INTERVIEW
New Zealand-born photographer Stuart Robertson is the creator of
Peace in 10,000 Hands, a global art project to challenge and reinvigorate
the conversation for peace.
We spoke with Stuart about his project and he shares some of his favorite
photographs of men from around the world.
STAND: What inspired you to embark on the Peace in 10,000
Hands project?
I arrived at a point in my life where I only wanted to be
involved in projects and businesses that make a difference
and contribute to making the planet better. That and the
realization that everything needs peace, now! We can each
individually create the change we want to see. The majority
of ideas don’t fail because they don’t work. They fail because
people never do anything about them. I am 100% focused
on “Peace in 10,000 Hands” and I believe what you focus on
will grow. My inspiration is the belief that everything has
the right to live in peace. The opportunity to exist, coexist.
Everything on the planet needs peace. Humans, animals,
planets, water ways, the environment … everything, very
little will be better tomorrow, than it is today. STAND: Can you talk about one or two photos, and the
circumstances around taking them, that are particularly
meaningful to you?
Peace in
10,000 Hands
46 | STAND
People often think meeting and photographing people like
The Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ricky Gervais,
and Demi Moore must be awesome and it is. They are all so
thoughtful and brilliant. But it is often unknown people that
leave a searing mark on your psyche. I was photographing
a farmer in PKK country in Turkey. It was very cold, there
was snow on the ground. I was staying in a tiny village, no
running water, a small collection of animals, smoke from
fires, huge piles of soaking wet cow manure collected to
dry for fuel for cooking and heating. The farmer was a very
grim (read scary) man. He had a wife and eight children.
He worked the land to feed his family. His hands were large
and rough. Surprisingly he was embarrassed about his hands
and wanted to wash them. I asked, through my interpreter,
for him not to. His stare was like dynamite. Plus he did not
really want to be photographed. His stare seared a hole in
the camera lens and my eye. It was intimidating. I knew
the image would not be great. And started thinking what
I could do. I did something different for the first time in
the project. I asked for him to simply close his eyes. Then
I asked him to think to himself what peace meant to him,
without telling me. His change in demeanor, warmth, and
smile was as initially shocking as it was unexpected. I love
the image. It was emotional and I remember it like it was
yesterday. STAND: What do you hope others gain from viewing and
experiencing these photos?
A deep sense of connectivity. I see my role as capturing
a moment of unguarded humanity with each person I
photograph. A moment when the person I am photographing
reveals what lies behind that thin veil that protects their
child-like self. The one thing we all left behind during
the ages of four to eight. When we last actually thought
everything will be ok. That we are safe. I really believe that
visual art crosses boundaries, breaks down borders and
communicates like no other form of language. Since the
time of cave drawings when we have communicated with art.
We are moving into a more enlightened age when showing
pictures and storytelling are moving to the forefront of a
global language.
We all share a deep connectivity in our similarities in the
human condition and my hope is photographing people
from every country on the planet will visually communicate
my idea and break down barriers. STAND: What have you learned through this project?
Patience.
Courage.
Understanding.
Compassion.
Forgiveness. It is hard to quantify meeting and interacting
with over two and half thousand people from fifty countries
and explain what one might have learnt and seen. I have been
in so many situations, from peril, desperation, heartbreak,
disbelief, fear and joy. This is the greatest journey of my life
and I will keep learning and sharing. STAND: What is peace to you?
Inner peace. No doubt. From personal inner peace it moves
to your family. To your village. To your town. To your
country. To our planet. It all starts with the individual. Their
inner peace. Each of us has the power to create change. To
be the catalyst. It is you.
STAND | 47
P H O T O
G R A P H Y
Chade-Meng Tan
Google, author of Search Inside Yourself, San Francisco
48 | stand-magazine.com
Iraqi Man
In Iraq, no one I spoke with really understood what I meant by
“peace”. I did not see a single smile. The tension in the air was
palpable. You could see the effect of living with fear etched in the
lines on the people’s faces. Their lives have been subjected to such
a constant threat of conflict that the only way to “peace” with those
I spoke with is to arm oneself with weapons.
STAND | 49
The Potter
We stopped in a local village outside Udaipur in India. There was
basically one person for each task or manual requirement apart
from tailors. There were lots of tailors. So one Chaiwala, mustard
oil man, baker, milk seller, chili seller... and this fine man was
the potter! He made the water vessels for the village. They were
beautiful. I am in his potting shed with him for this image. The
sense of relaxed industry was very cool. He didn’t have a potting
wheel but would spin the clay by hand and smack the clay as he
did with a wooden paddle. We were surrounded by about 100
children when I took this photograph.
50 | STAND
Ricky Gervais
It is the day of the L.A. Marathon. L.A. is in lock down and cut in
half as the runners are going from Dodgers Stadium to the Coast,
essentially all the way along Santa Monica Blvd, under the 405. If
you look at a map it is a suicide move to drive anywhere on this
day. So … Ricky confirms the morning of the L.A. marathon to
photograph him in his suite at the Beverly Hilton, right on the
route. I made it. Ricky is hilarious and generous.
“Peace is worth Fighting For.”
STAND | 51
Muscles on Venice
California
“Peace means People Everywhere ALL getting along.”
Hans Zimmer
Award-winning Composer, Los Angeles
“My ambition has always been to create peace, but peace which is
exciting and interesting & not to have the word misheard as being
something where we are all going to be shallowly getting along.”
Tiesto
Tiesto Mako, Superstar DJ, Amsterdam
52 | STAND
STAND | 53
Ben Vereen
Actor, Tony award winner. Los Angeles
“Peace is Breath, Breath is Life.”
Sailor
Dimitry, from Chuvashiya (the republic of Russia)
“Peace means no wars, as a military man my aim is to maintain
the peace.”
54 | stand-magazine.com
STAND | 55
Bill Mitchell
100-year-old World War Two Veteran, Armistice Day, Christchurch New Zealand, 2013
“Where is peace? Is it a myth or does it exist? Women and children are the world and yet in war it is
the women and children who suffer the most. I hope women step forward to secure the future.”
Grant Bowler
Actor, Los Angeles
We walked around Venice Beach together looking for a moment, a feeling, a time to take the photograph.
I captured this moment and feel it perfectly portrays his strength and masculinity as a man and an actor.
56 | stand-magazine.com
Peacock
Robert Keith, Santa Monica, Los Angeles
“Peace means to me the collective state of consciousness
when humans, in their natural state, stripped of all
external stimulus, material, and circumstances, reach the
common vibration of a harmonious and indescribable
understanding in relation to the state of reality in which
we, they are traveling through.”
STAND | 57