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September Issue |
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 |  Escaping the Serbs; refugee camp, Kukës, Albania, 1998.
 fter spending twenty-five years in the investment business, Tim Pitts became smitten by photography. "I believe that the human emotions are stories in and of themselves," says the Baltimore native. "Whether witnessing individuals at play, at work, or at moments of stress, the camera documents the millions of dramas that are played out in day-to-day life."
A friend once mused that it would take a psychiatrist to explain why Pitts is drawn to suffering. To the contrary, he explains: "I am drawn to the indomitable human spirit that compels people of all cultures to survive the worst that life can deal them."
As a former trustee for Save the Children, Pitts found
 | Tired of Walking; one of a number of exhausted, escaped Serbs in Refugee camp, Kukëes, Albania, 1998.
that his photographs, taken in world trouble spots, spoke for themselves. In most cases, they described the reality of difficult situations better than words ever could.
"The camera can't embellish or understate; it can only record what is occurring at a moment of time," insists Pitts, who says he admires photographers who are "recorders of history who have themselves become historical figures."
As examples he cites Robert Capa and Larry Burrows, who died in Vietnam, and Eugene Smith and Margaret Bourke-White. "All told stories with their cameras that are still with us today, decades after the images were made," he notes. "All four documented and were, perhaps, fascinated by the insidious violence of war, and yet they explored the total range of human emotions."
For Pitts, travel is the best education. Of the all
 | Alone, Scared and Far From Home; newly arrived elderly woman at refugee camp, Kukëes, Albania, 1998.
places he has visited, the most memorable people he has photographed were Moroccans, the Kosovar refugees in Albania, and the Vietnamese. "Albania was by far my most eye-opening trip," explains Pitts. He joined a Save the Children team that was headed to Tirana and then made its way to Kukęs on the Albania border with Kosovo.
"In going to photograph the plight of the refugees, I was a witness to history in the truest sense of the word," declares the photographer. "Confused, scared, angry, alone--the ranges of emotion ran in numerous directions." His photographs depict a young wife and mother of three in a camp in southern Albania who had just learned that her husband and father-in-law had been executed, a scared little girl who had seen her mother murdered, and families that were quickly settling in to lives as refugees. Pitts remembers the details of almost every shot he took.
"Generally speaking, we live the good life in the United States, and it is easy to ignore the fact that the lives of some people defy even the most morbid imagination," he says. "Millions in the world live as refugees, which is by definition a horrible existence. The problem is that many if not most people do not know or choose to ignore the fact that these conditions exist.
"A photographer can be 'in your face' in the struggle to bring about lasting and positive change. I'd like to do that," he attests.
Selected images by Tim Pitts will be on display during October 2002 at the Millburn (New Jersey) Public Library.
--The Editor
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