Tuesday January 20, 2009, Washington, DC, USA

Big crowds for Obama inauguration

A crowd estimated at some two-million people flocked to the nation's Capitol for the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

A woman in the crowd waving a small flag near the Washington Monument.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Monday February 5, 2007, Nairobi, Kenya

In Kenya, free primary education sparks new problems

Thousands of students crowd together during a morning assembly in the courtyard of Olympic Primary School in Kibera, Kenya's largest slum. The advent of free primary education in 2003 has strained Kenyan schools like Olympic, causing overcrowded classrooms, shortages of supplies and a reduction in teaching quality.

A crowd of Kenyan primary school students.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Sunday December 30, 2007, Nairobi, Kenya

Violence erupts in Kenya after election results

Orange Democratic Supporters took to the streets of the Kibera slum shouting "Kibaki must go" and "No Raila, No Peace", after Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki was declared president over opposition candidate Raila Odinga, in an election marred by widespread allegations of rigging. The government swiftly suspended live television coverage as riots raged in the slums home to thousands of opposition supporters.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Wednesday May 16, 2007, Lalibela, Ethiopia

Ethiopian Christian holy city

Lalibela, in northern Ethiopia is one of the country's holiest cities, and a center of pilgrimage for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. Lalibela was intended to be a New Jerusalem built in response to the capture of Jerusalem by Muslims in 1187. As such, many of its historic buildings take their name and layout from buildings in Jerusalem, even the city's river is known as the River Jordan. Christianity came to Ethiopia in the 4th century and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has retained its own unique traditions.

Ethiopians pray on the grounds of the church complex at Lalibela above Bet Medhane Alem.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Friday September 19, 2008, Meroe, Sudan

Sudan hoping to attract archaeological tourists

A local guide takes tourists by camel to the pyramids of Meroe, the ancient burial tombs of the Meroe Kingdom. This is one of many archeaological sites that Sudanese hope will attract tourists.

A local guide takes tourists by camel to the pyramids of Meroe

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Thursday August 23, 2007, El Rouhal, Darfur, Sudan

Arab-on-Arab fighting on the increase in Darfur

Zacharia Abdullah, with a bullet wound on his forehead, at the El Rouhal displaced persons camp near Kass, in southern Darfur. The conflict in Darfur has now become even more complex with Arab tribes brutalizing each other. In the past several months, hundreds of people have been killed and tens-of-thousands displaced in heavy clashes between several Arab tribes. The violence has pushed the Terjem tribe into the same type of camps they originally drove the Fur into.

Zacharia Abdullah displays a bullet wound on his forhead while resting near makeshift dwellings at a displaced persons camp in the embattled Darfur region.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Friday September 15, 2006, Kuito, Angola

Scenes from Angola

Almost immediately after negotiations for its independence from Portugal began in January 1975, civil war erupted in Angola. Three principal organizations, the MPLA, UNITA and FNLA, took arms against one another in a war that was exacerbated by foreign intervention. By October of the same year, MPLA forces, backed by Cuban troops, took control of Luanda and much of the country's infrastructure, forcing UNITA troops to employ guerrilla tactics that would go on for years. A ceasefire was reached in February 2002 after the death, in combat, of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi. Nearly 30 years after war broke out in the small West African nation, Angola's buildings and infrastructure still bear the scars of a war that directly affected some four million people.

Pedestrians and cyclists pass by a decrepit building during the morning rush hour in downtown Kuito.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Tuesday August 26, 2008, Nairobi, Kenya

Nobel Prize Wangari Maathai

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai in Karura Forest in Nairobi.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Wednesday January 9, 2008, Nairobi, Kenya

Hunger worsens amid Kenyan political crisis

Desperate residents of Mathare break through the fence at the chief's office and make a dash towards food stocks being handed out during a food distribution by the Kenyan Red Cross. They were chased back by police with whips. Following days of deadly riots sparked after an election fraught with irregularities, hungry slum dwellers are swamping aid workers in the Nairobi area.

Desperate and hungry residents break through a fence.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Saturday January 5, 2008, Kisumu, Kenya

Post election violence in Kenya claims 300 deaths

Post election violence in Kenya claims 300 deaths

A woman cries as she looks unsuccessfully for a missing relative among the bodies of victims from recent election violence laid out at the morgue in Kisumu.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Wednesday December 19, 2007, Suswa, Kenya

Kenyan elections too tight to call

Masai supporters of Kenyan presidential hopeful Raila Odinga cheer at a campaign rally in the Masai area of Suswa. The race between incumbent President Mwai Kibaki and opposition candidate Odinga is currently considered too close to call, with Odinga holding a mere 4-percent lead over Kibaki. Kenyans will take to the polls on December 27.

Masai tribesman chant slogans at a campaign rally.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Thursday October 9, 2008, Sanaa, Yemen

Yemeni girl sold into marriage escapes, finds a lawyer and gets a divorce

Nujood is a 10-year-old Yemeni girl who ran away from a forced marriage with an older man and made history by getting herself a lawyer- and a divorce. Shada Nasser, her attorney, is a leading feminist in Yemen who is determined to change things for many other little girls and stop child marriage with the help of the Girls World School and Glamour's initiative Women Of The Year Fund which will provide additional scholarships and training for teenage girls. Girls World's new program puts girls like Nujood, who have had their education interrupted by child marriage, back into school.

Nujood Ali and Shada Nasser in the old city of Sanaa.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Tuesday August 26, 2008, Nairobi, Kenya

Barack Obama's Kenyan brother

George Obama, the half-brother of U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama (D-IL) lives in a humble house in the Nairobi slum of Mathare. In the presidential candidate's memoir, “Dreams for my Father," Obama wrote of his first meeting with George as a “painful affair.î Much like his American brother, George Obama grew up without his father, who died in a car accident when he was six-months old.

George Obama standing beside a blackboard inside a school near Mathare, where he lives.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Wednesday May 30, 2007, Lokwii, Kenya

The Turkana tribe of Kenya

A Turkana woman carries a pale of water atop her head while crossing the parched landscape of northern Kenya. Many Turkana, members of a nomadic tribe of herders, have benefited from gravity-powered irrigation systems, built here on the Kerio River with American financing and guidance from the World Vision charity. The program has helped some 3,500 families feed themselves instead of depending on costly food aid handouts. The 2,000 families who performed the backbreaking work of clearing 1,200 acres and digging 99 miles of canals were promised payment in corn for their labor. The corn was to be shipped from America, mostly on U.S.-flagged vessels, part of a food aid system designed to benefit American agribusiness and maritime interests, as well as the hungry. By the time the project ended here in 2002, about 1,500 families were regularly harvesting crops on their irrigated plots -- small islands of plenty in a sea of hunger.

A Turkana woman carries a pale of water atop her head while crossing the parched landscape of northern Kenya.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Monday August 13, 2007, Poolcooch, Sudan

Dinka cattle herding in southern Sudan

Panthar Machar, a 12-year-old cattle herder, smiles at one of his favorite cows as the sun goes down over a cattle camp in Poolcooch. Panthar, a Dinka, lives in south Sudan, a poor isolated area home to the Dinka -- the impossibly tall and rugged pastoralists who after suffering 50 years of war, are finally witnessing peace, development, and change.

Panthar Machar, a 12-year-old cattle herder, smiles at one of his favorite cows as the sun sets.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Thursday August 23, 2007, El Rouhal, Darfur, Sudan

Arab-on-Arab fighting on the increase in Darfur

Sheikh Osman Abakar Ali, center, and other Terjem elders, sit together at the El Rouhal displaced persons camp near Kass in southern Darfur. The conflict in Darfur has now become even more complex with Arab tribes brutalizing each other. In the past several months, hundreds of people have been killed and tens-of-thousands displaced in heavy clashes between several Arab tribes. The violence has pushed the Terjem tribe into the same type of camps they originally drove the Fur into.

Sheikh Osman Abakar Ali, center, and other Terjem elders, sit together at the El Rouhal displaced persons camp near Kass

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Thursday July 10, 2008, Opuwo, Namibia

Namibian landscape draws tourists from afar

Namibia, on southern Africa's Atlantic coast attracts tourists visiting to experience the different climates and natural geographical landscapes such as the great eastern desert and plains in regions such as the Sossosvlei, Etosha Park and the coastal activity areas of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay.

A Himba woman in her traditional attire and her body painted red with a mixture of fat, ash and ochre-colored mud, stands beside a red wall in the town of Opuwo in northwest Namibia.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Thursday March 6, 2008, El Wak, Kenya

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Wednesday May 30, 2007, Lokwii, Kenya

The Turkana tribe of Kenya

Ikai Moru, 19, sits outside her home. Moru and her mother worked together to clear their half acre plot of land of countless thorn trees and bushes. Her mother died after a brief illness in 2003, leaving Moru, then 15, to raise four younger siblings. Two miniature, gravity-powered irrigation systems, built here on the Kerio River with American financing and guidance from the World Vision charity have helped some 3,500 families feed themselves instead of depending on costly food aid handouts. The 2,000 families who performed the backbreaking work of clearing 1,200 acres and digging 99 miles of canals were promised payment in corn for their labor. The corn was to be shipped from America, mostly on U.S.-flagged vessels, part of a food aid system designed to benefit American agribusiness and maritime interests, as well as the hungry. By the time the project ended here in 2002, about 1,500 families were regularly harvesting crops on their irrigated plots -- small islands of plenty in a sea of hunger.

Ikai Moru, a member of the Turkana tribe, seated outside her home.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Tuesday May 22, 2007, Legio, Kenya

Humanitarian group CARE helps Kenyan farmers

George Otieno, carries his pineapple crop to a weighing station set up in his village. Assisted by CARE, the humanitarian group, they have improved their farming methods and bypassed local middlemen to sell the fruit at better prices in Nairobi's big supermarkets, ten hours away by road.

Kenyan farmer George Otieno with his pineapple crop

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Thursday April 26, 2007, San'Aa, Yemen

Yemen's exotic secrets

The old city of San'aa just inside the Bab al Yemen, or main gate in the walls of the old city. UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, declared San'a a world heritage site in 1988. San'a was a trade capital as early as the 1st century B.C. With merchants crowded inside the mud walls of the city, the San'anis built upwards -- as high as nine stories, an impressive feat given the technology of the time. San'aa's homes rest on lower stories built of stone; some date to the 9th or 10th centuries. Over generations, families added floors in brick, making each new floor slightly smaller than the previous one for stability.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Monday May 22, 2006, Bosasso, Somalia

Somalis brave dangerous seas in order to reach Yemen

Every year, thousands of Somalis attempt to cross the Gulf of Aden in hopes of reaching Yemen and eventually Europe. Bossaso, the chief commercial port of Puntland, a self-declared autonomous zone in northern Somalia is one of the main smuggling hubs through which hopeful immigrants set off on the dangerous journey. Those who aren't arrested by local authorities often run the risk of being thrown overboard when the sea becomes too rough to keep the small fishing boats that often transport them afloat.

Farhia Ahmed Mohamed, 17, on the beach in Bosasso. Farhia was thrown off a boat during her attempt to reach Yemen, barely surviving.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Wednesday March 14, 2007, Lusaka, Zambia

Food Reserve Agency operations in Zambia

Workers carry sacks of maize to a train bound for Zimbabwe at a Food Reserve Agency (FRA) warehouse in the Zambian capital of Lusaka. The FRA is the largest supplier to the World Food Program.

Workers carry sacks of maize.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Saturday September 23, 2006, Nairobi, Kenya

Underprivileged children receive free education at crowded Kenyan schools

Ever since the inception of free primary education in Kenya, orphans and underprivileged children who previously could not attend school for lack of fees, have been able to attend. This universal education came at a price however, with schools suffering from severe overcrowding.

Job Onyando, 12, outside his home in the sprawllng Kibera slums of Nairobi. Job, has had to hold his family together through his mother's death and his father's bout with alcoholism. Every day he's up before dawn to look over his homework and, when there's enough food, help prepare a meager breakfast with his three siblings.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Saturday March 1, 2008, Geita, Tanzania

Tanzania's gold mining

Balitazali Emmanuel and Venerranda Thomas, a displaced couple, at their makeshift home after they were forced off their land in order to free the land for mining operations.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Thursday January 3, 2008, Nairobi, Kenya

Post-election violence continues in Kenya

A man walks through the smoke of burning buildings outside of the Kibera slums during another day of intense post-election violence in Kenya. Amid widespread violence after Kenya's disputed national elections, President Mwai Kibaki has expressed willingness to talk with the opposition once order has been restored. With politicaly motivated street murders on the rise, riot police used tear gas and water cannons to beat back crowds headed to a banned rally.

A man in shadow walks through the smoke of burning buildings.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Thursday August 23, 2007, El Rouhal, Darfur, Sudan

Arab-on-Arab fighting on the increase in Darfur

Mariam Mohammed, whose husband was killed in Arab-on-Arab fighting, at the El Rouhal displaced persons camp near Kass, in southern Darfur. The conflict in Darfur has now become even more complex with Arab tribes brutalizing each other. In the past several months, hundreds of people have been killed and tens-of-thousands displaced in heavy clashes between several Arab tribes. The violence has pushed the Terjem tribe into the same type of camps they originally drove the Fur into.

Mariam Mohammed rests amid makeshift dwellings at a displaced persons camp in the embattled Darfur region.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Friday June 15, 2007, Nairobi, Kenya

Police crack down on Nairobi's Mungiki sect

Esther Wairimu, 24, holds her daughter Cynthia, in her one-room home in the Mathare slum. Esther was beaten on the back by police during a crackdown on the Mungiki sect in the slum. Mathare is a stronghold of the Mungiki sect, who are accused in the deaths of at least 20 people in the past three months, including 12 found mutilated or beheaded since May. The group, whose name means "multitude" in the Kikuyu language, was inspired by the bloody Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s against British colonial rule. In recent years, it has been linked to extortion, murder and political violence.

Esther Wairimu, a member of the Mungiki sect, holds her infant daughter, Cynthia.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Tuesday April 17, 2007, Al Hajjara, Yemen

Yemen's exotic secrets

The 11th century village of Al Hajjara perched on a hilltop in the Haraz mountains.

Credit: Evelyn Hockstein / Polaris

Evelyn Hockstein

Evelyn Hockstein is a freelance photojournalist currently based in Washington D.C. She covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Arab world since 1998 and lived 7 years in Nairobi, Kenya until 2009. In 2002 she was awarded a Pew Fellowship in International Journalism to travel to Tajikistan and study at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. In 2001 she was awarded 3rd prize for her Intifada coverage in the NPPA Best of Photojournalism contest and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of child slavery in West Africa. She has covered the funerals of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and Jordan's King Hussein, as well as feature assignments in Iraq and Lebanon. Her work has been published in various international publications including The New York Times, TIME, Newsweek, The International Herald Tribune, Stern, L'Express, U.S. News and World Report, The Washington Post, and Sports Illustrated for Women. She obtained a Bachelor's of Arts in Diplomatic History from the University of Pennsylvania.