About Hope In Focus
Hope In Focus bears witness to the world as it is and as it could be through contemplative activist photography committed to walking alongside the world's oppressed and marginalized ― finding hope together in our collective struggle for love and liberation.
"The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place." ― James Baldwin
About Stephen Pavey
I am an artist, a visual storyteller, a contemplative, a cultural organizer – all of which come together in the vocation of cultivating a way to see, in order to bear witness to the world both as it is, and as it could be. My creative process is deeply shaped by prayer and a praxis of accompanying and being accompanied by humanity and our more-than-human relatives marginalized & oppressed by settler colonialism & capitalism. It's really about connection as we collectively face the forces that alienate and fracture us. My creative work focuses on hope – the hope we must live into of re-connecting with ourselves, with each other, and the more-than-human world around us.
I have worked in over 30 countries around the world, most recently in Palestine, Honduras and Mexico. The work of Hope In Focus really began in 2010 when I was asked to accompany with my camera the undocumented migrant-led struggle for freedom and human dignity. This practice of contemplative activist photography has grown from connections with undocumented and migrant communities through intersectional solidarity praxis to include bearing witness alongside Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) led movements for Black Lives Matters, Not 1 More Deportation, Free Palestine, Mni Wiconi, Abolish ICE, Protect Oak Flat and the Poor People’s Campaign among many other growing efforts to resist state violence and corporate hegemonic dominance over our lives, communities and mother earth.
Not that we discover a new unity, but we discover an old unity. My dear brothers and sisters, we are already one. But we imagine we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be, is what we are.” ― Thomas Merton
How to contact me
Contact me through email: stephencpavey@gmail.com
Would you like to join me in the work of Hope in Focus with your financial support?
This is one of the hardest things for me to do – to ask others for their financial support. I've for the most part not asked. Through living simply and budgeting the limited income streams my wife and I receive here and there, along with the generosity of friends from time to time (and always timely) we've made it work. But to continue with this work of solidarity visual storytelling, we need your help and I'm trusting that through some intentional relationships of accountability and the relationships of solidarity that we will use your funds in a way that names our legitimate concerns with money (greed/power) and puts them to use in pointing toward and building the world of love and liberation we all long for.
There are several ways you can support me financially:
- Become a monthly supporter or give a one time donation using the kindful system that has been generously provided through support by our fiscal sponsor, Vineyard in the Bluegrass.
- Sign up here for one of my monthly / ongoing visual storytelling publications. While there is a free option to receive this, there are also levels of support you could choose to keep this work going.