Blog Posts - Books by Eric Douglas

How Christ of the Abyss made it to Florida

May 20, 2013 By Eric Douglas

Update: This story was picked up by the Miami Herald. They used my photos to illustrate the story. You can see Page 1 here. and Page 2 here.

Last week I was in Key Largo, Florida working on a new project when my friend Jim Elliot called and said he had an amazing opportunity for me. Jim is the founder and president of Diveheart, a non-profit organization that takes people with disabilities scuba diving. I know when Jim calls with an opening like that, it is going to be interesting. I was right.

Gabriel Spataro was going to dive on the Christ of the Abyss statue in John Pennekamp State Park. There were two unusual things about this: Spataro is 81 years old and legally blind. He began diving in 1956 with a group of friends who formed the Illinois Council of Skin and Scuba Diving. Reportedly, John Cronin and Ralph Erickson also came together in his restaurant when they were founding the Professional Association of Scuba Diving (PADI), but that’s a different story. A Korean war veteran, he is now suffering from macular degeneration so he needs the assistance of adaptive buddy divers to dive safely. That is where Diveheart comes in.

The second interesting part of the story was Gabe was instrumental in bringing the Christ of the Abyss statue to Florida in 1962, but never had the chance to dive on it. Now, 51 years later, he was going to dive on the statue for the first time. You can hear Gabe tell the story himself in the video Gabe’s Story.

In early 1962 he was asked to be the chairman of the Underwater Society of America’sconvention in Chicago. He found out that the Cressi family was making the statue, the third copy of the 9-foot-tall bronze statue, to send to the United States. Spataro was heading to Italy on a wine trip for his restaurant and met with the Cressis. They told him they were donating the statue, but it was up to him to get it to the United States. Through friends in the shipping industry, Spataro was able to bring it to Chicago from Italy for the convention and then eventually he was able to transport it to Florida. The statue finally found its home in August of 1965. This all happened with no budget, solely on the efforts of volunteers and divers.

To make the dive happen, DJ Wood, owner of Rainbow Reef Dive Centers donated six spots on one of his dive boats. Chuck Baldwin, owner of US 1 Scuba in Pompano Beach, Florida and a Diveheart volunteer, also happened to be a Cressi Dealer so he joined Spataro on the dive and outfitted him in Cressi gear so he could experience the result of his efforts. Baldwin and Wilhelmina Stanton of the Scuba Sirens lead Spataro on the dive and it was an emotional day for him. He spent about 20 minutes touching the statue, feeling the head and holding its hands.

The Christ of the Abyss is often referred to as the most photographed underwater attraction in the world. Every diver who has been to the statue owes Gabe Spataro a debt of gratitude for getting the statue to Florida from Italy.

Diving continues for Miskito Indians—and so does paralysis

May 6, 2013 By Eric Douglas

In February of 2010, I began this blog by talking about a trip to Honduras to work with a doctor there as he treated Miskito Indians who dived for lobster on scuba. I ended up visiting Honduras four times as I worked on a documentary project about the situation, including one trip to accompany a news crew from NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.

My colleague, Dr. Mathias Nochetto, and I were stunned when we made it La Ceiba, Honduras to see the clinic run by Dr. Elmer Mejia. Dr. Mejia was treating more than a hundred Miskito Indians every year, most had been severely disabled by decompression sickness—“The Bends.” They dived between eight and 16 times a day to 100 feet or more for up to 12 days. Their living conditions on board the industrial dive boats were deplorable, living without even basic sanitation for nearly three weeks at a time on board in extremely close quarters. They harvested the lobster as many as four days boat ride from shore. That meant if they were injured while at sea, they had to wait four days before they could see a doctor.

On my second trip, I met with members of the Handicapped Lobster Divers Association. They told me that they had more than 2000 members and knew of another 400 or so divers who had died from diving. To be a member of the organization, they had some level of diving-related paralysis. This is out of an estimated 10,000 Miskito Indians involved in the lobster industry.

Dr. Mejia has had great success treating the divers. In spite of the delay to treatment, a large percentage of the divers leave his facility able to walk again after being carried inside. He has had to fight government obstruction, crime, unsafe working conditions and an overall lack of interest from the community carrying out his work. On that first visit, Dr. Mejia told us that there was a motion to suspend scuba diving for lobster in 2011. It didn’t happen. The government decided to continue diving and leave the markets open, in spite of the problems. That last two year extension was set to end on June 30 of 2013.

National Geographic News Watch just called for Honduras to stop diving, but it didn’t happen. They have already decided to continue diving for another two years.

I’ve had people ask the question why they should care. “It’s not as if they have to dive.” Nearly all of the lobster hand caught on scuba comes to the United States in the form of lobster tails. That is hundreds of tons of lobster tails per year. We, the people of the United States, have created this market and we need to understand where our food comes from. There is no difference in this than sweat shops in third world countries churning out cheap shirts and jeans. Whenever a there is a fire in a building housing these workers, killing them by the hundreds, we are morally outraged—at least for a brief period. I see lobster advertised nearly daily on the television. It isn’t just a luxury food anymore.

I really don’t want the lobster industry to go away. There is nothing else for the Miskito Indians to do. I have been to their homes and seen where they live. I simply want us to harvest them in a safer manner. There is no excuse for killing an entire sub-culture of people simply to feed our appetite for cheap lobster. As a diver, I hate to see my chosen sport used to destroy lives. This is something many of us do as a recreation.

Watch the documentary video For Cheap Lobster I prepared two years ago. It follows three diving populations, but focuses on Honduras.

Visit my website for more information, photos and links to other stories on the topic, including from National Geographic, NBC, the New York Times and CCTV. It focuses on three populations of divers, but focuses on Honduras.

I didn’t have anything to do with this project, but some filmmakers created a documentary on the situation from the Nicaraguan side of the Miskito Coast: My Village My Lobster..

Images from the Komen Walk for the Cure

May 4, 2013 By Eric Douglas

The weather could not have been more perfect for today’s Walk for the Cure. It was great to see all the survivors there as an inspiration. There is a lot of work to do though.

My daughter and I walked for a lot of reasons, but one of them was in honor of Teresa Holovic O’Connor. Read more about Teresa. And here in the blog Inspiring rather than complaining.

Voices of War/Common Valor Documentary Premiere Scheduled

May 3, 2013 By Eric Douglas

Cover art to the book. It includes the
face of every veteran interviewed.

Valor is supposed to be the stuff of legends, of heroes who sacrifice everything, of people who die to save friends or strangers. After interviewing 46 veterans who served their country in times of war, I find that valor is actually more common than we think it is.

Initially, I became interested in interviewing West Virginia war veterans when I first heard about the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress. I had just finished up a documentary project on the lobster divers of Honduras and moved back to West Virginia after being away for nearly 14 years. When I heard there were only 20 or so oral histories in the Library of Congress archive from West Virginia veterans, I realized it was time, and a perfect opportunity, for me to focus on my home state.

I’m not a veteran. The military was not something that interested me. I was fortunate to be able to go directly to college after high school and then I began my career as a journalist. Over the years, though, I have always been interested in, and intrigued by, the camaraderie of those who did serve.

As I worked on the project and interviewed more veterans, I was struck by the similarity in their stories. Whether they served in Afghanistan or in World War II, their stories were very much alike. They talked about home, family, comradery and doing their duty. They loved their fellow soldiers and felt guilty if they had to leave them behind. If not for the timber of the voices and the accents, dialects and pronunciations, you might not be able to tell the difference between one veteran and the next.

After logging more than 2000 miles and collecting 50 hours worth of oral histories from West Virginia war veterans, the West Virginia Voices of War documentary is ready for its premiere.

West Virginia Voices of War will premiere at Emmanuel Baptist Church, 1401 Washington St W, Charleston, WV 25387 on May 28, 2013; the day after Memorial Day.

Donations to the Veterans Center on the West Side will be accepted at the premiere. l will be selling a book called Common Valor that includes longer histories from every veteran I interviewed.

You can watch the opening to documentary here.

Voices of Warsynopsis: West Virginia Voices of War is a documentary complied from the oral histories of 36 West Virginia war veterans who served from World War II to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. West Virginia sends more of her sons and daughters to war than any other state, per capita. This documentary captures their thoughts on service, on war and on returning home.

Common Valorsynopsis: Common Valor includes the stories of 46 West Virginia war veterans with their thoughts on service, on war and on returning home. These veterans served from World War II to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Common Valor is the companion to the multimedia documentary West Virginia Voices of War and it includes the complete story from the documentary as well..

Celebrate May Day

May 1, 2013 By Eric Douglas

Like a lot of traditions, the idea of the May Day celebration became one thing, then another and then fell into disfavor because of a different idea all together.

May Day grew from Celtic tradition of Beltane and the Germanic Walpurgis Night. These festivals celebrate the coming of Spring. As Christianity took hold throughout Europe it became less of a pagan holiday and more of a secular one; people simply took the opportunity to get outside and celebrate.

The earliest settlers to America brought the tradition with them, although the Puritans did their best to stamp it out. One of the most notorious instances came when Thomas Morton formed a breakaway colony called Merrymount. His free-thinking colony was eventually stamped out by Governor William Bradford and Captain Miles Standish. Morton wrote:

“The inhabitants of Merrymount … did devise amongst themselves to have … Revels, and merriment after the old English custom … & therefore brewed a barrell of excellent beer, & provided a case of bottles to be spent, with other good cheer, for all comers of that day. And upon Mayday they brought the Maypole to the place appointed, with drums, guns, pistols, and other fitting instruments, for that purpose; and there erected it with the help of Savages, that came thither of purpose to see the manner of our Revels…”

In the mid-20^th Century, we stopped celebrating May Day as it became associated with the Soviet Union’s International Workers Day. No one wanted anything to do with the taint of Communism. The first time I remember celebrating May Day was ironically in Russia. In 1995, I was on my fourth trip to Russia as a freelance journalist. A friend invited me to visit the Caucuses in southern Russia.

We flew to the airport in Mineralnye Vody (Mineral Water) and then traveled up to Mount Elbrus—the highest peak in Europe. Communism was over, but they didn’t want to lose the holiday. We had a picnic in the forest with fresh shashlik (shish-ka-bobs) and plenty of toasting, music and dancing. Did I mention the toasting?Wow.

Anyway, I think we are missing out by not celebrating May Day. We don’t need another “official’ holiday. That tends to take some of the fun out of holidays anyway, when they become “recognized”. I think we need to make May Day like St. Patrick’s Day…an excuse for some revelry and enjoyment. The people of Merrymount had it right and the people I met in the Caucuses did too.

I think it is time to take May Day back. Go out and get some merriment today!

Taking a creative break

April 29, 2013 By Eric Douglas

The original under glass in the sun.

I love digital photography. Really, I do. You just can’t beat the flexibility you get with digital photography and the ability to edit on the fly saves so much time. I worry about us deleting photos in-camera and losing some of those out-takes, but that’s a conversation for a different time.

There are times, though, when I miss my black and white darkroom. I miss the smell of the fixer and the red light and literally getting lost in the process of printing images. It seemed like I could go in the darkroom in the morning and emerge exhausted eight hours later. Now, I can still spend hours tweaking photographs, but I do it sitting with my computer in my lap and it just isn’t the same.

Every once in a while though, I realize I need that creative fix (no pun intended), camera or not. That’s when I go full-on old-school. Cyanotype is called blueprint printing and it’s the oldest non-silver photographic printing technique. And the coolest part, once you’ve prepared the paper, all it takes is sunlight and water. To prepare the paper, you need a solution of potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate that you just can’t buy off the shelf, but the concoction is available from specialty photography places.

You can use it to make blue prints of photographs by first creating a digital negative, printing it out on acetate and then placing the negative on the paper in the sun. Or, if you don’t want to go to all of that trouble, you can make paper negatives in the cyanotype itself by lying opaque items on the paper and exposing them that way. Whatever the sun touches will end up blue after the wash wherever the sun is blocked will turn white. It’s pretty cool and a great way to take a break from sitting at the computer.

The print developing in a tray of water.

This is often referred to as sun printing. I keep some treated paper around and every once-in-a-while I pull out a few sheets and see what I can find in the yard or the house. Big flowers don’t really work…they end up looking like blobs on the paper. But items with fine details work great. I also like to print with crystals or glass to catch the way the sun reflects onto the paper. The great thing about this process and technique is you can preserve the nature you see around you, capture patterns and discover details you might have never seen before.

That’s probably enough of a break for one day. Time to get back to work.

The final image.