Dai Sugano of the San Jose Mercury News spent 15 months documenting Hmong refugees.
Dai's video journal about his experiences as a photojournalist and as an immigrant provide an insightful and moving perspective. Dai's work is always from the heart, but hearing his voice and seeing some of the personal pictures made of him with the family he reported on for so long really adds another dimension to the storytelling process.
Seeing Dai's online presentation strengthens my conviction that mixing old and new media to enlighten as well as to inform and entertain is a great blessing. Knowing how the images were made -- what was going on in the photographer's head at the time -- plays an important role in how we ultimately interpret a story. I am grateful to learn about the family's life through Dai's lens. However, I am even more grateful that we can learn about the Hmong people through Dai's heart and his relationships.