“How Could I Not?”: Photographer Chris Hildreth Returns to South…

“Once you see the work,” Hildreth says, “you’re excited to share it with others.”

Hildreth, proprietor of Rooster Media in Durham, North Carolina, has joined Duke University ophthalmologist Dr. Lloyd Williams on a number of missions for Cure Blindness Project utilizing his pictures to inform the story of the work. No two journeys are alike, however every one reinforces why he retains returning.

In December 2025, Williams, Hildreth, and Duke ophthalmology fellow Dr. Sheena Song arrived in Aweil, South Sudan. The dry, dusty panorama set the stage for an additional intense outreach in a rustic the place avoidable blindness stays a large problem—with an estimated backlog of 250,000 cataract circumstances and new ones rising day by day because of harsh circumstances, lack of protecting gear, and ongoing conflicts.

A spotlight of the journey was reconnecting with three siblings Hildreth first photographed years earlier. All bilaterally blind for many of their childhood—the youngest misplaced his sight as an toddler and had by no means seen his mom—they arrived at a earlier outreach determined for assist.

Hildreth vividly recollects the second the bandages got here off: the kids stood frozen, disoriented by sudden gentle and coloration. Then, listening to their mom’s voice, the youngest boy’s face lit up with recognition. He walked straight into her open arms.

That touching reunion grew to become a part of an NBC News characteristic that moved viewers worldwide. (If you missed it, watch it right here.)

Returning two years later to the month, seeing those self same siblings now thriving with restored imaginative and prescient was, for Hildreth, “what it’s all about.” Meeting their father and older brother added much more depth to his connection. “Restoring sight transforms entire families,” he says. “Fathers can return to work. Mothers can care for their children. Children can return to school.”

“Before I photographed the three siblings for the second time in the same place I had before, I had a moment with the three and shared the photo of them when they were blind. They laughed and giggled at themselves in their previous state and it dawned on me the sheer irony of being able to show someone a photograph of what they looked like blind…imagine that. And how they reacted to themselves,” recollects Hildreth.

As a photographer, Hildreth is aware of an important picture speaks volumes. These earlier than and after pictures definitely do. No phrases are wanted to invoke the enjoyment and transformation achieved by a ten-minute, sight-restoring surgical procedure.

During this journey, Hildreth made the choice to seize extra video than nonetheless pictures, a change from previous journeys. The determination resulted in capturing sounds of pure pleasure, like this video of a affected person so overwhelmed by regained sight that he laughed uncontrollably. “His laugh just kept getting louder as it sunk in,” Hildreth recollects. “It tickles you.”

Despite the dangers—unpredictable safety, fixed mud irritating eyes, and areas the place tribes pause combating only for eye camps—Hildreth is aware of the protocols. “It’s not safe,” he admits when pressed, “but we know what to do and what not to do, for the most part. How can we not do this work?”

For Hildreth, it’s about reliving and sharing these seminal moments—the electrical energy of bandage removals, the exceptional before-and-after transformations, the sheer gratification of watching somebody see clearly for the primary time.

“I’m ready to go wherever you want to send me next,” he says.