Layers of Life

                                                                  At The Huntington Gardens, Pasadena, CA   April 6th, 2013 © Marissa Roth

Spring light
Looking up

From under
Layers of leaves

From around
Layers of love

Through the
Layers of life

Merci mon homme ~

IRIS Nights Lecture Series

Sara Terry and Marissa Roth
War: Witnesses to Aftermath
Annenberg Space for Photography

Thursday, March 28, 2013, 6:30-8pm

"Photographer Sara Terry created The Aftermath Project, a nonprofit organization that helps photographers cover post-conflict stories. Photographer Marissa Roth has spent 28 years working on a personal, global photo essay that addresses the immediate and lingering effects of war on women in different countries and cultures.

Both photographers will share images from their work and insights into the long-term consequences of conflict and the resilience of the human spirit.

Online ticket registration for this event will open on Wednesday, March 20 at 12 noon and Thursday, March 21 at 9:30am. Once tickets are released, you may register by clicking the register button above.

Each person is limited to two tickets. Don't be discouraged if you are unable to get tickets through our online ticketing system. See the Photography Space website for information about our standby list."

In Transit ~ Pour Mon Homme

                                                                      View from my hotel window, Paris, France, March 9th, 2013 © Marissa Roth

One of my favorite hotels is the Sheraton nestled into the middle of Paris' Charles De Gaulle airport. I overnighted there on my way back to L.A. from Berlin this past week-end. From my hotel window at dusk, I could watch the tarmac and active runways and satisfy my ever-present sense of wonder.

Being in transit is such a beguiling state of being ~ neither here nor there ~ but still somewhere, and almost home...

Limoges Dawn

Tree in Limoges, March 1st, 2013 © Marissa Roth

Marissa just spent two days in Limoges, France which is near to Oradour-Sur-Glane, a small village that was the site of a horrendous massacre and fire in June of 1944: over 800 people - men, women and children - were killed. After the massacre occurred, then-President Charles de Gaulle ordered that the town not be rebuilt, but should stand for all time as a testament to the atrocities and as a memorial to the victims.

Marissa spent part of both days photographing among the war ruins, creating images that will be included in her extensive photography project "One Person Crying: Women and War," which will be featured at the Centre de la Memoire d'Oradour (Memory Center of Oradour), for a year, with an opening in June, 2013.

"One Person Crying: Women and War" will have its international debut at the Willy-Brandt-Haus in Berlin next week, opening on March 8th, and running through April 4th.

Der Freundeskreis-Willy-Brandt-Haus e.V. presents the photo exhibition One Person Crying - Women and War. Photography by Marissa Roth.

Opening: Thursday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Free Admission/ Identification requested

Opening Remarks
Gisela Kayser, Freundeskreis Willy-Brandt-Haus
Speakers: Marissa Roth, photographer; Ute Westroem (daughter of Hilde Westroem, portrayed in the exhibition)

"In conjunction with the International Women’s Day, the Freundeskreis Willy-Brand-Haus will present the exhibition One Person Crying - Women and War - Photographs by Marissa Roth. Over a time-span of 28 years, the project led the photographer to numerous countries. It all began unintentionally with her family’s journey to the home of her grandparents in the former Yugoslavia -they were killed in 1942 by Hungarian Fascists- and continued in 1988 with a request by the LA Times to photograph Afghan women refugees. When she accompanied a group of doctors on a medical mission in 1999 to photograph refugees in Albania, she realized that her focus on the immediate and permanent effects of war on women was becoming a recurring theme of her work. She came full circle in the spring of 2012, when Roth traveled to Vietnam for the first time, a place of great personal importance to her. For Roth, Vietnam was her Coming of Age war. She believes that the images she was exposed to during her adolescent years, inspired her to become a photojournalist.

Marissa Roth, born in Los Angeles, USA is a freelance, internationally published photojournalist and documentary photographer. She has worked for many newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Time and Newsweek. She covered a wide range of topics, from the attempted coup to overthrow the government of the Philippines to the first elections in post communist Hungary, to homelessness in Japan, to the survivors of the chemical disaster of the US company Union Carbide in Bophal, India. Roth was part of the Los Angeles Times team that received the Pulitzer Prize for the best local coverage of the LA riots in 1993. She teaches at various academic institutions, such as UCLA, her alma mater. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions and her photographs are represented in numerous museums and collections. The Museum of Tolerance/Simon Wiesenthal Center houses her permanent exhibition of Witness to Truth - a Portrait series of Holocaust Survivors who volunteer at the Museum. She is currently working on a new book: Infinite Light: A Photographic Meditation on Tibet with a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama."

Then to Now

Downtown, Los Angeles, January 22, 2013. © Marissa Roth

A beautiful rear view sunset while inching along through downtown.

Looking back and looking forward!

LA ~ From the archive

                                                                   View of under the 10 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles, 2000. © Marissa Roth

Just when I thought that I had escaped Los Angeles for the magnificent rain forest known as Vancouver, British Columbia, an abrupt U-turn brought me back to the land of sunshine and back to the freeways.

C'est la vie!

Peace, Love and Understanding

Tsangkung Nunnery, Lhasa, Tibet, September, 2010. © Marissa Roth

Wishing one and all...

...a new year filled with hope, tolerance, peace and love.

My mildly stormy Pacific journey has brought me back to LA where I am ensconced once again. It's still a bit surreal being 1,300 miles south of where I thought I would be living, but its already becoming apparent as to the many reasons 'why' I had to leave in order to come back. I feel that these past 3 months of being a gypsy realigned my spirit, healed my soul and just plain gave me a breather from everything ~ from heavy-hearted projects to the LA freeways.

One dear friend said that maybe I just needed to run away from home for a little while. Perhaps...

I still love Vancouver and long to be there. Will visit when I can, but am here for now, fully present.

The Unexpected Road of Life

Looking west from Kitsilano Beach, December 6, 2012. © Marissa Roth

Just when I thought that I was moving, lock, stock and barrel to Vancouver, an unexpected major glitch has occurred with my work visa. I wouldn't call it a broken promise, exactly, but close. Maybe I'll just refer to it as very sticky double-sided red tape!

Have spent the last week in life-reshuffling mode, and have decided to return to Los Angeles and hit the reset button on my life there. Keep thinking of something my mother always said, "You never know what the bad is good for". That's been my mantra this week, and am peaceful with this rather dramatic turn of events!

Life is a journey...

In Remembrance

Beckie Dixon, Columbus, Ohio, November 2005 © Marissa Roth

Beckie Dixon, whose son Christopher was the youngest Marine killed in Iraq in August 2005. He had just turned 18 a few months earlier. Photographed on Veteran's Day, with his memorial flag, in Columbus, Ohio.