Humanitarian Photographers: What’s our Job?
[March 9, 2010] Do we know the answer to that question? Have we asked ourselves, what IS our job? Do we know how far to go in our services? What kinds of things are included in them and what are not?
Those are just some of the questions that I have in my mind after reading Jeremy Courtney’s comment on our last post of 10.Q.
He commented on Matt Brandon’s quote, “NGOs don’t understand the true value of an image”.
My intention here is not to discuss that quote (for that, you can follow the thread on the post.) What I want to discuss, or let’s say, hear from you about, is what struck me the most out of Jeremy’s comments. It’s one question that I’m still thinking about… What’s our Job?
Please read the extract of his comment before we continue….

“So let me go out on a limb here for this photographic community. If you want smaller NGOs to pay for your services as a photographer, I’d guess many, if not most would be more willing to invest in the photographer who can help us take the beautiful image after all is said and done and leverage that photo into funding. The photog with the biggest social network, direct mail list, blog following, and the best strategies to help me do that is the photog who gets my organizational money.

Is that your job? That depends. That’s your call. But most of us spending NGO money know our limits. We know that your photography is valuable. But we don’t always have the skill to do something of value with your beautiful photo. And a beautiful photo on an otherwise ugly website, pamphlet, newsletter, or mail out is a waste of money.

So the hesitation to spend it not because we don’t value beautiful photography. The hesitation is because so many of us don’t know how to convert on beautiful photography.

In short, most understaffed NGOs need you as more than a photographer. They need a media producer/media consultant for hire. In today’s media saturated world, “the value of an image” is too small a discussion; and it’s too esoteric.

NGOs need people to help us conceive and implement strategies and cross-promotional opportunities. Create a media package for me that guarantees X Tweets during the course of our time together, FB group email promotional blasts, email newsletter blasts, blog posts, advertising space on your website for ___ days, and direct mail mentions and you take the pressure of me of spending donor money in a way that would not only fail to move us forward, but just might set us back.

Again, is that your job? That’s your decision. But the first photographers that seize the opportunity to be more than photographers (because all of you are great at selling yourselves anyway) will be the first photographers that find an organization like the Preemptive Love Coalition willing to risk it – not just for the valuable image, but for the marketing/distribution plan as well.”

Jeremy Courtney, CEO for the Preemptive Love Coalition, is a good friend of mine. A couple of weeks ago, on the road to one of their assignments, we were discussing an issue. Most of the small NGOs don’t have a budget for photographers, so most of the time they end up taking photos themselves. At the very least, they’re just another set of mediocre images. He told me this, “Before hiring a photographer, I need to know that, as a consequence, I will be getting at least our donors’ money back.” I understand Jeremy. I’ve been leading an NGO team for several years and I know the importance of working within a budget and not wasting resources.
So I posed a question to myself,
“How in today’s world can our imagery enhance the NGO’s fundraising?
What else can we bring to the table to make our clients successful?
Is it our job as photographers to do that?”

Interestingly enough, Jeremy suggested that maybe we should put out tweets, Facebook groups, newsletters, blogs, etc. as a part of the deal with the NGO and “promote” them through these forms of “social media”. That will make it more attractive from the NGO’s perspective to invest in a photographer. To hire us!

So, what do think about this idea?
Are you willing to put your “followers” on the table, your “fans” as a part of the deal?
Is that our job nowadays?

Is that how we can use this “social media” frenzy?

I’m sorry that I’m not providing answers to this issue. I’m far from having them. But, I do know one thing. I’d love to see NGOs putting value on photography and photographers. How? Through hiring our services. I believe that we should discuss how to make that happen.

How can make this a win-win situation?
How can we convince the small NGOs to hire our services?

How do we have to start marketing ourselves?

Please, feel free to leave comments.