With an intention to reveal the epic, Miranda Penn Turin has captured the heroic, the beautiful, and the humanity in her photographs regardless of where she is in the world. A specialist in portraits, fashion, and beauty, her clients include Coty, Max Factor, Sony, Universal, Bloomingdales, Fox, Warner Bros. Records, Converse, Conde Nast, the Four Seasons, Chase, MTV and many others. Her images of the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu provide the cover art for the New York Times top fifteen bestseller The Book of Joy. She currently works with Voices for Freedom, a humanitarian organization combating human trafficking.

This is the second article in a two-part series with Miranda Penn Turin, focusing on some of her favorite stories across her career.

His Holiness

 

What is a moment in your career that you are immensely proud of?

I’m really proud of the work I do with Voices 4 Freedom, which is a humanitarian organization that works to free slaves in India. I just got my ten-year Indian visa, so I am all in. Peggy Callahan started both Voices 4 Freedom and Free the Slaves and is personally responsible for bringing tens of thousands of people to freedom – working with Peggy is an honor and a joy. This work continues to be exciting, upsetting and suspenseful. So many people don’t know their rights – V4F provides the information and education and it leads to transformation.

We visited a brick kiln village in 2016  – everyone in the village was enslaved to the kiln owner. When someone lives in fear, it’s etched onto their face and this was a village filled with fear. If someone acts out, it has happened that that person is thrown into the kiln – that’s a 1200 degree oven. People have seen their loved ones lost in this horrific way. To witness that village to coming to freedom was miraculous – the transformation between living in fear to living in strength.

All freed slaves in a Voices 4 Freedom village

How do you manage in these immensely emotional scenarios?

You never know what your reaction as an individual will be. There’s the double-edge of excitement and trepidation. How will people respond to having their pictures taken? Will the slave owners show up? What is the response going to be? What will happen after you leave? There are so many things to be prepared for and you need to be able to hold it together, be flexible and ready.

We once visited a rice field full of women who were enslaved. I don’t believe they thought they would ever not be enslaved. There was no glimmer of hope in their future. Their faces showed nothing beyond devastation. We told them about the program through a translator and they threw themselves on us, put their foreheads on our feet in a gesture of ultimate submission. As an American, this is not a common thing we encounter, the blunt act of submission. So we lift them up, have the translator explain the program. These women who had been so steadfast in their stoic demeanor burst into tears. Suddenly there was hope in their future, it was no longer just work or be killed. I lost it on that occasion, but on the whole I try to keep it together. For the most part, you are in a situation that can be really dangerous, the adrenaline is kicking, and you have to be ready to go. There’s not always time for a breakdown.

How did you come to work with Peggy Callahan?

Peggy Callahan is just a miracle, an amazing human being, and such a fighter. She hired me to shoot the cover art for The Book of Joy in Dharamshala and told me in that moment that she had another project immediately after we left, asked if I was interested in coming along. That’s how it all started.

Dharamshala is so deeply what you want it to be – this weird, crazy, mountain town where the streets are so narrow and steep and filled with people.

Tibetan man on McLeod Ganj main street.

The shops packed with artwork, silk scarfs, and singing bowls. The Tibetan people are so beautiful. It’s an amazing experience to be around them, hear their stories and learn what they’ve overcome. What the Dalai Lama has done for his people is incredible.

All of these people have made the journey through Tibet and Nepal, down through the Himalayas to get to Dharamshala and go to his Tibetan Children’s Village, to learn and to maintain their culture. Tibetans are so immersed in art –  they don’t want to give that up. They want to learn the songs, the dances, the calligraphy, and be ingrained in their culture and its traditions. His Holiness makes sure they have that option.

Peggy is directing the movie version of The Book of Joy and I would go back to Dharamshala with her in a flash. The only problem I had was with the big furry spiders – I’ll travel anywhere but I always ask how big the bugs are.

What project brought you to Rwanda?

It was a project for a wheelchair charity whose mission is to bring rugged wheelchairs to people in remote areas in Rwanda since standard wheelchairs can’t last on the rough terrain. They build the wheelchairs in Rwanda and then donate them, so the charity supports the Rwandan community as it assists physically challenged people. Being in Rwanda was another incredible, compelling moment. The awful recent history comes to life in its sites, but now the Hutus and Tutsis are living next to each other. There has somehow been forgiveness. They’ve bloomed out of this awful experience in order to survive and move on. It’s an incredible lesson to the world in tolerance.

Congolese refugee woman in the Kiziba camp – taking a break from sewing, she gives me a beautiful smile

On top of the connection to humanity and human stories, what else inspires you as photographer?

I am always looking for the heroic, for the epic image. Women inspire me and continue to inspire me all the time. I find photographing women in a light of strength and power is something that inspires me across the board. As a female photographer, I find that being diverse makes it possible to run a business. I shoot beauty campaigns, music packaging, TV advertising, editorial and humanitarian work. I do this wide range of work because that’s what makes my business function. And in all of those I am looking for the heroic, epic moment. What is going to make a moment the most heroic?

A Twa villager – the indigenous people of Rwanda that were once called pygmies. They have been pushed off their land by the more sophisticated Hutu and Tutsi communities