TIME MAGAZINE: Killing Fields: Africa's Rhinos Under Threat

I was asked a while back to photograph the consumption of rhino horn here in Vietnam for TIME magazine. I was told we could find the horn for sale on Medicine Street in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. We asked around but every time I reached for the camera the horn disappeared. Word spread quickly on the street that I was a photojournalist and shopkeepers began to turn us away everywhere we went.
We took a trip to a pottery village where specialized bowls are made for grinding the horn to be mixed with water. We even found electrical devices made specifically for grinding the horn. People here believe it cures all sorts of things, even cancer. Shop owners even put a rhino decal on each bowl and told me they are producing a record number of bowls.
With the help of an amazing fixer I found a woman willing to let me photograph her grinding and drinking the horn. She didn't really see anything wrong with it and said she took it for her tumors.
The value of the horns and China and Vietnam's thirst for it are pushing poachers into high tech warfare threatening Africa's rhinos into extinction.
Please read this excellent story by Hannah Beech and see Dominic Nahr's disturbing photos. I had two tiny pics in the current issue of TIME so I figured I'd share a few larger ones on my blog :). It's an important story and I'm honored to play my part.

Hannah Beech's story in TIME: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2075283-1,00.html

Dominic Nahr's Amazing Photos: http://lightbox.time.com/2011/06/06/a-perilous-threat-to-rhinos/#1