Ric Francis

Portraits

Actor David Carradine responds to a question during an interview at his home, March 10, 2004.
   
Macquala McCormick, 5, is enveloped by her mother whose tattoo memorializes Macquala's father.
   
An Amazonian girl, Luz Yovani Villa Pena, 10, dries off in the sun after playing with friends in the Chiriaco river.
     
  
An Afro-Ecuadorian toddler snacks on a piece of fruit.
   
Then Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., responds to a question after holding a roundtable discussion with four California residents on economic opportunity Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008, in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles.
  
"Pupe" solicits for dates just outside the gates of the Rosedale Gardens. After sundown the area turns into a red-light district where transvestites are plentiful.
     
  
A dog wearing a tie joins a group of men who are waiting outside a church to receive free meals.
   
Eduardo Castillo, right, his brother Victor Castillo, center, and Carlos Coychea prepare for work as pallbearers. Afro-Peruvian men who are highly sought to carry coffins at the most upscale funerals in Peru. Clad in tuxedos and white gloves they are hired under the belief that their skin-color lends an aura of elegance to the job.
  
Paulo Bitap Lopez, 24, an Awajun, left, is surrounded by family and neighbors as he recovers from two bullets to his shoulder and side, in addition to one that grazed his head, which he said were fired by Peruvian police. Lopez indicated he has no access to a doctor or pharmacy so he's being treated with local plants that have healing properties. On June 5, 2009 the police, using tanks, helicopters, tear gas and firearms, attacked a roadblock approximately 450 miles north of the capital, Lima. Protesters, including Lopez, had been blocking roads for two months to demonstrate their opposition to laws that gave logging, mining and oil companies access to their ancestral grounds - the Amazon.
     
  
A young Awajun boy carries a papaya from his father's canoe.
  
Several siblings lazily hang out on their front porch on a hot and humid summer day.
   
An elder relaxes on her porch. Mound Bayou is the country's oldest all-black municipality, founded by ex-slaves in 1887.
     
  
Legendary trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie plays the Blue Note.
   
Roy Rogers, center, a mortuary assistant, watches over the body of Grammy award-winning jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard during a public viewing, Jan.6, 2009, in Inglewood, Calif. Hubbard died Dec. 29 at age 70.
   
Stevie Wonder pays tribute during the funeral service for Grammy award-winning jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard.
     
  
Carlos Santana sports his signature cap as he plays the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
   
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis poses for a photograph for a feature about her children's book titled, "It's Hard To Be Five."
   
An Iraqi immigrant is silhouetted through a sheet at a voting box as she participates in Iraq's election.
     
  
Evidence of a skin-grafting operation is one of the lesser scars Rena Vereen, 20, carries from her near-death experience; she took nine bullets during a shooting that killed her boyfriend. Paul, left, who was in bed with the couple was physically untouched.
   
An Afro-Ecuadorian family loiters on the porch.
   
A Sundanese dancer performed for Pope John Paul II during a canonization ceremony.
     
  
A worn and faded hand-drawing, created by Dayana Rene Ballivian, 9, hangs outside her family’s home that reads: “My mother is negro, my father is negro and so am I. I am proud.” In 2009 Afro-Bolivians won a moral victory when the Bolivian government - which had always denied their existence - formally acknowledged them.
   
An Afro-Bolivian woman, Irma Medina, 45, pauses while walking up a hill to her home.
   
Catalina Sanchez, a farmer at the South Central urban garden, watches as a bulldozer in the distance destroys land.