Through the window of the airshaft that we shared with our Dominican neighbors came the crowing of their fighting cock, signaling the start of another day. On the Formica table of the tiny kitchen stood the enlarger, its base taking up half the surface, the four foot high toothed column that bore the lens towering over baby bottles and kitchen paraphernalia. Anger welled in me like a wave at its intrusive presence as I started to prepare a bottle for the baby crying in the other room.
Ruth Massey was born in Marienbad, Czechoslovakia, and grew up in England. After living in Paris for a number of years, she came to the United States and worked for the UN in New York as a photographer and journalist for the United Nations Development Programme. Her work took her to more than fifty countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Her photographs and articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Nation, The Miami Times, The Christian Science Monitor, US News and World Report, National Geographic, Le Figaro and, on the web, Archipelago.