(photo by Andrea Bruce) On the last day he could run, Omar was playing soccer. He and five friends were resting outside his home on the southern outskirts of Baghdad on Sep. 20, 2007, when the mortar shell fell. The explosion killed one of his playmates and shattered both of Omar's legs. In early January, nine-year-old Omar and his father arrived in Amman, Jordan, where Doctors without Borders treated an infection in the stump of his left leg, multiple fractures in his right leg and shrapnel embedded in both.
(photo by Gabriela Bulisova) An Iraqi Christian, who withholds her name for fear of reprisals, worked in Baghdad’s Green Zone as a manager for Bechtel and several other American companies. While there, she met and fell in love with an Iraqi Muslim. Even now, far away from home, her family disagrees with her plan to marry a Muslim. The young couple, hopeful that he will soon be granted asylum in the United States, have planned a secret marriage and an escape from family and religious traditions.
(photo by Andrea Bruce) The trip becomes a parade. Horns blare. Kids cheer. Women pelt the police pickups with hard candy. The Iraqi detainees, now free, stand and wave in the truck beds, crying as they pass old men drinking tea and selling vegetables on the streets. One family follows behind in a rusted car, yelling, driving haphazardly, eyes on their loved ones and barely on the road. When the truck pulls into a neighborhood park, Awad's parents run alongside it with their arms open. The truck's rear gate is not opened fast enough. The men jump over it and down to the road, into the embraces of mothers, wives, brothers and fathers.
(photo by Algerina Perna / The Baltimore Sun) Hayley Williams, lead singer for the group Paramore, puts all her effort in performing at the Virgin Fest held at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, MD, on Aug. 10, 2008.
(photo by Amanda Lucidon/The Press-Enterprise) Impersonators get ready backstage before their celebrity revue at CopyKatz Showroom in Palm Springs, CA. The show included acts by impersonations of Cher, Michael Jackson, Boy George and Whitney Houston.
(photo by Abby Greenawalt) (photo by Abby Greenawalt)
(photo by Astrid Riecken/The Washington Times) Film director David Lynch, well known for his movies Wild at Heart, The Elephant Man, The Eraser Head, and the successful TV series Twin Peaks, pulls his hair while talking about his future movie projects. Lynch says he and fellow indie cinema titan Werner Herzog plan to collaborate on a horror-tinged thriller based on a true story.
(photo by Andrea Bruce) Six years ago they were fishermen, not ferrymen. But now, in the Haifa neighborhood of Baghdad, sewage runs through the narrow alleyways directly into the river. Waterside restaurants stand abandoned, their owners still afraid to open their doors. The fish have disappeared.
(photo by Allison Shelley/The Washington Times) A woman rides along U Street in Northwest Washington D.C., celebrating the presidential victory of Barack Obama on election night, Nov. 4, 2008. Forty years after race riots destroyed most of the businesses along this same strip, crowds once again took over the street-- this time in triumph.
(photo by Carol Guzy/The Washington Post) "Oh my darling goodbye.” - Saffie Kallon, mother. Adama Sannoh’s stepfather, Sheku Kallon, prays and tries to give her fluids; soon afterward, she took her final breath on a tattered mattress in Ward 2, her unborn child dying with her; another victim of Sierra Leone's maternal mortality issues. She leaves behind two little girls. Adama was diagnosed with preeclampsia and arrived at Princess Christian Maternity hospital in Freetown having convulsions, falling into a coma. “I know that day, that she will not live,” said her mother, Saffie.
(photo by Ashley Twiggs) Deborah Stockton, a board member of Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association that promotes farmer-to-consumer trade, holds one of the ducks on her farm. She says that Albemarle County, VA, could feed itself several times over with locally grown food.
(photo by Ashley Twiggs) Ousmane Sow, a gender asylee from Guinea, leans into the wind while walking to a friend's house in The Bronx, NY. Sow was granted gender asylum on the grounds that her two daughters would be subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), a cultural circumcision right of passage, if they remained in Guinea. Sow left her husband behind in Guinea to embark on a new life with her four children in the United States, a move that also gave her oldest son, who suffers from Sickle Cell Anemia, access to medical care.
(photo by Katie Falkenberg) A sugarcane worker plants sugarcane for next year's crop in the fields in southeast Dominican Republic.
(photo by Carol Guzy/The Washington Post) "Every minute, every hour, pregnant women die in Sierra Leone." -Amadu Sesay, brother of Jemelleh Saccoh who died giving life. Women lay on threadbare gurneys in a ward infested with mosquitoes and the stench of urine and death. Bintu Kamara, 28 years old, waits in the labor ward of Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Freetown. She survived an emergency C-section but her baby was stillborn.
(photo by Gabriela Bulisova) Three generations of Iraqi women -- a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter -- were violently separated and forced to flee to three different countries. Now, after three years of experiences none of them want to recall, they are finally living together as new American residents. However, even in the United States, they live in hidden exile, unable to reveal their identities for fear of being discovered by their male relatives and Iraqi anti-American forces. The mother, a former Coalition Provisional Authority employee, was labeled a “collaborator” and targeted with assassination attempts. They rely on their strong Christian faith to remain hopeful about their future in the U.S.
(photo by Jamie Rose) Jajja's House, which means "Grandmother's House", is a nonprofit based in Kampala, Uganda which caters to HIV positive children. The workers not only host a day care center, sustainable income training and a clinic but they also do home visits to make sure their student's living conditions are good for the health of the children. They also provide clean bedding and mattresses for the children if needed.
(photo by Melina Mara) Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is welcomed back to the U.S. Senate during the Democratic Caucus Luncheon on Capitol Hill June 24, 2008. Sen. Clinton speaks to the media after the party luncheon. As she returns to her Senate duties after loosing the Democratic presidential nomination to Barrack Obama, some details of her new role in American politics are unclear.
(photo by Laura Elizabeth Pohl) An American flag draped the Pentagon at the public opening of the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial on Sep. 11, 2008.
(photo by Yanina Manolova) After Molly Hoopes, 18, a heroin addict, spent 28 days in prison, she was court-ordered to live at a residential treatment center for adolescent addiction known as "Bassett House," in Athens, Ohio. A month earlier, her twin sister, Morgan Hoopes, was in treatment at this same facility for drug addiction. “I came here the day she left. We've never been apart for more than 12 hours until we were sent to jail. I'm court- ordered not to see her and can't talk to her. She was sneaking drugs to me. But I love Morgan. She is the only person I want to be with," Molly Hoopes said.
(photo by Katie Falkenberg) Passing the hot summer day, females ranging in age spend time outside on the porch and yard of their home in an old sugarcane village in the Dominican Republic. Passing the hot summer day, females ranging in age spend time outside on the porch and yard of their home in an old sugarcane village in the Dominican Republic.
(photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Modeling Camp is for teens hoping to launch themselves into the glamorous career of modeling. Campers, including 15-year-old Betsy Stipa of Fairfax, VA, spent several hours at the Elizabeth Arden Spa to learn makeup techniques. A plastic toy 120 film camera and flash called The Diana was used to make this image.
(photo by Susan Biddle/The Washington Post) Alex Gooden of Trumbull, Ct. waits for his buddy while holding their horns. He's with the Golden Eagle Marching Band from Trumbull High School and was on the Elipse, the assembly and rest area for those in the Inaugural Parade.