Behind the Scenes: Still Wounded

Aaron Huey arrived on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota at the start of a self-assigned photographic road trip to document poverty in America.

The poverty he found on the reservation stopped him cold.

“Pine Ridge is the scariest place I’ve ever been — more so than in a Taliban ambush,” Mr. Huey said. “It was emotionally devastating. I‘d call my wife late at night crying.”

Overwhelmed by the poverty — and at the same time by scenes of people trying to maintain the Lakota way of life — Mr. Huey abandoned the rest of his nationwide project to focus on Pine Ridge. Five years later, he’s still photographing on the reservation, which includes the Wounded Knee battlefield.

Mr. Huey, 33, is a photographer for National Geographic Adventure and National Geographic Traveler. He also freelances for The New Yorker and Geo. In 2007, he photographed in Afghanistan for The Times.

I interviewed him by telephone and e-mail.


http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/b...