Universal Tear

 Gay Pasley Universal Tear

The mother of this child requested that amateur photographer and Registered Nurse, Gay Pasley “snap for me pickani, please?” Thru an interpreter the woman shared with Ms. Pasley that she was taking her daughter to a therapeutic feeding clinic after being made aware that her child was starving. Although the Sierra Leone civil war had been over for several years many of the girls that were left orphans are now mothers who are unaware of how to care for their children. The impact of war is senseless and it effects generations to come.

Gay Pasley, chief photographer of Black Swan Imaging, felt a strong kinship with the West African community, especially after she learned that her genetic origin was of the Temne people through mitochondrial DNA testing.These are the very people whose lives were brutally taken and used for diamond exploitation as depicted in the movie "Blood Diamond." Today they live   in colonies as "outcasts," often lived as sex slaves, and include many amputees, widows and orphans.

Determined to make a difference, Pasley, who is also a Registered Nurse, traveled to Sierra Leone, West Africa with a European NGO as nurse, humanitarian and medical photographer. She carried much needed supplies and documented the work of Dr. ABD, also a member of the Temne tribe and a self-taught surgeon, at MagBentah Hospital. While there, in keeping with Langston Hughes poem “My People”, she captured the beauty of the people and the country of Sierra Leone, Africa. The images have been described as breath taking, soulful, stunning and Pasley’s work has been acclaimed as “making time stand still”.

My People

The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.

Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people. 

Langston Hughes