Today we’d like to introduce you to Morgana Wingard.
Hi Morgana, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
This trailer of our project is probably the best description — feel free to link to it or embed it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qoq79faRjgs&t=5s
I am a humanitarian photographer and filmmaker. And, my husband, Jaco, is a commercial helicopter pilot from South Africa. In 2014, we were living in Liberia, West Africa when the world’s largest Ebola outbreak erupted. I helped PCI Media share Ebola survivor stories through radio, TV, and social media reaching nearly 10 million people. It helped curb the spread of the virus by driving changes in attitudes and behaviors. So, when COVID-19 started spreading where we lived in 2020, we began documenting and sharing stories of COVID-19 survivors in New York to spread awareness about the disease. But we decided that wasn’t enough. We wanted to show how COVID-19 has impacted people across America. So, we moved out of our New York apartment and moved into a 19’ Airstream travel trailer to document Covid-19 survivors in all 50 states.
We filmed in our last state in December 2021 and started releasing a film series about their stories and our journey on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/survivordiariesofficial) in March 2022 – the two-year anniversary of the pandemic in the United States.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Again, some of this is also in the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qoq79faRjgs&t=8s
It has not been easy. It’s been one of the hardest seasons of our lives. We both lost our jobs in 2020 because of the pandemic. Before all of this, we moved to New York to start a “new life” and that quickly blew up when the pandemic started. We’ve been nomads living on the road in a 19’ travel trailer since November of 2020 (over 18 months / 550 days) — trying to live, work, sleep, cook, and rest in 152 square feet has many challenges as you can imagine.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My bio: http://namuhmedia.com/morgana
I have been doing humanitarian photography and videography for most of my professional career. In 2013, I started my own production company, Namuh Media (http://namuhmedia.com). I specialize in producing authentic films about social issues around the world. My clients have included UNICEF, CARE, USAID, and Michelle Obama’s Girls Opportunity Alliance. I’m probably most proud of the work I’ve done for that last client. They gave me the opportunity to create a series of 5 films all shot in different countries about the obstacles many girls face to get an education around the world. But I also got to cocreate those films with the subjects so they worked with me on the scripts and filming. We asked students from the programs that helped them go to school to reenact the stories and the real subjects narrated the films in the voiceovers. Even more amazing, Michelle Obama shared them on her channels and they were viewed by over 1 million people – that’s A LOT for us. You can watch some of them here:
http://namuhmedia.com/stories/laxmis-story
http://namuhmedia.com/stories/dianas-story
http://namuhmedia.com/stories/rebeccas-story
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
The best part is my friends — another artist you featured, Kat Renee, and her husband, Kyle. And the part I like the least is the flatness — I grew up in the shadow of Mt. Rainier.
Contact Info:
- Email: morgana@namuhmedia.com
- Website: https://thesurvivordiaries.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/survivordiariesofficial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/survivordiariesofficial/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CovidSurvivors
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SurvivorDiariesOfficial
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@survivordiaries
Image Credits
Morgana Wingard
