07.31.08 Boston philanthropist's photos feature at Police reunion tour - Over 3 million people have seen these photos at concerts around the world...

Bobby Sager, a philanthropist based out of Boston, has had his photos featured throughout the entire Police World Tour. His photos are of children dealing with war, conflict, natural disaster, abuse, and displacement. The kids are from Afghanistan, Rwanda, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tibet. They are refugees, orphans, child soldiers, or just plain kids living in absurdly difficult circumstances - kids so anonymous that they end up in front of stadiums full of people from Rio to Tokyo to Paris. Mr. Sager took these photos while doing the work of his family foundation, traveling to these areas to implement programs and try to improve the lives of these children. The power of the photos is that even in some of the most desperate places in the world children still have a smile in their eyes - the human spirit finds a way to persevere and overcome: the power of the Invisible Sun.

Sting on Bobby's photography (excerpt from Men's Journal "Walking on the Moon"):

I met this cyclone of a man four years ago in Brazil. He wanted me to help him get into the interior of the rain forest, where the tourists don't go, so I gave him a few of my contacts and we kept in touch. Bobby began his working life scalping tickets to Boston Celtics games and ended up buying the hallowed parquet floor of the Boston Garden, before it was torn down. He made a fortune or three before the age of 40, and now he spends his time roaming the planet looking for projects to support where concrete baby steps matter and can make a very big difference. He's funding the reconstruction of a monastery in Bhutan, helping the Dalai Lama's religious scholars learn science, setting up teacher training programs for Afghan refugees, assisting the people of Rwanda in rebuilding their justice system after the appalling massacres that have all but destroyed their country, and running micro enterprise programs in South Africa, Nepal, and Rwanda."


"Our practical philanthropist spends the rest of the day (in Nepal) photographing children in the village and teaching Jake, my son, some of his secrets. He has a breathtaking series of what he calls "children of conflict" portraits, of children in Afghanistan, in refugee camps in Pakistan and Rwanda, of Tibetan refugees in camps in India, and of Palestinian refugees in camps in Lebanon.

I watch him at work, sitting just outside a group of youngsters; he begins an animated conversation with a mischievous glove puppet, a bright yellow duck. He whispers to it to be quiet and well behaved; the duck nods in obedience and then proceeds to attack Bobby, who only barely manages to control his tiny adversary. The children begin to stare at the strange sight of this big man and his recalcitrant duck, laughing uproariously when the duck gets the better of him. They move closer, and the duck starts to tease the children. Some of them run away giggling; others get closer.

"Never start taking pictures immediately," he tells Jake. "You've got to engage them, make them laugh, get close." Without looking through the lens he casually takes some shots of the children laughing. "The closer you get, the better the pictures, but don't ever lose eye contact."

I watch as my son engage with the children, making them laugh, coaxing the shy ones to break out of their shells, until Bobby starts chasing the entire gaggle of children around the town square like and overgrown kid, whooping and roaring as the children scatter hilariously and hide behind their mother's long skirts.

A young man attempts to give Bobby a can of some soft drink, saying something in Nepalese.

"Pema, what's this kid saying? Why's he trying to give me this can?"

Pema talks to the boy, who is about 12. "He says you saved his grandmother's life last year, Mr. Bobby. She needed an operation in Katmandu, and you put her in the helicopter. He says the family wants to thank you, and this is all they have to give you."

The big brash guy from Boston is suddenly quiet and clearly touched by the gesture. My two abiding memories of this extraordinary and complex man will be of him chasing the village kids like the town fool one minute, and the next reduced almost to tears by this simple gift.

For more information on the photographs and Mr. Sager please visit www.teamsager.org/.