My second assignment was a last-minute request by my editor to shoot bestselling author Ishmael Beah, who wrote A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. The book was the summer reading assignment for NAU's incoming freshman class and is easily one of the most powerful books I have ever read. Beah spoke about his experiences as a child soldier, his life in the US, his frequent visits back to his homeland of Sierra Leone (country in West-Africa), and many other things. The presentation was fantastic.
My favorite image of him is below:
I'm sitting in the fourth row (I bought my ticket the day after they were available in August), and I felt like he was looking directly at me for the entire presentation. Of course, in this picture he actually is.
Ishmael is truly an amazing person. He smiles all the time, even while talking about losing his entire family along with his childhood at age 12. He is an inspiration to me and to everyone who heard him speak.
That's all for now!
-Matt
