at me saying this is my life, you get to leave. i have to grow up in this. i don't know what makes a change in the society where that kind of thing comes to an end. i don't know if it's money or i don't know what to do in a situation like that, but this is how these people live. . this is beijing, china, it was frightening cold. i walked in the square, enevery day at sun down just to watch the sunset until my fingers no longer moved. this guy stands rigid in front of that great portrait of mr. mao there, and it was really cold, and i had fun with the people there.

most of the people there on the street are not tourists would be tour guides, and iraq is the same. how are you? i'm a polite guy. i said fine, how are you? i'm fine, welcome to china. thank you, i feel welcomed. how do you like it? i like it a lot. great. i'm a tour guide, and i want to show you the forbidden city tomorrow. i said i'm an angry american, lay off the dally llama. i said i'll go with you if you get out of tibet, deal? they never thought i was funny. they ran away. they call this -- they call it because africans there are black, and if north of mali, they are arabic with a lighter skin. i'm in the south, and i was there for a wonderful music

festival every january that happens called the desert off music festival, and i was there to see all kinds of bands. i was living under a slab of cam mel skin. i've gone twice. it's amazing. i was walking around, and these kids saw me, and that camera, man, it's show time. they came running after me, and i'm trying to make them understand focus like if you get too close, i can't take your photo. i'm running backwards saying hold on. they are like no, no, no. and the thing you don't know, there's a beautiful girl far right, she was shy, and that's the one moment she cut lose because the rest of them were just, you know, just hot dogging it, just in my face, pulling on my arms, but she pulled back, and that was the one photo where she was having a good time, otherwise she was reserved and held back. you can see her hands, she's not -- she's not releasing her bodies like the other ones, but

they made me show every photo i took, and it was a great afternoon. this is up the niger river, closer to timbuctoo. i camped under the stars, and one night i went via the niger river, and this is 6 a.m., one of our two boatsmen. i forget his name, but the other was papa, and they took us up river, and we had to cut the engines when we got near the hippos because they don't like to be disturbed and they will chase after you. they open their mouth and gape it, and they are completely intimidating, and i saw this guy looking off, and i went, oh, is that a photo or what? magnificent face against that beautiful blue sky. it was a great three days on

that boat. really nice people i met there. that's the festival. that's the desert, that's a man and his camel, and if you spent time around camels, they seem to be like andy roony, in a perpetual bad mood, and the camel driver goes, you give the camel a command like, you know, sat down, and they are just mad about it. he gets on the ground, and you give a tug or kick him in the side, a little whack with the stick, and they get up, and they are just as angry about getting up. they don't seem to have a very good day, but they are so delegate with their movement, their rear legs and their pelvis and how they articulate sand and how the beautiful toes negotiate this uneven surface, and i spent my time with these walking by, just watching the mechanics of the camel and trying not to get

spat on. if you make them mad, they spit on you. i took this photo of the young guy, and a lot of times the band are playing, and the local men come up on their camels like hells angels at an old concert. these guys come in in their camels. this is our desert, you're just rocking out in it. they stare at this camel ass, but it's part of the whole overall experience. [laughter] this is later in the day, and this is when, you know, the men are there, and they come through so you could dig them, and they really have this thing where they look down at you, not only from an altitude, but with really attitude. they look another me with my sunscreen on, out of breath, and the sun is like projectile vomit hot. they are like what a light wait. we live in this. they are tough beyond tough.

beautiful looking people. the men have firey eyes, and total control of the camels, but they came through different times of the day to show off like, you know, here we are. check it out. you want to be us, but you can't. you kind of do when you see the camel, but you know you could never handle it. [laughter] this is the beautiful sun down there, and i kept this photo, and it's not the most focused, but all the silhouettes of the camels put u you in the place. on the right are those men and their camels. at night, they went back into the desert. you didn't know where they went. they just disappeared. i walked that desert at night, the moon was full, and you can read under it, and the sand is so white it's so reflective. i walked for awhile until i was too cold and had to come back. oh, look, it's pyongyang, north korea. it took two years for me to get this visa.

i finally got in and they let in 100 americans or less a year into north korea. i got in a couple autumns ago for the mass games. this is the famous room where the not and south meet. the back door that you see behind the soldier's back, that's south korea. my back is to north korea, and i'm there with my two tour guides, and there's a few other tourists, and we're in there together, making photos, making noise, taking photos of the solders. i said you are psychiatrying up my man alone in north korea vibe. i'm going to sit. everyone left because they said we're walking. i'm alone with this guy who became furious that i dared to sit in there with him, and he raised his life him going get out. he put his arm down, and i took that photo, and i said, thank

you, and i bolted out of the door as i was looking at my shot, and i was like thinking if i can get this shot out of the country, i'm going to have a slide show one day. [laughter] this is one of those, as you know, with the camera, you hope to get the settings right, and every once in awhile, you get a michael jordan three second left on the clock left, and even i guy like me got that shot. it says a lot. that room as you've seen in documentaries, but on the outside of the wall, there's american soldiers basically playing peek-a-boo, and there are soldiers there yanking back if america fires bullets, and it is so grim and ridiculous this stare down. are you adult people? you're having a stare down? oh, what is this 3 p.m. after 3rd grade 1234 what are you doing to do? just put on ramones and get it

over with. they have the mass games in the largest stadium in the world, and that is not a large television screen you see. that's a, you know, i don't know how many thousand school kids holding up colored cards, and they do this in perfect timing, one image every other minute for 90 minutes, and every five mines thousands of people in their brightly colored outfits leave, and another thousand people come out and do something. it's remarkable. no one has money to see it, and you could park like three soccer stadiums inside of this place. it's as big -- it's as big as long beach, california, and no one can afford to go in, and we tourists have the big seats at the 50-yard line, the $1.that 25* seats -- $1.25, and there's two oh three

locals going to the nose bleeds and the rest is empty as people run around in beautiful harmony, and nobody sees it. they do six shows a week for a month, and no one sees it. it's incredible. they insist on having the biggest stadium. they have -- my tour guide, kim, said that's the arch of triumph. he said it's bigger than the one in france. i said, yay? [laughter] i went to the dead guy in the glass box because you have to see that, and i was in my $35 suit, and we came out and looking upon the square, which is as big as upstate new york. it's ridiculously huge, and kim, the tour guide said, this is bigger. i said, here's my in 6789 i'm just going to have fun. i said, kim, i hate to break it

to you, and i believe that square is bigger. [laughter] he's like, no. he knows exactly down to the inch how much bigger kim's square is. i said, no, no, it's bigger. i walked it. in fact, i love your square because it's cute, and i want the specks on it, because i want to build one in my backyard to remember north korea. [laughter] he stopped talking to me. he was furious and sulked, and it's the only moment i had by myself because he left me to walk back to the car with a lump in his throat. men got a lot of work to do. i'm sorry, ladies, there's only one of me. [laughter] here's another scene. you can see how radically changing, again, the games here. this is just incredible. this went on for a perfect 90 minute, and i saw it three hours after getting out of the airplane. i went from my ill-smelling

stall inist room. they keep us in one hotel, it's a massive thing from the ground, and you are woken up at 4 in the morning by a woman yelling in a bull horn. i said what is the yelling and the music? they are building a building across the river in front of your hotel, and the woman is yelling things to inspire the men to build, and the music inspires them. it's 5 a.m.. there's no coffee, and there's a woman yelling go faster, build it! it's not the most inspiring environment, and robbed me of sleep the entire week i was there. [laughter] what would a trip be like without huge statues of kim jong il a lot. you buy flowers, putt them in front of the statue, and you bow as long as the guide bows, no arguing about that. he would always politely thank

me for bowing to the great leader. kim jongkim jong il doesn't get statues, but the son gets paintings. they paint the lifters of his shoes in, and sometimes they leave them out, and his father was a big barrel chested heroic man. kim jong il got the back hand of mother nature, and he's not the most powerful looking man, but in the paintings, he has these big dick butkiss forearms and has a fist and always doing something powerful, and everyone else is like, yeah, but in real life, he's a guy with amazing dress sense and crazy hair. [laughter] everywhere you look there's sha chews of kim il l sung.

look, it's time to go to that pal. i've been to napal before, and this was a two day stop on my way elsewhere. i was walking around, and there's fliers on the ground. i said it's an insurrection or an election, and so i followed the noise, and i found all of these people, and it's their parliamentary elections, and a lot of people run, and that's all the fliers on the ground. people started grabbing me saying journalist, journalist. i said, no, no, tourist. journalists don't get the best deal in some places, and they kept grabbing me running me through the crowd. i said, wow, this is how i'm going to die. i said tourist, tourist. i'm not a journalist. they would throw me to the front of thing, and i realized i'm the only one with a camera. you see a guy in the right, he's got a cell phone, but they put me in the front of this, and they stopped so i could take a

picture of them. i took a photo, and the woman behind him basically said, all right, enough of your camera, let's get dancing, and the people on the right started playing, and this man started dancing. he's twirling around, and i started my auto drive when he looked that way, and i captured him like that. i was out there until i lost the light and people asked me to take their photographs, and a lot of people, very happy about the election, and i get back to the hotel room, and i go online and typed in the election, and i find out from the internet that the press had been kicked out of the elections at around 8:50 a.m. that morning, and i'm the only one who got pictures, and so i sent them to management who sent them to getty and ap, but little old me with my camera got a scoop. [laughter] just because i wandered in. oh, the fun you can have. [laughter] this is tibet, and while i have

no problem with the chinese people, many whom i met who have been very nice to me, jitao and his policies, i have nothing but problems with. the tour guide explained things to me and talked to me a mile a minute to give the entire history in a day and a half. i asked a question and said no, no, be quiet. i'm talking. she'd tell me, and she would put "s'" on the end of word for force. when we came out of the palace, and i asked her, do you think the dali lawn mower ma would -- la ma comes back? she said, no, no, we are many cads, many sads. look at the people on the street, many, many sads. the chinese soldiers never let

you forget their presence, and if you lock eyes, they come right over to you. i was told do not look or take a photo. since i didn't have a long lenses, i can't be sneaky and get them from the front, so like i coward, i snuck up from behind and got the photo. it says something because the tibet people, the ones i met, and i met many, who are heartbreakingly friendly, just beautiful people, the bluest sky i've ever seen, a beautiful part of the world, and the chinese are ruining the live of the tibet people. i don't know the solution to it. i don't think the tibet people have the weaponry or mind set to overthrow that. these are teenagers, early 20s, these soldiers. they want someone to mess with them. they are like, you know, young, dumb, and full of something. you know, they want to get into it with somebody, and you see the people just endure these men who -- you cannot walk around there for longer than five minutes without the guys bumming

out your fun. that's what it looks like there. it doesn't look real, but out of a dream. this looks like someone's dream of the most perfect day put on to a photograph, and that's just me leaning out of a truck taking that picture on the way in, and i don't know what the chinese are going to do that, but i hope i don't see a hotel and ski lodge up there the next time i go. this is buton, and it's interesting. they used to have a traffic light, but they didn't like it, so they removed it. [laughter] they don't do traffic lights anymore. you have to be cool. marijuana grows everywhere. i was walking around with a guy, and i said is this marijuana? i don't recognize it that well. it looked like it, and he said, that's marijuana. i'm like it's everywhere? what about this? he said, yeah, you know, no traffic lights, but a lot of weed. [laughter] unfortunately, they are

beautiful and serene, and after an hour and a half i was bored. you want to see another mon story? yeah. i said do you have a crematory around? he said yeah, weirdo. i was like can we go? oh, yeah, it's your tour. we went there and basically said you have any business today? they went, yeah. you know, we're doing four. he said can my american friend watch? they basically said yes. get out of the way. a lot of family is here today. be in the background. do not interfere, and, yeah, i stayed the entire day. we took a lunch break, but we stayed about six hours. the monks come in in the afternoon as well. first off, the men come and deliver the dead bodies all wrapped up, then the families come, make offerings, and i put money on all the tables. i was asked to, and those are all the relative, and then the

monks come in vans. they are like rock stares, everybody's like the monks are here. they go into a two hour prayer, chant, and then take a break, it's beautiful and chilling. they take a break, blow through horns made of bone and metal. after that, the rookie monks like the ones on the far right -- not being insulting, but they light the bodies. you're new, young, here's a torch. touch the bodies off. you see one, two, three, four people being cremated, and i got as close as i could without being obtrusive because it's a funeral, and so i'm standing on the perimeter, and i noticed that the color of the smoke changes once you burn through the clothe and the wood, you start burning flesh. the smoke goes white to gray, and you hear a sound that sounds like rain falling, and you

realize it's flesh sizzling, and then the wind changes, and you're like, oh, that's what it smems like. the bodies are burning, and the dogs are waiting for the food on the table to get thrown to them. they don't eat the human, but they get food scraps. they know the routine. i said have you been here before? he said, well, in that fire second to the left, that's where we cremated my fire. i was like, oh, so sorry i dragged you through this. he said, oh, we're buddhist, it's cool. we have a different take on this than you people do. [laughter] i'm not tryinged to funny or -- trying to be funny or flip, but i would never denigrate a religion, but if they said be religious you or it's curtains. i'd pick buddhism.

you can be late, high, and still, they are like you have vomit on your shirt, but it's all right. buddhism seems to be very forgiving and pretty cool from the things i learned about it. be honest, be cool to people, which is like many religions, but i like the way they dress. there's something calming about monks. when you go to cities or countries where there's lots of monks, i don't know. you sleep better at night. this is hanoy, vietnam. my second visit. you see the girl on the left looking different than you'd expect. she was contaminated by agent orange, and so she's having developmental problems as you can see. americans drops this stuff on the people of vietnam, and i was told mainly in the center of the country. this is, of course, the north.

.. where people contaminated by agent orange and their offspring, because there are now for generations into this, can come and get treatment so i found out about the place and the meeting was set up for me. i met the director and gave him a cash donation i said may i walk around and take some photos? he gave me a teacher and assign me and he said you can walk around with her. i went from classroom to classroom and through the different western questions

children have different degrees of problems and challenges. in the first classroom, the kids are up against it. this is the last classroom where people have motor skills and they are making flowers. if you have seen the background is a paper flowers and these two young ladies are making paper flowers. and so, i found out that people still suffer from this and they treat older people. >> fees are vietnamese, vietnam veterans who fought in the war and they are there for three week round of treatment so all of them fair named mr. caulk, and a comic who is obsessed with john mccain. [laughter] and whenever he you see a photograph of john mccain like when we were visiting the hanoi hilton he would just go off. oh look, john mccain. i am a big shot. i can fly it plain. oh no. he was unbelievable. [laughter] i wish he was here now.

he should have opened for me. he is amazing. but anyway, he was my translator so he is to the right of me and i have my camera on my left and my digital recorder on my right leg and he is holding a map of vietnam. so we asked these guys, could i interview you bide your time in the war and the agent orange and all of that and they barely tackled me. they ran up with the chairs and the t. because no one had ever asked them to tell their story. they were very gentle and very friendly men and you can see the sadness in their faces. the man sitting in a brown shirt from his ailment is a skin that constantly itches and his arms were out broken. i believe it is the man in the back, his are shrinking every year from agent orange contamination and in a way it's the men and women who became, had the first contact who got off the easiest because it's the offspring that suffered very much. all of them, between all the fathers, the one that had the least kids had one.

most had nine and one had nine. 45 of them had nine and the other for our beer he challenged so they told me about their struggles and how their kids struggle and how agent orange is still playing a big part in their lives. i don't know what the treatment is, and dell and monsanto are the wonderful people who started operation ranch hand. they will tell you to this day in avoiding a class lack -- class-action lawsuits there is no harm in agent orange and i think dell and monsanto should pay, pay every day and pay forever because these people don't deserve what they got. this is northern uganda and there is an organization i work with called drop in the bucket and drop in the bucket drilled water wells wells and ugandan sit on it looks like now they are pushing into western sudan into darfur basically and i have been raising money for them and going on the trip to africa with

him and to see them work in the fields is an amazing thing. they are an ngo that is really getting it done. we were visiting a school on this day that had a water well trailed by a drop in the bucket in those kids are happy and they are hydrated and not to get graphical make you feel uncomfortable but there's a problem in schools where there is a water shortage where girls hit a certain age in their life in their bodies begin to change and without water they are unable to keep clean. so they become very self-conscious and they stop going to school. so for young girls, they kind of stopped going to school at a certain age and their education drops off. with water, with latrines and real toilets and sinks, young girls can keep themselves together. they complete school. more villages become literate on an equal playing field and it's a win-win, win-win situation. these kids saw me, i'm the guy with the camera. they ran at me but the one kid in the middle he and i found each other and i said okay you

are it and everyone else's wallpaper. just me and this kid and everyone else is just a good-looking background. another day, another water well and i believe we are either in northern uganda or the southern sudan on this day and we drove for two days and couldn't find water. all they did was move the drill over to another part of the property. this is another school and the effervescence and buoyancy of these kids, their friendliness. they are good-looking people with good-looking kids. the tone of their skin and the way it shows up. i love the green of the shirts and their curiosity, their interest in me, the tattoos they thought were hilarious. they would grab my arm like it was an assignment and show my arm to their friends like it didn't belong to the rest of my body. look at this one. they would all come over and laugh. [laughter] and they learned my name. i was there for a few days and they would come up to me and one would say, good morning henry.

i would go, good morning and they would all laugh. it was the funniest thing they had ever heard in their life and i guess i look odd to them but it's really, really a great photo. this is southern sudan. these are month ari and the month rar semi-nomadic groups of people that follow their cattle cattle as you can see in the background and they do not eat the meat. they basically milk the cows and they traded dairy products for millet and rice. these are very big people, like six feet five inches, superstrong. their physicality was immense and basically they wrestle. the men russell and they wanted their photos taken. if the kid walks up in the middle of the photo they kind of hurled the kid out of the way. the men are really rough with each other. it's just like how are you doing? and they shook my hand and i mike wow. and they liked drop in the

bucket because drop in the bucket brings them soap and soap is a big deal. we will get into that in a few minutes from now. so we bought a large chunk of bright blue soap and we brought it to the chief of this one particular group. they said, come on in into what you like. can i take a photo? you guys brought soapy so you can do whatever you like and he gave me the okay. everyone else said sure take my photo. these guys wanted their photo taken and they smeared themselves with. in the evening there is a lot of fly flies fly so they build fires and they cover themselves themselves -- and the scene was out of some kind of psychedelic video. it's misty, very tall beautiful people covered in ash. it was like a scene out of some movie. it was just amazing. they are friendly to me. again they thought that tattoos were trippy. if you look at their foreheads you'll notice the v cuts in

their foreheads. and there is the other guy. the guy in the red, he is holding his favorite cow. he said you have got to see my favorite cow. i said yeah man. we went over and took some photos and you will see the movement of the arm of the fellow with the blue trunks. that's as a symbol of horn. whenever you take a photo you will see this happen. it's the horn so that is a symbol and i love the ash on the faces. it just make that all -- that is trippy looking. that is how i remember it. we were walking through going, what is this? you will find these tribes around southern sudan and we ran into another group of them days later but the sun was better for this so i took the shots. this is again southern sudan and this is the chief of the tribe, of a group. i think he is inca and so i said

sir, may i take your photo? it was translated to him and he nodded yes. he thought it was hilarious. he was very patient. i took his photo. his teeth are filed and i thought what a face. the history of the world is in that face. i took lots of different photos and he just kind of laughed at me the whole time like, you and your stupid machine but okay. he was very gracious about it and i showed him the photos. he was completely unimpressed. he was like yeah, so? so that was over with pretty quickly. as you can see on the sign on the left it says vote your voice to register. this is the end of 2010 when people are registering to vote, to secede from the north and i think it it was going to be the new capital. it used to be juba but it's moving so they let did the new president and the people i talked to there, they are so

happy and so excited because they fought for 22 years for this, for democracy for the opportunity to vote for cessation of war and a lot of the people you talk to, they lost a good deal of their family to this stupid war and these are the ones who are left. they can't wait to vote. i would ask people, what do you think about getting a chance to vote? they would say i am the only one left in my family who gets to vote. the rest of my family, they are dead. i can't wait until january 9. a lot of them have rose-colored glasses. they think it will be fantastic and they'll have a wonderful country. one or two of them were ex-soldiers. you know khartoum is not going to smile favorably on the fact do you have the oil and all the

agriculture. no, it's going to be fine. do you think? no, not so much. as you know we have switched over in july and they are having turbulence. i hope that comes down but i think there is really turbulence for some time to come. and to coincide our mind sight in afghanistan, this is southern sudan and as you know a lot of countries all over the world have antitank and antipersonnel mines that still kill people in afghanistan is the most laden for antitank and antipersonnel mines. laos is the most ordinance per person on explosive ordinance and i think a lot of those were cluster bombs dropped by your friends nixon and kissinger but here in the north, they laid -- laid a lot of minds in the south so a lot of the fields are not fully clear. i was walking in one of the minefields with an ex-soldier. we got to this one's one signed and i said let's go that way. he said you notice the bulldozer treads. when the bulldozer treads stop cutting you stop him as you don't want dinner tonight. so i went back. recently come in three weeks ago i've been to haiti because i wanted to go and i had been curious about haiti for quite a while. i did not have a chance to go

closer to the time of the earthquake to migrate regret so i went when i could which is a few weeks ago and i went there with a bunch of money which i decided i was going to lead in haiti, so i went three hours north of port-au-prince to an orphanage. they had 50 kids and i went there with the guy and we were delivering crop shoes and some shirts. so i met the amazing woman who wants it, haitian-american nurse who lives in miami. her father's haitian and she flies back and forth from miami with her meager pay and she keeps these 50 kids orphanage afloat. this child was his parents and earthquake and you can see he is looking right through my lens, right through me into some great distance. i kept trying to make them smile. i said hey, high. he wouldn't smile and he looked right through me. i took that photo. this face will home a for the rest of my life. i spent a weekend a few days and port-au-prince and the surrounding area so i thought, what can i do? i'm not an ngo and i don't have access to hundreds of thousands of gallons of water so i

basically improvise. i would go into tent cities and men would come up and start yelling at me in creole. i had a guy with me and i said whoa, hold on a second. we can work this out. what's the matter? they are angry. i said, what can i do? i can't bring a truck of water. i i am a guy in a rented car. basically the men would say we could use some soccer for the kids and we could use some so. as you can imagine, you and i we jump in the shower. we think nothing of it. port-au-prince, haiti is like miami on steroids. you get very sweaty very quickly. the ability to wash her clothes and wash her body and not smell right is a big deal so soap equals dignity. so he said we could use some soccer and some so. i said i'd dig the soap man, i will see later today. this one guy we said, no he won't. i said you don't know me, pal, i'm in that. i got this guy jimmy the

translator guy who is realizing the maniac he was dealing with. jimmy come off to the money changers. and a haggle with this guy and we get a good exchange rate on some good local currency. i go take me to the supermarket. we bought about $50, a zen ball of soap and every soccer ball the head of the throat in the back of the truck and drive back and come walking in with soccer and bars of soap. these guys who said you wouldn't come back are looking at me like him alright, you're not so bad. i said i told you i'd come back. we distributed the soap in the soccer and the kids were very happy and women came up and grabbed the so. but the men started fighting over the so. one guy had to bars and one guy had no bars. these were adult men and they started fighting over the soap like they're going they are going to have a fixed fight over 8 cents bars of soap. you and me, we are responsible switched on human beings. we can't let fellow humans beings in the world have

fistfights over 8 cents bars of soap. that is the example of everything that is wrong about human relations when grown men living in a tent city are fighting over an 8 cents bar of soap. i would give you a 20-dollar bill if you could turn it into soap because you are good natures of the desperation i saw there was very hard to take and so i basically, i bought soap and soccer every day. i would go to tent cities and go, here. i did this every single day and finally, i was in the big 10's that hold 30,000 people and there was jimmy giving soccer away and the soap is long gone. i see a little kid and the mom. jimmy can we talk to this lady? i said lady, did you can see this child? she said yeah. these tent cities are turning into permanent dwellings. they are tense but they are becoming permanent dwellings. some of the tent cities have a tent designated for

prostitution. the price for the moment is $1.25. the prostitute gets $1.25 and gives a quarter but to the guy that owns the tent for rent. one guy came up to me and said at night is so hot we cannot sleep. we have nothing and we are miserable. they have an adult look you right in the face and say that it was tough to take. this is downtown port-au-prince. this is the largest church they have it as you can see it's huge. the roof got torn off and if you look at the rubble in the left foreground there you will see how much port-au-prince got shut. basically downtown port-au-prince looks like a rocket attack hit it and apparently a lot of money went in there but it's hard to see the evidence of what it did so the church is no more. jimmy gives to go to the church with his wife and right over there on the far right he showed me where he used to sit every sunday. that's over with.

the people still go to the church to pray so we wandered through the church for a while because it is surreal looking to big beautiful sky. we go around to the front and there's a man in the sweltering heat in a suit and tie. he is yelling at the statue of jesus christ in front of the church and he's angry to the point where he has been yelling all day and he is very horse. people walking by him, he must be there'll pay and he was yelling at jesus and then walk away for a while and come back even more angry and yell and point and indict. i said jimmy what is he saying? will he is very angry at god and angry at jesus christ with the earthquake and he wants more change and he's mad. then the man started repeating something over and over again. he is saying the judges guilty, the judge is guilty. i said that's really heavy. do you feel how heavy that is? jimmy went, i don't know. that is a hell of a thing to

say. the guy was furious and i am furious with the ngos because apparently a whole bunch of money went there and like i said man, or to this place, they are so hard put. now people are living in the rubble. i wandered through the department of ministry, which now looks like godzilla stomped on it. it's nothing but rubble and human fecal matter which has never been around that, when people are using the streets as a sewer, it's a smell of defeat. it's when humans have given up and they say, we are done. i have smelled it in different parts of the world and it's a smell i hate. it offends me because people should not give up and we should not give up on haiti. i am the one in the middle. [laughter] thanks for showing up tonight. [applause]

[applause] >> i have decided that when you're a punk rocker -- [laughter] when you were -- anyway when you were in black flag, you were obviously, had this hidden thing going on in your mind the whole time, this need to not only communicate but to understand the world. i mean where did it come from? >> well i was very lucky being in rock 'n roll. you can be very broken see big parts of the world. and you can get to japan and rock 'n roll. you can see australia and a lot of europe and you can be not able to pay your rent but the well-traveled. thankfully my mother raised me right here in washington d.c. and as a kid she took need to greece and should make and turkey and england because she

is a museum gallery person so she wants to see the arts of the world. she would save or pay a drag out there and i would see all kinds of stuff. i had a passport when they still made the green ones. it was like 1850. [laughter] and so i knew about heathrow and travel and jet lag and all of that is a little boy. with rock 'n roll i was able to travel and when you travel with music you often see kind of the tougher part of the city. you see the part of the city where the lucky make noise and throw beer cans. not only in america but all over the world i got to see kind of the tougher part of the town and see kind of how people live when they are not all that well looked after and that made me want to know more. i would meet people, what are you doing? i'm in a band. you get to talk. rock 'n roll is all cool and you are everyone's friend if you are in a band. i would hear a lot of stories all over the world and i would say to myself, i am well-traveled but i've never been to africa and one day i'm

going to change that. i was raised on "national geographic" magazine. my mother had a subscription since i was a little boy. seeing the pyramids, one day i'm going to see that. one year ahead money finally. i'd save some money and i said i'm going to now bring africa into my travel and i would go to africa pretty much every year or one to three times a year and each of those on the first is there. i think it was the first african country i went to. >> there is a review. this is the book by the way and u.k. can get it. it's remarkable. you have seen the photographs but the writing in the book is extraordinary because it isn't henry saying, this is where i went, this is you really digging and in a very personal way. can you talk a little bit about the writing because i've read it two or three times and it's very emotionally moving. >> a lot of the photographs, the ones at the end are new ones. a lot of these photos are

somewhat hard to take and i'm very reacted to them. seeing a hundred kid, who likes to see someone living in heater squalor so i would start writing about these pictures and there's a picture of a little boy who is showing early signs of starvation and his stomach is sticking out. i wrote this big, just looks at the photo and this thing came out of me. i said i will put that in the book and is in fact i will put one of these every 10 pictures and do writing. living alone you have a lot of times to yourself and a few days later i said i will write everything for a photo in this book. i signed onto an unbelievable amount of work but i'm married to the idea now so i have to do it. so i did it and everyone of those photos has like this crazy piece of writing where i just looked at the photo and kind of went for whatever it was make him a feel and quite often it was very draining and very painful. it's writing i can do but i avoided because it hurt so much

but i threw myself into the propellers of that book. i owe those people that. the way i try to dignify these beautiful people is to write a thing for them. it's what i can do. also i wanted to make a photo book that you can thumb through very quickly. you have to stop and read this thing. wow, henry burn some calories on this thing and he wants me to pay attention. i tried to make it so the person looking at it says wow, he gave it his all. he did and just blindly go through some place and take a photo. i would go to these places and i would get to leave. i would go to the hotel and take a shower and -- to take away how disgusting that is. i'm just trying to communicate the lives of these people through that lens because my fellow americans don't always travel as much as they should. and maybe present company could be accepted. maybe many of you have it passport but a lot of americans don't and a lot of americans

could benefit from going to india. every young person should spend a month in africa doing something and seeing a different part of the world that is so radically different. i think you would the -- it would be a good thing. the travel in my life has humbled me and made me really like people. as a young person i didn't like people so much. well, you know, you are young and you have a head full of steam. but traveling -- [laughter] when you go to places where people don't have much in they are willing to give half of it to you and they are so gentle and friendly, and you see what your country has done to their country. they are still well, that that is a hell of a thing and it makes you have to, ante up with your level of human kindness and that is what these people are given to me. so i try to give back with the book. >> you talked about about liking to travel on your own. you are surrounded by people all the time and recognized all the

time but when you are traveling for yourself, do you travel on your own? >> yes. as many amazing things you see, just feel free to disagree. whenever someone with you a kind of kills it. [laughter] because people have different schedules. i want to walk, i want to sit down. let's have a fight. [laughter] i don't want to have that with anybody so i travel by myself and i make my own hours. i make crazy hours. i will do this and there is no one to argue with. when you see something amazing on your own you are like wow. i weaned myself away from, i will, later on i will write about it and i will tell about it for right now it's just me and this mosque in the setting sun in the african prairie. that is what it's all about. we are standing in front of the great pyramid in giza. it's bigger than you think it's going to be.

no human could have built that thing so it makes you believe in extraterrestrials. it's three times the size you think it's going to be. when you stand there it's like, i have been there three times and that's my reaction every single time. and to stand there alone watching the sunset during that thing, but in trade that experience for anything. if anyone is next to you, no way. you want to have that moment and that is why i travel alone. it also makes you burn lean tissue. i am out there with two backpacks, one full of socks and the other camera gear. by day 70, you are tripping because you are just alone like, okay i have two things of soup left, have a swallow of water. i can do this. then i come back to los angeles. >> i'm sorry that you had to do that. >> you go from bad to photographers waiting for you to

come out of the grocery store so they can photograph you walking to your subaru. it's like really, paparazzi in the parking lot? [laughter] then it's time to leave again. >> i'm sure there are many questions that we will get two and a second but to talk about the photography a little bit. do you go loaded down with camera equipment. >> the more travel essay takes so now i travel with two. if one goes down, the trip is over. so i have backup and i bring usually two or three lenses, 16 and 35 i by locke and a lot of the photos were taken that just because it makes people come out. it gives a motion to the shot where other lenses like, here is your photo. the 24216 to 35 beds people and that bends the sky in a beautiful way and kind of makes people, life. i carry all that with me and i used to use the big camera but you go down the street and

everything stops with that camera. everyone looks at the camera. i use a smaller one that lets you slip and slide through people. i'm not trying to be intrusive. if someone lives their photo taken like in the case of senegal which was a shame because you couldn't find a more photogenic people, beautiful humans, tall, amazing talent and the women were and describe of the beautiful. you would pull out a camera and they'd be like okay. i would put the camera down but you just kind of get out of there. i'm not trying to bug anyone. >> there are some reviews already. when did the book come out? >> today, next monday, next tuesday? next week or next week. >> there are rate reviews already. entertainment weekly and -- weekly said -- is there anything this guy can do? >> enjoy, relax, destress.

[laughter] >> you never stopped. why is that? >> because i come from a minimum wage working world of washington d.c. of the late 70s and early '80s and i'm not trying to give you some poor -- i cleaned up after animals and tour tickets at a movie theater. i scooped ice cream at häagen-dazs. $3.25 an hour so i have no illusions. i was lucky i got to be in a band called lack flag and basically just went for it. rolling auditions, but if i got to use loose, this scoop in my hand? i will go for this so i am basically educated and ready to go back to parking your car or whatever so anything else that comes my way is gravy. that is why some of you will see me in some of the worst movies you have ever seen in your life. [laughter] because i am not brando. i'm never going to be an godfather two. i will be in -- movie three.

its work and i'll take it and i'm not trying to be over utilitarian. i like to eat a lot. like every day, so here is a job and i'm like i will take that. let's make a good love movie than. because i know where i come from and i'm not saying it's bad. but this is just -- i feel like jethro bodine getting a free pen at the bank. i get to keep this? [laughter] i say yes to everything. >> do you know what i love so? i love the fact that when you are and can to walk around the "national geographic." >> basically up the street from here. >> i love the fact that you got the magazine and your life has taken you on this journey because i think more than any of the people that i have worked with, you too may are the quintessential "national geographic" and i'm personally very proud that you are here

this evening. [applause] >> thank you. >> i would like to -- i am sure there are a million questions. let's see, any hands? over here. i think you're going to get a microphone because i think c-span might still be with us. [inaudible] [laughter] >> henry i was just wondering, wanting to hear your opinion on the occupy wall street movement. >> i think finally protesters are getting the real point of tax inequality, of campaign finance reform. the wacky hijinks of the banks, deregulation. these are the big issues that are really making america do what it's doing right now and finally, there is a protest like those bullet points that are being addressed and when people say we are the 99%, that's a very true statement and unfortunately some people are on different sides of the aisle who won't be able to say like, let's

throw away all of that for a minute and all agreed on this big, big.. so i think it's a great thing. i just hope these people can survive the winter because the people they are angry at, they go into heated buildings and they watch it from 30 floors up and laugh. winter is coming to new york and washington and will not be friendly but the great people of madison, wisconsin stood up and i think there will be a whole lot of people that come by the way of these people. [applause] so i think you are seeing a change in the world, cairo, yemen, tunisia, things are happening, syria and things are going to happen and there will be change here. i think this protest, this gathering addresses that. >> a question over here. >> henry, i am wondering, as a photographer and all, your pictures are amazing. what is the one moment that you had where you cross the line

from for talk of too human and hugo i can't take a picture this? >> that's a good question. so far not in that i have not been and a scene of war haven't been around any great depravity where i say okay i'm not going to this merge the scene by taking a photo. perhaps not walking closer to the bodies that were burning in bhuton because i don't have that kind of fascination. and the things where i was on the fence was using the photo of the sleeping man who might be dead. i sat there for quite a while. i took the photo and i felt the texture of his skin. he was a handsome man. i said boy, he is dead i don't want to run this photo and i really want him to be a life. i'm not looking to take pictures of dead guys for my amusement unless i'm on assignment and i don't see that happening. so i'm hoping the movement i saw, hope it was a sign of life. i'm not trying to run some dead guy to make him go oh and that was a moment.

i'm not trying to bum anyone out or disgrace humanity with these photos. quite the opposite and that is a moment where i had to kind of pause but otherwise, these photos i take, in my mind are people standing up to all of this. you can't beat me. and that is hopefully what the book gets across. so far, that is the one time i paused. >> anymore questions? in the back here. >> justly and now i'm going to be hanging out after this so you know me, i will answer any question you have. i always hang out. >> hi henry. they say a pictures worth a thousand words but i am a writer so unfortunately i have to scribble, scribble, scribble all the time and i feel like, as somebody who loves to travel and has boundless curiosity and wants to tell stories about his experiences, do you have any

advice or have you ever found a moment where you were torn between like taking a picture and experiencing the whole site or whatever? >> i am greedy. i do both. i have a moment and i get a photo of it. you know you can take a few photos and it's okay, but the camera way. i'm just going to sit in this for a moment and that is sometimes hard. once you have the camera everything is a photo op. all of a sudden the moment is over and i say, i didn't get to go oh that's nice and now i make sure i enjoy the moment and try to get a useful photo that reflexive or get something across. as far as advice, get a passport and go far and wide as you can. unfortunately for women traveled in some places is kind of tricky. but i have run into solo females in places where they are just going for it like parts of morocco. if you have to be careful.

cert me nairobi, kenya, parts of africa can be a rough place but so can cincinnati. some say you have to be careful anywhere. i think you should be bold and go far and go wide. i have almost been killed a couple of times and it's always in america. the rest of the world has been very kind to me thus far. if you show curiosity and you will show it in the way you walk. its end, i want to know. i have been friends with cabdriver to take me into their homes. i've met people in the streets. no one would let me pay for anything. no, no, we will treat you. thanks for coming. this happen to me in syria and lebanon, all over. people have been so welcoming to me because i'm looking around with a big smile and so far so good. it can all go south on you very quickly but you kind of have to look where you're going. don't live under a rock. life is too short for that. >> how much traveled the --

planning goes into your travel? >> it took two years to get the visa. other countries, they just make it really hard. some of the forces in america like getting to pakistan, i was in pakistan when bhutto was assassinated and unfortunately my camera was stolen in heathrow. they made sure it was difficult to get to pakistan in difficult and expensive to get to iran but i tried for weeks and weeks to get an iranian visa in america. one guy said you were not going to do it but you might be able to do it into by thinking i would never go to dubai. i went to dubai. >> little did they know. >> he was talking to the wrong guy. the time i get grilled the hardest by homeland security, they do pull me over fairly often was when i came back from syria. they took me into a room in three and three guys in uniforms were giving me the what for. why are you going to syria? i'm curious, it's hot there. you're not getting. not that kind of hot.

hot, hot. do you have any other questions for me? know, do you have any other questions were as? how long is this going to take? you can go. i think there are so many forces in america that don't want you to have a good time and war is this an essential moneymaking thing. everyone else should just be rocking out in having a good time. they don't want to let you in on that very huge truth. that is the one i find everywhere i go. everyone wants their kids to have letters and clean water and a roof that does not leak. you know all this but when you see it in action and you walk down the street in yoo hey thanks for not being afraid. great, hope you come to my country. my tour guide kim said maybe one day we will meet again. are you kidding? i wish. if you ever come to l.a., give no, call me. i was like, what am i saying? [laughter] e-mail me later. what's the internet?

[laughter] we always have pyongyang. [laughter] >> you. >> you have published this book, probably 150 daisy here? >> at least 100 some shows and i've written over 20 some books. i do vanity projects. i make my own levied books and they go wherever i want to a certain degree but i try to leverage over 100 shows a year. this year is a mere 50 or 60. >> slowing down. >> i'm 28 this year so i'm trying to cool it. >> it's amazing to me that you are able to travel incognito everywhere. you do get recognize quite a lot of. >> the best recognition, it happens but i was underneath smaller pyramids in giza where you go under the stairs. is completely dark and there is one guy, the egyptian fake tour guide who is basically going to

take you down there and charge you to get out. he is walking down in these men are talking and they say hey are you okay? i say yes and i recognize your voice. are you henry rollins? we are in pitch darkness. [laughter] yeah i am. i thought that was you. [laughter] sometimes due to the fact that i've been in only films, someone is watching those films. in indonesia i would get recognized a lot and they would name some title that i didn't even know it eventually came out. like, that came out? everybody knew it got just a fusion. you were great in that. really? geez, someone should show you a real movie some time. [laughter] it happens in weird places just because of television. when you get way out there like way out, way out, which is you

know kind of cool. you can be on your own. >> i'm sure there must be more questions. >> yes, sir. >> hey henry. and speaking engagements you have said you go out and meet everybody and you say hi, i am henry. who do you know who to talk to? >> one of the things i do to break the ice, you go into stores and it's where men hang out. they need to get away from the wife and is the nephew that owns the store. they go in and congregate and i go in and lurk. they say my friend, what are you doing here? i'm here to meet you. my name is henry. meet my uncle. hey what's happening? i have done this all over the place. in damascus in syria. my friend, come into my store. alright, what's happening? what do you think of my president?

bad politics. what you think of your president? can't say anything, camera on. let's have tea. meet my cousin. hey what's happening and sometimes come and meet my family. this is happened happened in beirut. i'm going home with a cabdriver to meet the family. his wife made me coffee and gave me cantaloupes and cherries. i tripped the kids out. i'm all sunburned and sweaty, on caffeine. what's happening? the kids are terrified. [laughter] buddy futures show your curiosity people go by, you are curious about that? sim. they are happy to tell you a thing or two and luckily for me when i'm staggering around new york, that guy will run into me. hello, for me much tried to find the empire state-building. you ran into the right guy. you and i, let's walk the right now. welcome to my country. where you from? i've been there. welcome to america. e. to peats tippee then bring it

friends next time. we all get along. see the big building? that's the one. have a great day new york. i try to return that favor. i love it when people asked. even if i don't know the way i will find out for you. people have done that for me so many times in other parts of the world. that whole thing if we can get along, they make money keeping us apart. they profiting keeping people together but that divide and conquer, that spins very well all over the world. i hate that book. so i go out there to speak truth to the validity of that bug as well. >> thank you. >> out of any the places you have traveled would he think was the most surprising them either someplace you want to see where there was abject squalor and a place that was completely different? >> i think iran was the most surprising. i didn't know what to expect.

the great human rights activist from iran was a friend of mine issues a promise me you will go to iran before you die. when you go i will hook you up with my friends and family. every iranian person i've met outside of iran said you have to get to tehran some day. you were going to love it. we have a pretty touchy relationship with iran and so i went and the only dred was my tours spy who had to be with me but i got rid of him by noon every day. he would go home and i would walk the streets and meet people. i'd hang out with different families and friends. in cabs every night going to neighborhoods in the district in the people were still falling over themselves to be nice to me. i never felt endangered on any of the streets. i put miles on the streets in tehran and it was nothing like i thought it was going to be. i really hope i get there -- back there. everywhere else, haven't been that surprised. what i found was amazing people,

great food, really trippy ice cream. saffron ice cream is one of the best things that is ever happened to me in my life. and these amazing people. i truly hope to get back there and that was probably the biggest surprise of all. i didn't know what it was going to be like and it ended up eating incredible. >> now we have time for one last question. we are going to do two but very quickly. >> hey henry. i saw your show in annapolis back in march and you mentioned the time when you are in uganda and you had a guide with you that was a soldier from the war six years back. you came across this massive gravesite. did you ever come across in a place where you had to take photos of anything like that, just that horrible scar?

>> the most dead body parts i saw was in phnom penh and the killing fields. i was in southern sudan with a soldier with, what he is making reference to and we are traveling after drop in the bucket. he said pull over so we go to this field and he said in 1996 new year's day of a standing here fighting the north and throwing my ammunition cans into these -- this ditch. those ammunition ditch? they vocals, but everyone is getting along. they said come with us and we will show you things. they showed all the rockets and missiles. he said come look at our cornfield in the middle of a cornfield is this massive mound. the corn is growing so well in them middle of the mount because the dead bodies are fertilizing it. the soldier said do you want me to find you some bones and teeth? they are everywhere. not today but thank you. the soldier says i can't see and he reaches into the hole and pulls out a t-shirt and he shakes it and all the dirt falls

off. he goes, northern soldier, throws it on the ground and stomped away. he lost 34 friends that day at the spot where we were at in life goes on. they make a field and plant the corn on top and they keep on going. that is the only time i've been around that. a lot of southern sudan, you look down and you will see bullet casings. 22 years of war. it's everywhere. by day five you are like, it's everywhere, sometimes in piles where there was a bit conflict. that was the only time i had ever been around that. >> would one final question by the lady in the back. thank you for being patient. >> thank you very much for the great presentation, and i agree with you that the world is an awesome place in the best education you can get is just walking around it. i am curious, if you could choose an american politician to air-drop anyplace in the world

to learn something important about it, about the world they want to rule, who would you choose and where would you put them? >> what an awesome question. [applause] one american politician to be drop somewhere in the world to learn a thing or two and come back and legislate on the things he or she learned? john boehner. well he is the speaker of the house. is an incredible amount of power and i think, don't think he is an unsympathetic man. i just think i disagree with a lot of things he says but i just don't think he is a horrible person. i just think he toes the party line. if he saw the things in a different way maybe he would bowman fairly divorced himself from his party lines and realize bigger changes need to be made that are more sympathetic to a war larger swath of american public and since you hold so much power for now he would be a guide to get that memo to. and he does the up part -- he

gets to travel quite a bit but what those guys and gals and politicians get to see on the trip, don't think it's the same thing i'm looking at. i think it's a quick photo op and back on the plane. just because he is so much power and i think you would definitely benefit. to get a real tan for once. the tanning bed, can't be real good for your skin. [laughter] [applause] >> henry i want to thank you for tonight and thank you all for coming and i hope that you will come back next week for -- that was her maiden name i believe. patty boyd. [laughter] a very dear friend, talking about her rock star lovers. very different and you will

enjoy it i'm sure. henry thank you and henry will be outside signing books. >> thanks rendering all of this night and looking at the photos in being so open for it and thank you for packing this place again. i'm not trying to wear you out with my presence in this town but thank you for showing up. sometimes you will think it will be super boring and so tank goes for soldiering through. we tried to make it as bouncy as possible so thanks for showing up and i will see you all down the road, i am sure. good night. [applause] ♪

here at the national press club, authors knight senator joe lieberman at but his most recent book, "the gift of rest" rediscovering the beauty of the sabbath. senator lieberman, where's the public policy in this? >> yeah, this is very different. i have done six books before this and they have all been about history or politics or law so this really comes from inside. i've observed the sabbath according to the jewish -- most of my life and considered to be a gift, something that anchors my life, helps meet reenergized, reconnect with my family and my friends, myself, my spiritual side and so i am essentially

offering "the gift of rest" to the reader. whenever -- your religion, hoping that they will see something here that will want to go to sabbath in their own lives. i think we are all very busy. we are all very connected by our electronics, 24/7. we need to create some fences inside which we can take a break. >> senator what is it typical sabbath for you? >> well according to the traditional jewish practice, it starts at sundown friday and ends sundown friday -- saturday and the rabbis over the centuries have created some scriptures that encourage you to keep it a different kind of day. you are not supposed to turn lights on and off, use used cars, used money. unless it's an emergency where somebody's health or life is on the line. and so it's really a day, where i spend some time in the synagogue praying but a lot of time with family, good food, little bit of drink and just

relaxation. >> has the sabbath -- let me rephrase that. has your work life interfered with the sabbath in the past? >> i tried not to let my work life interfere. i think one of the most compelling messages i have for the reader today in 2011 is how important and how difficult it is for me as the sabbath approaches on friday to turn off my cell phone and blackberry and how liberating it is. but i will tell you that i never do politics on the sabbath. but according to my understanding of my religious tradition, i carry out any governmental responsibility so that i have the sabbath. if i can delegate them, so i vote on the sabbath because there's too much on the line for me. i participated in important national security meetings or budget meetings because i think the well-being of the community,

sometimes the life of a lot of people is on the line. but other than that i mostly enjoyed being at home, being with my family. >> senator joe lieberman, his newest book, "the gift of rest" rediscovering the beauty of the sabbath. >> ap giroux senior was in new orleans civil rights attorney and he was one of the most influential civil rights advocates for louisiana for about four or five decades and

desegregating all of the society of louisiana. he came back to louisiana and 1926 after graduating from law school, and he used his legal career to open doors for african-americans. first, with cases that dealt with teachers salaries, equalization. he worked with the louisiana naacp as well as the national office of the legal defense fund headed by thurgood marshall, and he was wedded to their philosophy on fighting for civil rights through the legal system. in those cases, they fought for voter rights, public facilities and educational opportunities.

in a non-segregated aces. the sheer volume of cases that he fought is so impressive. but of course there are some that were more integrally a personal story in that they involve his son a.p. tureaud jr. and those were the cases that would be segregate lsu. louisiana state university was not open to african-americans. when he started the first case in 1946, and in that case, there was a postman from new orleans that wanted to attend law school at lsu. there were no law schools for african-americans in the state, and the result of that case was opening a law school at southern university, an all-black school here, during that time.

later, in 1950, he fought for -- to open the doors of lsu law school, medical school, graduate school and undergraduate school. this was before brown so in 1953, his son, ap jr., was the first african-american to attend the undergraduate school here at lsu. basically it was a media circus. they followed him around practically the whole time that he was here. he even discussed a time when he had to swim in the pool for some requirements for taking that class, and there was quite a spectacle of having an african-american in a pool that typically is a segregated

situation at that time in louisiana. also, there were times when he was in the dormitory and he said the students would bang on his door or leave items at at the store to try to keep them up all night, put aloud radio at his door. there was isolation, extreme isolation that he talked about, even the embarrassment and class of people stating they didn't know how they would be able to teach a as we were called at that time and even the paper. he said he felt like he was just a social outcast. he stayed about eight weeks. he did not finish school here. there was some legal maneuvers that i believe the court

decided, well, the judge decided, the first decision that allowed him to calm decided by one judge instead of a three-judge court, so while they were dealing with that legal issue, he was asked to leave lsu. he enrolled at xavier university and never came back. to have a father see his son go through some of the things that he did, during those eight weeks, had to be a difficult thing. i remember interviewing a ap tureaud jr.'s mother. i never got to meet ap tureaud senior. he died in 1972, and, but meeting his mother, she still had tears in her eyes when she talked about that