Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction and Non-fiction

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    • Dive-abled: The Leo Morales Story
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You are here: Home / Archives for Photography

Back in Russia!

March 11, 2010 By Eric Douglas

Views on the streets back in RussiaIt’s been a little over two years since I’ve been here, but now I’m here for my 7th trip to Russia. As I’ve said before, coming here in 1993 for the first time truly changed my direction and my career. It opened my eyes and gave me a greater understanding of cultures around me.

Especially at the time, it became a goal for me to help other people understand that the Russian people were simply people, nearly totally disconnected from their government. I still very vividly remember someone at the newspaper I worked at in the 90s telling me, “We should just kill them all, they are just communists anyway.” I hope that line shocks you.

The downside to coming here is the travel. A 9 hour flight through the night. It’s the best and most efficient way to get here of course, but in spite of all the travel I’ve done I’ve never developed the ability to sleep on planes. Which means I get here totally wiped out. But, I have to tell about the family mom and I are staying with. Vadim, Natalia and Ilya have adopted us for the week. Natalia and her 15-year-old son Ilya picked us up at the airport and brought us to their home, treating us to a traditional Russian lunch, with a twist. They are a very health conscious family and use only fresh ingredients. Natalia is also interested in yoga and they are following Orthodox lent and not eating meat on certain days. All those are changes from the Russia families I met in the 90s.

I was just explaining my purpose for being here to Natasha. When I show my photographs of the Russian people to Americans, I hope that they will come away with an understanding that people are the same everywhere. We all love our kids, we have pets and we do our jobs. But when I show my photographs to the Russian people, I hope it helps them remember and realize just how far they have come in the last 15 years. Supermarkets are popping up everywhere, foreign cars clog the roads and single family homes are as common as apartment buildings. It’s a pretty astounding change from the way things were just a decade ago.

So, no pictures yet, haven’t even broken out the camera to be honest. But tonight and tomorrow I will and will post when I can. Here is another change for you. Mom was just reminding me that in 1994, I stayed here for three months and my only reliable way to communicate was to send faxes home about once a week. Just quick handwritten notes. Today, I am sitting in a home with a strong wifi connection..

Filed Under: Documentary, Photography, Travel

Russia: Coming of Age

March 8, 2010 By Eric Douglas

banner for Russia: Coming of Age

In a couple days, I’m heading to Russia on my 7th trip to that amazing country. In the fall of 1992 I was invited to accompany a group of educators from West Virginia (my home state). I was a lowly local newspaper reporter, but I jumped at the chance and frankly haven’t looked back.

That first trip was in January 1993 and it changed my life and my career. It opened my eyes to other cultures and the act of seeing history, not just reading about it. That truly was the beginning of the “Adventure With a Purpose” ideal, long before I ever put it into words. I learned that it is important to understand other people and other cultures to better understand our selves.

Beginning with that first trip, made not long after the wall fall and the Soviet Union imploded, I began photographing the people of Russia. In the fall of 1994, I had a photo exhibit of my work at the WV Cultural Center (now know as the Culture Center) and published my work in a number of places.

This trip is exciting for two reasons. First, I am going to exhibit my Russian work in Russia for the first time. I am showing the “Russia, Coming of Age” exhibit from March 12-19 at the Moscow House of Cinema during the Moscow International Film Festival of Young Filmmakers. The feedback I have received from Russians who have seen this project is it is making them stop and think about their own lives and how things have evolved over the last 15 years. If you want to see the images, please visit my website at https://www.booksbyeric.com/russia1.html.

The second reason this trip is exciting is I am taking my mother along. This is her first trip out of country and it should be incredible for her. While I have many people to thank for the incredible support they have offered over the last 17 years (Dr. Virginia Simmons and the rest of the directors of the Russia and West Virginia Foundation, most notably) my mom has always innately understood that I wasn’t just joy-riding around the world, but learning and helping others around me to learn and understand, too. So, thanks mom. Can’t wait to get started on this one.

Pictures to come from the road..

Filed Under: Documentary, Photography, Travel

Exploring the Mayan Ruins at Copan

February 27, 2010 By Eric Douglas

We took off this morning and drove most of the way across the country of Honduras. We agreed that since our work was done, or as much as we could get done on this trip anyway, we wanted to see the Mayan ruins at Copan.

The drive took us almost to Guatemala and over mountains that passed 1000 meters, but we finally got here. Took about 6 hours, a couple more police stops (where they actually made us all get out of the car this time) and a protest on a bridge that stopped traffic for about 20 minutes, and we finally got here.

We did make one quick stop along the way, too, to grab some breakfast at a roadside stand. Very traditional meat, eggs and cheese on a tortilla. And boy was it good.

It was an interesting progression across the country. The eastern end of Honduras is very green and lush with palm trees, jungle-like. As we moved west, it got slowly browner and dryer as we moved into the hills. It began to remind me more of Mexico or even southern California (at least the undeveloped areas) than the other side. The people, too, seemed to have a bit more of a Mayan influence, physically, than the eastern Hondurans. It’s beautiful country side though and I would like to spend more time here.

There weren’t any English speaking guides around, but Matias was good enough to help me out. Pretty breathtaking place. It’s not the biggest of the Mayan ruins in Central America, but it is an exceptionally nice one. Our guide Eduardo was great and very informative. You’d almost think he was there when the place was occupied. But, he must have been much younger than me, because he wasn’t out of breath at all leading us up and down the ruins, when the rest of us were breathing hard. That’s the only solution I can come up with anyway…. Copan existed with 16 kings over 400 years of continuous rule. Many of the structures represented one kind in particular, 18 Rabbit King, the 11th in the line. Like most of the Mayan world, no clue what caused it to disappear. Even these trips, though, give you an insight into the culture that has existed in these very lands for 1500 years, or more. That is nothing to ignore.

There will be more posts from Honduras in the weeks and months to come. This has been a great beginning to a new project that will open the eyes of many divers around the world. As its still developing, I don’t really want to talk about it yet. I believe I’ll be coming back here in June and from there I’ll be able to move things forward. I will say, though, that this trip definitely qualifies as an Adventure with a Purpose.

Until then, tomorrow Matias and I begin a 24 hour odyssey to get home, landing around 8 am on Sunday morning. Wish us luck..

Filed Under: Diving, Documentary, Photography, Travel

Exploring the Garafuna Village

February 26, 2010 By Eric Douglas

Garafuna children play by the water

We had a pretty serious rain storm blow through last night. Everyone says the “rainy season” is over but you couldn’t tell that last night. That probably explains why everything is so green all around. There are banana and plantain trees (there is a difference although I couldn’t point it out to you) and fields of sugar cane, too. Street vendors sell fruit of about every description, too.

In and around the work we’re doing here in Honduras, today was the first time we’ve taken the time to get out and do a little sight seeing. We went to visit the community of Sambo Creek. This is a small sea-side fishing village populated by the Garafuna people. Rather than being Hunduraneans or the La Miskitia, the Garafuna came from Africa through St. Vincent. They left St. Vincent in the mid-1800s and resettled on the coast of Honduras.

Like a lot of Honduras, the streets were a wreck—mostly dirt—and the facilities were marginal. Stray dogs wandered everywhere mixed into the cars, trucks, bikes and pedestrians. But the people were friendly and the food was good. As we were finishing up our lunch (I had some ceviche pescadora that reminds me I want to make some at home) a young girl came walking up with a basket balanced on her head. She was selling coconut bread. Elmer bought two bags, one for home and the other for the injured miskito divers he was treating in the chamber.

As we drove through Sambo Creek, I looked up in time to see a DAN flag hanging from a pole. It turned out to be a small dive shop. So, we stopped to say hello and I took a picture of the manager with Drs. Nochetto and Mejia. Just one of those surreal moments where you see a sign of home where you least expect it. Even more interesting, and a point that Matias made, was that at one time that flag was in our office in North Carolina. No clue how it made its way here, but it did.

We’ve been able to finish up everything we need to do, or at finishing it up right now. So, we’ve made arrangements to spend tomorrow touring a Mayan ruin in Copan before heading home on Saturday. Total travel time for that trip, from the time we head to the airport and then the time we get home will be over 24 hours. Loads of fun….

Filed Under: Diving, Documentary, Photography, Travel

American Influence on the Streets

February 25, 2010 By Eric Douglas

american influence in Honduras

This has been an eye-opening and incredible trip so far. The main purpose, as I’ve mentioned before, is working with the local hyperbaric chamber and that is going extremely well. I can’t really go into a lot of detail on that yet, but it’s going to be a great story.

Agriculture still seems to be the major industry here, both legal and illegal. There just isn’t much tourism even though La Ceiba is right on the warm waters of the Caribbean and is about 15 degrees North of the equator. There are some hotels, but where there might be a decent hotel, not far away it looks like a war zone. Without some significant outside investment I don’t see that changing soon. Most people, if they come through this area at all, end up going to the airport and bouncing over to Roatan, Utilla or Guanaja, three top dive destinations.

But what is really striking here is the amount of American fast food here. There are Pizza Huts on every street corner, along with KFC, Church’s Chicken, and Popeyes, along with Wendy’s and Quiznos that we’ve seen so far. Never would have expected all that here. I wonder, too, if that is the cause of some of the obesity we’re seeing on the streets as well. Most of the population appears to be relatively fit, but we’ve noticed some people (mostly men) who appear to be flat out fat. Oh the American curse strikes again.

A good thing here is I’ve not noticed many people smoking and in a lot of the places I’ve gone it is posted everywhere Fumar Prohibido. No Smoking. I like that. Not sure what the unemployment rate is here, but I see an awful lot of young men hanging around in the park outside of our hotel during the day. One more final note and then I’ll reach a point. Aside from the ocean, you have jungle and adventure travel here. There is whitewater kayaking, hiking and snorkeling.

It’s an easy flight to Honduras as well. So, with the proper investment, an available workforce and a penchant for having American things around anyway, it seems like Honduras would be a prime location for adventure travel investment. If it were done sensitively and in step with the local beliefs and cultures, it could be a winner for everyone concerned. Let’s not talk about the infrastructure, but there are headaches going anywhere in the third world. Just thinking out loud this evening..

Filed Under: Diving, Documentary, Photography, Travel

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