The Shadow
BUENOS ARIES, Argentina, — Hot Springs native Jerry Nelson will be interviewing Roberto Escobar in January for a story about how life has changed for Colombian workers since the drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar, was killed on a Medellin rooftop in 1993.
Nelson, a freelance photojournalist and the son of Lee Nelson and the late Clifford Nelson of Hot Springs has been based in Buenos Aires for one year.
“The Escobar connection fell into my lap,” says Nelson. “I was commissioned to do a piece about workers rights on the jungle plantations and a friend in Cali [Colombia] knew Escobar’s brother so he offered to arrange an interview.”
Following an email ‘introduction’, Nelson says, “Rob-erto (Escobar) and I exchanged a few emails and he agreed to sit for an interview and was kind enough to invite Ale [Nelson’s wife] and me to have dinner with him on his ranch outside Medellin.”
The banana plantation story that led to the Escobar invitation concerns Truba-na, the world’s largest banana exporter with 80,000 boxes of bananas shipped to the USA each week.
“Trubana has been Fair Trade before being Fair Trade was cool,” says Nelson.
“These days everyone that imports products slaps a Fair Trade sticker on their product and demands a 25 percent increase; Trubana was caring for it’s workers in the Colombian jungles long before … they started by building housing for workers and their families, then schools for the workers children and now they have hospitals as well. Trubana is truly a remarkable company and I am grateful I got the commission to do the story.”
Nelson, owner and photographer for Journey America, is one of the world’s premier photographers. His passion is creating stunning and compelling imagery for NGOs and non-profits, helping those that are doing good things in the world to convey their message powerfully. Nelson’s work is can be viewed and purchased directly from his website at www.journeyamerica.org.
“I believe in changing the world by letting people see the real world around them.
Nothing can do this the same way that a photograph can. Even videos don’t have the same power a single, intense moment captured from the right angle and lighting. I have spent a lifetime learning to chronicle exactly those moments.”
Nelson’s passion for social justice and photography meet in his views of the world around him. Accepting assignments and commissions and selling stock photography is only part of his life in images. He also offers photography tours and workshops to show others how to capture these same powerful images. His photography is complemented by his professional travel and photography writing.
In each of these projects, his eye toward the human condition around him informs his art.
Nelson’s work is used by leading media companies and top flight print publications around the globe. His images have been viewed by millions via TV, print, books, online and on tangible products.
