 Photographer Victor Banta will turn his lens from capturing nature scenes to documenting recovery efforts in earthquake-devastated Haiti. (Photo by ALAN WARD/DAILY PRESS & ARGUS)
January 31, 2010
Photographer zooms in on work in Haiti
By Frank Konkel
LIVINGSTON DAILY PRESS & ARGUS
He lives in Hell, but Victor Banta will soon be visiting another variant of it this week in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
Banta has volunteered to accompany the Hands of Light in Action humanitarian team — based in Canton — to provide relief efforts in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, from Tuesday through Feb. 9. He and at least two members of the team will be staying 15 miles from the epicenter of Jan. 12’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake.
Banta, an engineer and longtime photographer, will donate his photography skills to charity organizations like Hands of Light in Action to raise awareness and support for their efforts. The pictures and video he takes will be spread to charitable organizations to raise donations.
“Images can really capture people’s attention, and I thought this was a way I could really contribute,” said Banta, who was approached by friend Nancy Malone, Hands of Light’s founder. “I want to tell visual stories. I’m going to help them and anybody else who needs it.”
 Photographer Victor Banta checks his gear as he prepares to travel to Haiti to document post-earthquake recovery efforts in that Caribbean nation. (Photo by ALAN WARD/DAILY PRESS & ARGUS)
His job description for the week isn’t limited to snapping photos. There is no itinerary, agenda or particular plan to follow in the case of a natural disaster of this proportion. Banta could just as easily end up clearing rubble as taking pictures of it. Though he’s a world traveler, he’s never seen anything like this before.
“I’ve never been part of a disaster like this,” Banta said. “I don’t think you can really plan too much ahead for it, other than get your equipment ready. Who knows what it will be like?”
Still, Banta is as prepared as anyone might be. A Hell native and Pinckney Community High School graduate, Banta earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering and a master’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Arizona, specializing in digital-image processing. The 51-year-old has been a photographer since he was 14.
His best experience for the trip, however, was a yearlong excursion he took in 1989, after earning his master’s degree. Banta joined with Santa Domingo Sister City project in Tucson, Ariz., traveling to Nicaragua for three weeks. He’d acted as the group’s bus driver, master mechanic and, of course, photographer.
He branched off on his own from Nicaragua, taking a two-week job as a deck hand on a sailing vessel that took him to Costa Rica. He went from Costa Rica to Panama, and then chartered a plane to Columbia. He’d later study Spanish in Ecuador before settling in Brazil for six months. During the trip, he flew over the Amazon rain forest in a Cessna passenger plane and sailed through it on a research vessel.
“I wanted to go down and see it, so I went,” said Banta, who saved money from jobs and internships for four years to fund the expedition. His parents, Hell residents Bob and Laurene Banta, pitched in a little too. “I’ve always loved to travel. It’s just one of those things.”
Banta is aware that the images he’ll seek on the trip to Haiti won’t be still photos of howler monkeys or the Amazon basin. However, he’s ready to do what it takes to help humanitarian efforts in Haiti, even if it means telling some of the most heart-wrenching visual stories.
“I wanted to do something where I’d be able to contribute for more than just the week I was there,” Banta said.
For more information on the Hands of Light in Action and how to contribute, visit its Web page at www.handsoflightinaction.org.
Contact Daily Press & Argus reporter Frank Konkel at (517) 552-2835 or at fkonkel@gannett.com.
|