"For Good" Photography, Inc.

Beginning with a Dream, Continuing with a Passion

The Pan-African Rural Health and Social Services (PRHeSS) was founded in 2007 by Dr. Sam and Mary Kormoi. Their homeland, sierra Leone, endured a brutal civil war that lasted eleven years and finally ended in 2004. The catastrophic effect on sierra Leone was almost impossible to comprehend leaving the infrastructure of the nation almost non-existent.

Dr. Sam and Mary wanted to help. They had to address the most basic needs of their communities. They dreamed of bringing restoration and wholeness to the villages they called home. They worked to regain trust and restore hope. Their dream of restoring a sustainable community was being brought to life. Then two events occurred which would inspire them to expand their work even further.

A trauma that had a profound impact on the Kormois occurred a decade ago. A pregnant young lady who lacked any sort of prenatal care bled to death on the roadside grass giving birth to twin sons. The decision to build a hospital to prevent needless loss of life became a driving ambition. The hospital is a reality.

In the summer of 2018, another trauma occurred. Fatmata Swaray, age 17 died of condroblastic osteosarcoma, a cancer that first appeared in her right ankle. In spite of efforts to bring her to the United States for treatment, she succumbed to her illness before she could be treated. Her illness would not have taken her life if she lived in a country with basic health care.

Sierra Leone does not have the diagnostic capability of an MRI nor does it have any cancer treatment facility available. Dr. Sam and Mary are now working to procure a portable digital Xray unit with digital ultrasound that can transmit for analysis in the United States. They dream of diagnostic equipment that could service all of western Africa.

The Fallay Wujah residents are active participants in this work. They work together to support the community development in their villages. Men and women are equally engaged in the physical work and are paid equally for their efforts. PRHeSS dreams of bringing their community infrastructure model to the rest of Sierra Leone and all of western Africa.

www.africanhopeanddignity.org

Photographs by Jeff Pearcy & Meredith W. Watts

On January 21, 2017 100,000 women and their allies marched in Madison. WI to protest the proposed initiatives of the incoming administration of President Donald Trump.  It was a day of energy.  

Jeff Pearcy and Meredith Watts documented the final two days of the Sacred Water Walk in September, 2015.  We caught up with the walkers outside of Port Wing, Wisconsin and over the next two days we were allowed to document the walk to the Red Cliff Reservation outside of Bayfield, Wisconsin.

The color photography is by Meredith Watts and the black and white photos are by Jeff Pearcy. 

We are indebted to the walkers who gave us permission to photograph them on their sacred journey.  They were patient in their teaching of us and generous in sharing.  We are especially grateful to Nokomis Josephine Mandamin for allowing us to document the walkers.

"maawmoweh nibi bimosyawin onji", "Water Walkers United" in Ojibewemowin. 

Women and their children who flee violence in their home countries seek asylum in the United States.  They come primarily from Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia.  They make their way through Mexico and turn themselves into border patrol agents when they cross and seek asylum in the United States.  It is a legal status. 

They are detained for up to a year in former male prisons in Dilly and Karnes, Texas.  The detention centers are under contract with a private for profit prison system.  If they make it through their hearing they are taken to the bus station in San Antonio.  Some are forced to wear ankle monitors without a court order.  They have sponsors in the United States who agree to assist them, usually family members.  They pay a bond over $3,000.

These women and their children are carrying every possession they have in the world. 

At the bus station volunteers from a variety of faith communities attempt to assist them in finding their way onto the proper bus.  If they cannot leave that day or night they are taken to a safe house that is sponsored by the Mennonite Community of San Antonio.  Legal Assistance and primary help in negotiating their way while in detention is provided by Raices, a non-profit organization assisting people seeking asylum.

Jeff Pearcy was engaged by the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee to document the plight of these brave women.  Pearcy was not allowed to photograph in the detention centers.  While shooting the photo outside the Karnes detention center he was threatened with arrest.  Pearcy was also informed that photography in the bus station was not permitted.  All photos were shot with a camera and a wide angle lens held at the side of his leg. 

Rikki Thompson and Jeff Pearcy worked to document the spirit of celebration at the 2015 Pridefest in Milwaukee.  Milwaukee Pridefest is purported to be the oldest Pridefest get together in the nation.

In September, 2014, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee engaged Jeff Pearcy to document the recovery efforts in the Philippines one year after the devastating typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda in the Philippines).  Pearcy traveled to eight islands over two and a half weeks documenting the recovery efforts. 

In the Northern islands the damage was primarily from sustained winds in excess of 140 mph.  The jungle was stripped of vegetation, crops were destroyed, the fishing industry was crippled.  No structures were untouched. 

On the Southern island of Leyte and primarily in the city of Tacloban the devastation and loss of life was indescribable .  The Island acted as a barrier island and absorbed the worst of the wind and a 30 foot storm surge.  Over 8,000 people died in the city of Tacloban in a twelve hour period.  Bodies are still being recovered. 

The photography of this project could not have been completed without the support of Rainera and her son Finnbarr. 

In 2003 and 2004 Jeff Pearcy gave himself an assignment to shoot panhandlers around the world.  Pearcy had just taken a job with an international non-profit organization that required significant travel.  Early on, he was impressed with the amount of poverty around the world and that panhandlers, graffiti and KFC were everywhere. 

The Unitarian Universalist faith posits that we believe in the worth and dignity of all people.  Pearcy found himself treating panhandlers like a lesser life form.  These photos are his attempt to show them as unique human beings with worth and dignity equal to all. 

Our TRANS Family is an exhibit of 20+ images of transgender people and their families.  This project is a partnership with Cream City Foundation, the major financial supporter for the project.  Additional support has been provided by Diverse and Resilient and the Mary Nohl Foundation which identified the photographers as "Artists in Residence". 

The exhibit opened with a show at the Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  It has been exhibited at the Beloit Fine Arts Incubator, ACLU Milwaukee, and Pridefest. In addition we made a community presentation of the work at the library in White Fish Bay.

The show is scheduled to travel to Lawrence University, Fontbonne University, and the Roscoe, IL Unitarian Universalist Church. 

The exhibit is available for organizations and galleries to help inform the discussion regarding this marginalized population.  Contact Jeff Pearcy at jeffpearcy@outlook.com for details.

Wisconsin passed a constitutional amendment forbidding gay marriage that included the phrase that similar unions "shall not be recognized" as marriages.   Jeff Pearcy teamed with author, Will Fellows, to interview and photograph thirty couples who have been together longer than seven years.  The average length of time the couples have been together was seventeen years.  The project has had 29 gallery installations, a book and a 1,000 cds. 

These images are of an imaginary Milwaukee — events long past, a tug boat that no longer tugs because the power plant served has been closed, an iconic bluesman who was a presence at Summerfest before his passing, a warehouse mural with the gritty river front outside as a second mural, an old truck that seems not to have moved in years, a moon set with several moons, and other views of the city that have disappeared or never quite were.

For more information or to purchase prints please contact Meredith W. Watts, wattsmeredith8@gmail.com

This selection is from an on-going project on women in popular culture of the Northeast Brazilian state of Maranhao.  The images are from a decade-long research engagement by Simone Linhares Ferro (choreographer and dance professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), and Meredith W. Watts, photographer.  A book on "Gender, Ethnicity and Power in Popular Culture," based on interviews and portraits of women leaders in Maranhao, is in preparation.

The photos are divided roughly into three themes, though they overlap: scenes and personalities, spiritual activities, and performance.  This reflects our long-term study of women as culture producers and maintainers in Maranhao, both in material, spiritual, and performance culture.

This gallery contains images from Sao Paulo, Brazil, mostly taken in 2020-2021. There are several subsets: the area around the central cathedral (Praça da Sé) and its street life, the metro and impressions of its concrete underground which always strikes me as a bit ominous in its pervasive concrete facticity and odd dynamics, a few assorted images from the street around the new metro at Eucalyptos Avenue, and the farmer’s market (feira) in the city area of Moema. None of these are postcard photos of the city, but impressions of some of its peculiar corners and subcultures.

During the Spring of 2015 Simone Ferro, then Professor of Dance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, was a guest at Baeksoek University in Cheonon, South Korea. During the visit she gave workshops based on her work in dance, movement analysis (LMA) and related physical modalities for dancers. These photos are impressions of one of those workshops

Meredith W Watts of For Good Photography and Simone Ferro, Professor Emerita of Dance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee are conducting a long-term project of quilombos (called “maroon” communities in some languages) in the Northeast Brazilian state of Maranhão.

Quilombos were once understood to be communities founded by refugee slaves and supporters who were often indigenous people. In recent years they have been more broadly conceived as communities of black peasants. Most quilombos are in rural areas but at least one (Liberdade, in São Luís) is in the capital city.

These images are from three separate quilombos, though not precisely in order: São Cristovão near Viana, Santa Rosa dos Pretos (just south of São Luís), and Cacoal (also near Viana).

In the São Cristovão celebration community take to small boats to a small island on Lake Viana;

in Santa Rosa dos Pretos, caixeiras (women drummers) lead the celebration of the Pentacost with a procession and community feast;

and in Cacoal community members prepare for the Bumba-meu-boi celebration by preparing various costumes.