Written and visual samples

Here are samples of my written and visual work

Below are samples of some of my written (reporting, op-ed and longer, reflective pieces) and photographic work. If you have any problems with the links, please contact me at jeffgardnerwrites@gmail.com

Report pieces

The media is not our friend. Here is how and why we should break the stranglehold it has on all of us. Published by Hearth and Field.

A report from Haiti post-2010 earthquake that is, unhappily, still relevant today.

A piece on the pre-pandemic that drove the COVID-19 pandemic.

Op-Ed

It’s not Islamophobia if they are really out to get you. Published at The Stream.

More than they can bear. Thoughts on the flag and other national symbols. Published at the Stream.

The Gift of Joy. Thoughts on being thankful all year round. Published at The Stream.

Long reads and reflective pieces.

A reflective, personal piece on life, death and the necessity to be present. Published by Hearth and Field.

The distance between us is only as great as the distance between promises made or promises kept. Published by Hearth and Field.

A recipe and a story for scotch eggs. Published by Hearth and Field.

Photographs: Below is a small selection of the photographs that I have taken for stories and publications in various parts of the world. This sample centers on my work in Iraq and Africa.

Yezidi Sheik

The Yezidi people, living in Western Iraq, are said to practice one of the oldest religions on earth. Being neither Muslim, Christian or Jew, they were deemed “non-believers” by ISIS and, as a result, hunted without mercy.

Copyright Jeff Gardner

Fire and Ice

The war with ISIS left hundreds of thousands homeless in Iraq. Among the displaced were these young boys who struggled to stay warm during Iraq’s harsh winter. 

Copyright Jeff Gardner

On Patrol

To keep their villages and families safe, Christians in Iraq and Syria formed militias. Here, one of them patrols the war ruins of a city in Northern Syria.

Copyright Jeff Gardner

Volunteer

United States veterans, many of whom fought for years in Afghanistan, traveled to Iraq on their own time and own dime to train Christian militias in the fight against ISIS.

Copyright Jeff Gardner

Mother and Daughter

Untold thousands of Christians were made homeless by ISIS, including this mother and daughter who had fled the city of Mosul and were sleeping in fields and behind fences.

Copyright Jeff Gardner

Little Lives

ISIS took everything that was home to thousands in Iraq, turning their lives upside down. Children in a refugee camp near Erbil, Iraq.

Copyright Jeff Gardner

Farmer

Moses, a farmer in Zambia who has benefitted from the work of a Christian mission, rides his bike happily through his fields.

Copyright Jeff Gardner

Boma Sunset

Across the plains of Eastern Africa, the Maasai people live in small clusters of hunts called bomas. A boma is often surrounded by a circular “fence” of thick and thorny bushes, which protects the Maasai and their cattle from hyenas and lions. 

Copyright Jeff Gardner

Round and Round

Across Africa, millions of children have been orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. Here a group of orphan children play at a school in Botswana, Africa. 

Copyright Jeff Gardner

The Skeptic

Maasai children watch me and my camera with a mixture of curiosity and skepticism.

Copyright Jeff Gardner

Blues Clues

ISIS singled out the Yezidi people for especially brutal treatment: Killing all males they captured and selling the women and girls as sexual slaves to ISIS fighters. This little girl, forced to live in an unfinished building in Northern Iraq, escaped ISIS. She was one of the lucky ones.

Copyright Jeff Gardner

Orphan

Countless thousands of children have been made orphan by the HIV epidemic in Africa. This little boy, being raised in an orphanage in Ghana, sits down to his meager lunch. 

Copyright Jeff Gardner

Joy

A joyful man who helped me work between three languages (English, French, and Twi) while I was working in Ghana, Africa.

Copyright Jeff Gardner

Drink This

From concept to final product: A Maasai boy holding a glass of the water he and his family must drink daily.

Copyright Jeff Gardner

Drink This

From concept to final product: The finished poster of the same Maasai boy for a USA-based NGO dedicated to digging clean water wells in Tanzania, Africa.

Copyright Jeff Gardner

Contact me

jeffgardnerwrites@gmail.com