fall 2013

The camera spans across the bank of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand, where locals gather to lift softly glowing lanterns into the dark autumn sky. Small green and purple boats made of leaves and Styrofoam carry flowers and candles out across the water, symbolically carrying away the griefs of the past year. It’s the 2011 celebration of Loi Krathong, the annual festival of the “Floating Crown,” and in the wake of major flooding across Bangkok, the small boats are weighed with more grief than usual.

Leah Bonner, Carl Eschler, and Camille Larsen: a special-needs teacher, an electrician’s mate, and a stay-at-home mom. These three seem to have little in common, but their pasts are tied to one place—Ecuador.