Spring 2006 Issue
Putting Global Health Into Focus
A Conversation with Photographer Billy Howard
Billy Howard is a commercial and documentary photographer who focuses on health, education and social themes. A distinguished author, artist, teacher and lecturer, Howard recently shared his thoughts about being on the front lines for the CDC Foundation, as he travels the globe documenting public health challenges.
View an online photo gallery
I became interested in health issues while photographing people with HIV almost 20 years ago. I was amazed at their insights, dignity and compassion. It helped me define what I wanted to do with my work, and I’ve been focused on health-related issues ever since. My relationships with people with AIDS, children with cancer, people with disabilities and people all over the world suffering from illness have taught me fundamental lessons, not about disease and death, but about life and living.
Photography can be a tool to introduce people and ideas to a wider audience. I don’t take photographs to make an artistic statement; I take them to give a voice to people who might otherwise not be heard.
My photo assignments for the CDC Foundation have taken me to Kenya, South Africa, India and across America. I’ve traveled the world for other humanitarian organizations, but CDC’s focus on the health of entire communities sets its work apart. Without health, community building and social programs have little meaning.
Being the eyes of the CDC Foundation means promoting the heroic work that dedicated, tireless CDC scientists and researchers do for humankind. It has been an honor to enter people’s homes in remote villages, to be offered food and friendship by people who had little material wealth, but a generosity of spirit that has made my life much richer.
Some unforgettable things I've seen while working for the CDC Foundation include spending two days on rounds with Dr. Juliana Otieno, the only pediatrician in a Kenyan hospital in Kisumu, near the Ugandan border. The hospital had no running water and lacked the staples of modern medicine, yet Dr. Otieno’s care, compassion and knowledge make her an indispensable partner with CDC in combating devastating levels of child mortality. The drive to Kisumu was rough and dusty, so my driver and I went to the local carwash. Carwash workers surrounded our car in the shallows of Lake Victoria and poured water from buckets over it. We learned that the workers were constantly infected with schistosomiasis from exposure to parasites in the lake water. The CDC field station was working with them to find innovative ways to treat this parasitic disease. In India, I witnessed thousands of volunteers inoculating tens of millions of children for polio, all in one day. The vast scope of the effort required an unbounded imagination and optimistic spirit that seems to be at the core of CDC. No health problem seems too big to tackle.
What I want people to know about the CDC Foundation is that it supports work all over the world that not only makes communities safer and stronger, but makes everyone safer and stronger. Traveling has shown me how small the world is and how connected we all are, from small towns in America to small villages in Kenya. What is good for a child in Kenya, I believe, is good for all children. The CDC Foundation helps CDC’s unsung heroes patch the wounds of the world with their intelligence, compassion and unwavering commitments.
- Lisa Splitlog
The exhibit Global Health through the Lens of Billy Howard: Selections from the CDC Collection will be open through June 9, 2006 at CDC's Global Health Odyssey in the Tom Harkin Global Communications Center. For more information, call (404) 639-0830. Or, view an online photo gallery of some of the photographs Billy Howard has taken during his travels documenting CDC Foundation programs.