Since life in Haiti was not a common subject in international news reports until the country was devastated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake three weeks ago, it is something of a shock to view the short video embedded below, which was shot just over a month ago by a Haitian photographer named Frederic Dupoux to document New Year’s Eve in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

Mr. Dupoux posted this video on his photo blog in the early hours of Jan. 12 — just hours before the earthquake — along with some photographs taken in the same location and a note that explained:

With my new baby that made it before Christmas, I have been spending a lot of time in the dark trying to find very few lights. To my surprise the National Palace was nicely decorated this year. So for New Year’s Eve, I went down there to photograph it and get some footage around the palace before midnight. Went down there with a tripod and sat around for a while and watched people walk by lost in their own stories.

Hours later, Mr. Dupoux was taking images like these of people in the same city, lost in very different kinds of stories:

Since the earthquake struck, Mr. Dupoux has used his Twitter feed as well as his camera to describe what has been happening in Port-au-Prince. His stream of commentary on the aftermath of the disaster continues on the social networking site.

Last night Mr. Dupoux used his feed to banter with an American photographer, Jeremy Cowart, who is working on a photo project in Haiti. Mr. Cowart, assisted by Mr. Dupoux, has been shooting images of life amid the ruins in Port-au-Prince. On Monday he provided a preview of his project in photographs uploaded to TwitPic, including one of a newly married couple kissing in front of a destroyed building while holding a sign that says, “Love Conquers All.”

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