Lannon Harley

When asked about why he enjoys telling the story of sight restoration, photographer Lannon Harley says it’s about witnessing a life changing event         “I think it is really rare to be able to see a process that so dramatically changes someone’s life, in such a short amount of time and for such a small amount of money. It is just incredible to see a person who may have been blind for 3 months, 5 months, a year or 10 years walk into surgery on Monday morning and by Tuesday morning, when the eye patch comes off, they can see and they can effectively walk themselves out of hospital and it changes their life completely - not only their life, but their family’s lives and their whole community’s’ lives.”

The Fred Hollows Foundation’s newsletters, websites, annual reports and other community awareness and promotional materials have heavily featured Lannon’s photographs of patients who have benefited from The Fred Hollows Foundation’s work in Eritrea, Kenya, Cambodia and Pakistan.

The Canberra based freelance photographer’s first photos about The Foundation’s work was taken in Eritrea and Kenya, where he captured the stories of African patients who had regained their sight. One such patient was Elisabeth Chepkoskei from Kenya who had been affected by bilateral cataracts for twelve years and who had never seen her grandchildren – she only knew them by their voices “After surgery, It was amazing for her to walk back into her village unaided for the first time in twelve years and for her to be able to see and interact with her grandchildren - it was quiet a moving experience and it was something that I felt really privileged to be a part of.” says Lannon.

His continued interest in telling the sight restoration story saw Lannon visit The Foundation’s work in Cambodia. “I think Cambodia is one of those places where people are really struggling and are trying to get themselves out of the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge. There is still a lot of healing to do, but The Foundation for one, is trying to get people back on track.”

Som Be was a patient Lannon met on his trip to Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia. Lannon documented his experiences before, during and after cataract surgery. The seventy-five year old lived with bilateral cataracts for six years, for two of those years he was completely blind. After surgery at Kampong Chhanang Eye Unit, Som Be was able to undertake simple but important tasks such as feeding his cow, retrieving water from his commune’s local well and working in the fields.

In capturing stories like those of Elizabeth Chepkoskei and Som Be, Lannon tries to be as unobtrusive as possible. “I really believe in the idea of documentary photography. When I photograph a patient, I really try to be a ‘fly on the wall’ as much as possible. I concentrate on shooting people as they are and let them be as natural as possible, because that is when I know I am going to capture something telling about their personality or something about their life.”

Interestingly, although Lannon says “photography to me isn’t just a job. It is a lifestyle. It is the way I live my life”, it was not Lannon’s first career choice. In 1999, having completed two years of his bachelor of communications from the University of Canberra, Lannon studied television production at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles. He needed to pick up an extra unit and took photography “on the off-chance”. “It was the first time I picked up a camera” says Lannon, “I just really loved it and decided it was what I wanted to do”.

Lannon’s love of photography stems from his desire to see his own ideas come into fruition. “Film and television are such collaborative art forms and any individual’s contribution becomes so diluted because they are only a very small part of the process. With photography though, it is just literally you and your camera and so the ability to create the messages you want is so much easier when you are a photographer”

As well as working for major publications throughout Australia including the Daily Telegraph and The Canberra Times, Lannon has had editorial work published in Time Magazine and The Bulletin. He has also worked for a number of other organisations including the National Museum of Australia, Toyota and the Australian Institute of Sport.