From refugee camps in southeast Asia to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, assignments in India and Central America, Milwaukee photographer Darren Hauck has traveled the world capturing unflinching images of humanity on the brink.
For Hauck, a graduate of the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, falling in love with a profession that would change the way he saw the world was a bit of a fluke.
"I got my first camera when I was 10 and I really didn't do anything with it, but I always liked pictures," said Hauck, "My grandparents always had a subscription to National Geographic and Life magazine so I grew up with that stuff."
Hauck was actually studying illustration when a frustrated professor helped nudge him toward studying photography.
"When I was an illustration major I would only turn in photos for assignments. The teacher said 'If you do one more photo project I am going to fail you, so go switch your major today'," Hauck recalled.
Hauck got his first taste of photojournalism working 10-hour days, 7 days a week for a rural Wisconsin newspaper for a year straight without a day off. Not surprisingly he's worked as a freelance photojournalist ever since, shooting everything from war zones to celebrity athletes and landing his photos in the pages of the world's biggest and most prestigious publications.
In his international projects Hauck focuses on stories that highlight how violence, corruption, drugs, poverty, and hunger affect the world's most struggling populations.
From getting chased by members of the notorious MS13 gang through rush hour traffic after photographing one of their members at a Guatemalan brothel, to having his leg slashed open with a razor blade during an altercation on a crowded bus ride in India, Hauck has collected some colorful tales to accompany the beautiful images he brings home.
"You can get too comfortable sometimes and forget that you're in such a bad neighborhood. But after spending a week there and befriending everybody you can start losing your street smarts," said of the chase incident.
While rattling off tales of from his assignments-- witnessing vigilante killings, living in a brothel, pulling people from the flood waters of Hurican Katrina-- he'll drop nuggets of professional wisdom like, "Hanging out with gangs is always bad."
But, Hauck said what he's really learned from his years spent documenting people all over the world is that we are more alike than we are different.
"If you never leave your city or your state you get pretty sheltered. It's nice to see other cultures and how they experience life, suffering, happiness, death," said Hauck, "I've found that people are the same no matter where you go. The human condition is always the same."
Hauck said confronting such extreme poverty has given him an appreciation for the comforts of his own life.
"You go to some of these really poor messed up countries and these people are suffering and struggling but yet they are still pretty happy. They learn to enjoy the little things in life... They take what little they have and make the best of it," Hauck said.
Haucks current projects include documenting the impact of immigration along the U.S.- Mexican border, the ongoing disorder in violence ridden Guatemala, and a major project on poverty in Milwaukee for the Hunger Task Force.
Even in the United States people need images to be reminded of the struggles people are facing, Hauck said.
"It's human nature hopefully to do what you can to help make someone's life better and it's my job to show people what's going on so they can make the conscience decision to help," Hauck said.
With print publications folding left and right Hauck said it's gotten harder to find a market for challenging images. He said it can be frustrating putting his life at risk only to have his pictures lose space to photos of celebrities that newspapers and magazines consider more marketable.
"You have a really good story you want to run and you think people need to see, and magazines and newspapers don't have the space to run it and you kind of feel like you are banging your head against the wall," Hauck said.
Still, Hauck said he is thankful he's been able to see so much of the world through his lens.
"The adventure part--traveling to someplace exotic--that's attractive to anyone, a grown up or a kid," said Hauck, "And the idea that you could run around and do something like that without getting stuck in a cubicle all day was always amazing to me."
