Photo Journal: Portrait of Survival by Alison Wright of National Geographic in the January 2009 edition.
September 25, 2009
This article was written by a well-known photographer for the National Geographic magazine, Alison Wright. After a recent trip to Laos she felt the urge to write a very short article about her near-death experience on January 2, 2000. In leaving Tibet to go to Laos, Wright's bus took a route through a secluded jungle, when a sudden accident involving a logging truck led to utter destruction, leaving our heroine with "massive internal injuries, collapsed lungs, a shredded arm, a broken back, and multiple other fractures". As proper for a third world country's health care system, it took over 14 hours for Wright to be treated for her injuries. In the following years, she would have to teach herself to walk again and endure more than 20 reconstructive surgeries. She feels grateful to have her life and has discovered an even greater passion for photography and for the Tibetan people, who prize inner strength-- something she needed most in order to overcome her circumstances. Now that she realizes the fine line between life and death, she has found an interest in capturing 'endangered cultures' and their times when they are present on this earth, before they finally fade out. She uses her photography to contribute to her charity, the Faces of Hope Fund, which finances education and health care in the poor communities of Afghanistan and Asia. More than anything, she uses her life to emphasize the interconnections among the world's peoples.
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