My new passport should be here any day now, but there aren’t many days left before my flight takes off. It’s always the pre-planning stuff that eats at my nerves. As soon as I get a camera in my hands I’m fine. Heck you can give me a poorly lit room with ugly beige walls and I’ll pump out interesting photographs all day long, but if you ask me to pack for ten days I’ll be covered in a cold sweat.

But I digress. Anyway…

A couple friends of mine were crazy enough to ask me to do a photo shoot for their organization, which at first doesn’t sound crazy because I do that kind of stuff all the time. The thing that makes this one crazy is the fact that it’s happening in South Africa.

I had the privilege of meeting Jedd and Janelle several years ago as they were planning to launch their organization. I was blown away by the fact that these two people knew exactly what they wanted to do and they were charging at it full steam ahead. Shortly thereafter they moved to South Africa with a desire to help people get out of poverty. They began teaching the locals how to start and run a small business, and in the process they have witnessed the transformative power of entrepreneurship. Over the years they have trained thousands of entrepreneurs in every major city in South Africa, and now we want to tell those stories.

Our hope is to shed light on both the people and places that have known poverty firsthand. In September we are going to be traveling to Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban to capture the stories of several entrepreneurs who have worked their way out of poverty. Those stories will then be compiled into a photo book designed to inspire future entrepreneurs.

South Africa has been on my bucket list for quite some time, so I’m thrilled to be a part of this project! As you can imagine there is a substantial cost involved with a project like this, so we are asking for your support. You can find more information and make a donation here:

Most of my time will be spent shooting photos for the book, but I will have some time to soak up some adventure in Cape Town. You can be sure I’ll have plenty of photos to share, but in the mean time, here’s a rendering of what I imagine it will be like:

 

Stay tuned, my friends! This is gonna be rad.