[April 23, 2010]

Welcome to 10.Q series. This section features interviews to humanitarian photographers, their work and photography for non-profit organizations.
This week 10.Q features Wayne Rowe: “UK based humanitarian photographer serving aid organizations and other NGO’s”.

1. Tell us about you and your photography. What kinds of shooting have you done? Have you worked for any humanitarian organizations/magazines etc.? Could you name any current or former clients?

I’m going to be upfront and say that I’m a newbie to the area of ‘humanitarian’ photography and therefore my answers to these questions may exude a naivety compared to the other esteemed photographers who have already shared their insights in 10Q.

Since I was a young boy of 11years old, armed with a Nikon EM SLR camera, I’ve enjoyed taking photographs but it’s only been within the last year that I took the plunge to forge out a career from it.  My father was a photographer and so was my grandfather so there was always going to be a strong possibility that I’d follow in their footsteps. I initially started out as a wedding and portrait photographer but then fell into humanitarian work, which is where I really want to be. However, when I’m back in the UK, I still undertake a small amount of wedding assignments and the occasional portrait session.

I’m a people person really, in as much as I can rattle off portrait shots all day and every day in whatever country or culture I’m in.  The difficulty is to provide some context into that image and that’s an area I’m constantly working on.

As it’s early days yet, I’ve only worked for one client which is a US based human development organization called Outreach International, fortunately, I have quite a few scheduled projects with them.  I’ve also got a forthcoming assignment with CWM and am involved in discussions with a few other organizations.

2. We all know that you don’t get into humanitarian photography to become rich, so what does humanitarian photography mean to you? What’s your vision for it?

I’ve recently left a career which was extremely well paid and maybe I’m out of my mind moving to humanitarian photography but it’s what I want to do and I feel more alive when I’m doing it, which I couldn’t have said whilst I was in the corporate rat race.  It was often difficult to reconcile my personal morals and ethics within the business world but have now found a way of combining a love of photography with an opportunity to help others far less fortunate than me.

My vision for this type of work is one of inform and response.  Hopefully, my images will inform the viewer of my subject matter’s situation and then evoke a response, ideally in a practical way. I’m under no illusions that my photographs are going to change the world, but if they can resonate with even a small amount of people who then want to respond by helping the people and the situations I am illuminating, then I will be happy in my work. As far as I’m concerned, the more people who are able to do this the better (even if it does reduce the amount of work available to me).

3. How did you get into humanitarian photography? Where did you get the idea to shoot these kinds of people and groups?

To be honest, I think I was in the right place at the right time and kind of fell into this niche area.  A friend of mine is the Director of Communications & Marketing at Outreach International and he asked if I would be willing to go out to the Philippines to shoot their efforts within that country. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity!  They were extremely happy with my work and it led onto further assignments, my most recent being in Haiti and Nicaragua.

Since then, while I was researching potential new clients, I came across an organization who I thought would benefit from focused, quality images and soon established that my contact at Outreach International knew the Director of Communications at this other organization.  This obviously helped get a foot in the door and a new assignment has resulted from it.  I suppose it’s a classic case of the old cliché ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”.

4. What are the challenges of shooting for NGO’s or non-profit organizations?

It’s very early days for me to comprehensively answer this but so far I don’t seem to be having the same difficulties that other photographers often cite.  My client allows me a considerable amount of freedom and artistic license over the images I send into them. If anything there are times when I’d prefer more detailed direction to establish more precisely what their needs are.

However, one of the challenges has been the difficulty in arranging exact assignment dates with the client, especially those that are further ahead within the year. Organizing assignments is often a fluid situation for them but this doesn’t help when you’re trying to schedule other work in between.  Maybe it’s the norm for the aid organization sector, nevertheless, coming from a business background where schedules are far less flexible I find it difficult to deal with.  Maybe someone else out there can share their experiences/advice on this?

5. How much do you travel every year? How do you manage your family time?

My assignments so far for 2010 will take me to Haiti, Nicaragua, Zambia, Malawi, India, Sri Lanka and Bolivia and will probably mean that I’m away for approximately 14 weeks of the year. This fits in nicely with my business plan but it will certainly take its toll on my family life. Fortunately, my three children are of an age where it isn’t quite so imperative that I’m always at home, I simply couldn’t have done this job several years ago. The wonders of technology also help in this situation, most places have a cell phone network that enables me to contact home on a fairly regular basis.  It always amazes me how many of the members of impoverished communities have a cell phone, they may be cooking a basic rice meal on an open fire outside their mud hut whilst speaking to someone on their Nokia!  Occasionally, you may even get access to the internet in certain cities before you venture out into more rural areas, which means that Skype is also a possibility.

6. Who’s been an inspiration for your photography?  How do you stay inspired?  Do you read blogs?  If so, which ones would you recommend?

Within the humanitarian field, I’ve taken inspiration from the likes of Ben Rusnak, Karl Grobl, Matt Brandon, Matt Powell, Gary Chapman and of course, David duChemin.  Each of these photographers have a proven track record and are willing to share of their experiences, without which, I’d have been left scratching my head on numerous occasions. There have been times when I have contacted these guys individually for help on a particular situation or problem and I’ve appreciated their readiness to divulge some of their knowledge in order to assist me. There are times though when I look at the work of these photographers and I think “these guys are in a different league to me!”  Fortunately, there is always someone addressing this subject on a regular basis through their blog which soon has me back on the almost straight and narrow.

Another photographer I must give mention to is Zack Arias, he isn’t in the humanitarian sector but he’s an amazing creative artist who can achieve so much with an off-camera strobe light.  I’m often inspired by his work and have been able to integrate some of his techniques into my humanitarian images.

I’ve found blogs to be crucial for maintaining inspiration and I try to read as much as possible when I’m back home.  I know from personal experience how difficult it is to keep these things updated when you’re away from a computer for such a long time.  Again, hats off to David duChemin for somehow managing to overcome this and yet still be able to produce such high quality material.

7. How do you normally approach people from other cultures? What are your limits at the moment of shooting people in need, or in a complicated situation?

In all my work I try to treat people with respect and dignity as they are allowing me into their world, one which I have very little understanding of. I generally have two approaches when photographing people and situations in other cultures.  The first is when I’m trying to capture a moment that is occurring before me but it hasn’t been possible to communicate to the individual or group that I’m about to photograph them.  In these situations, I will often take the shot and then as soon as the moment has passed I attempt to communicate (often by body language) that I have taken a photo and ask if that was okay; 9 times out of 10 the individuals are more than happy, but on the rare occasion when they’re obviously not comfortable with it I immediately delete the image.  My second approach is when I’m going to take what I call ‘feature’ shots.  These are where I’m going to take a significant number of images of a person or family which will convey a story, highlighting their circumstances.  In these instances, my cameras initially stay in their bags whilst I spend time talking to the individuals to hear their story.  I then ask them how they would like to be portrayed, what message they would want to convey to the wider world about their situation.  These shots are more difficult to pull off as they tend to be more staged and it can take quite a while before someone becomes natural again in front of the camera, but you get there eventually.

I recently had a situation in Haiti where my interpreter and I entered an area of downtown Port-au-Prince where we soon came to realize that we weren’t welcome in that part of town. A shot gun was pointed towards us by a small group of men and my interpreter quickly negotiated our exit from the area. I would have loved to have fired a couple of shots in that situation but my instincts (or fears) got the better of me.  Sometimes you simply have to rely on instincts in complicated situations.

8. How do you promote your work?

In short, I don’t do a lot to promote my work.  I have a website and a blog (twitter) which I struggle to keep updated but my main form of sales and marketing is via correspondence with key people in the organizations I want to work for. I try to research an organization as much as possible to establish their needs and then speak to the relevant individual who I believe may want to discuss working with me.

9. Tell us about the last piece of gear that you deemed important enough to buy. How about the one that’s been most important in your career? (It can be a lens, camera, accessory, etc.)

I recently purchased a Canon 7D. I spent ages contemplating whether I should go full frame with a 5D mk2 or continue with cropped sensors.  Partly due to wanting some of the developments and features on the 7D (i.e. wireless transmitter and improved AF system) and partly due to not wanting to splash out the extra cash right now, as a result I remain in the cropped sensor camp.  I’ve also been asked by my clients to provide video footage on my assignments so the 7D does that beautifully. Eventually, when the 5Dmk3 incorporates some of the new 7D developments and probably improves on them, I’ll enter the full frame arena.

I have a very simple kit when out on assignment and I’m sure many will gasp in horror when I say that I basically take 2 camera bodies, one with a standard 17-55 lens and the other with a 70-200.  I’ll have an external flash, a travel tripod and a 5-in-1 reflector……and that’s pretty much it, other than the usual flash cards, batteries etc. But this simple kit does everything I need, I really don’t want to be burdened in often searing heat with a pack load of equipment that I’ll rarely use.  Well, if it’s good enough for Karl Grobl……it’s good enough for me.

10. What would be your advice for a photographer who is just starting out in this field?

Although I have several assignments under my belt, I am a photographer just starting out in this field so maybe I’m not the best person to be handing out advice at this point.  Having said that, my ‘newbie’ experiences are still fresh and maybe of some benefit to others wanting to get into this line of work.

So here are just a few suggestions and I apologize in advance that most of these are geared towards the business side, but that is my background.

1. Network – keep talking to different people and from different walks of life, you never know who may have a contact that can get you into this business.

2. Vision – other photographers will talk a lot about creative vision and that’s important, but it’s also vital to think about the overall vision you have for your work.  What is your vision statement for your photographic work, what are you trying to achieve and where do you want to be in 5 years time? Once you have this, you’ll have a better idea of what you should be aiming towards.

3. Business Planning – Heber is correct in stating that you don’t get into this line of work to make large amounts of money, so it’s crucial that you’re accurate in your business projections.  First of all, establish how much money you need to live on (and support your family if that’s a part of your circumstances) and then work backwards from there.  The charges you make to a client need to be realistic and competitive but you also have to pay the bills and pay for the next grocery store visit.  It’s all basic business practice really, but many people don’t do it and often find themselves in financial difficulties a year or two down the line. Personally, I’m only 1 year into this new area of work so only time will tell if I’ve got my business planning right, it’s on track so far though.

4. USP (unique selling point) – think about what you can offer to a client that maybe others are unable to do (ideally this isn’t a permanent FOC service, you’ll never be able to sustain a living on that service offering).

5. Over-deliver – try to provide more to your client than they expect.

6. Research – check out the websites of potential clients; is it obvious that they have a need for strong, high quality images to back up their fundraising/awareness campaigns?

7. Over-shoot – whilst shooting on assignment, one of my early mistakes was thinking that as soon as I’d got a shot of a particular person or situation, that I could put my camera down and start looking for the next image.  But then in an evening when I started to sift through the images of that day I’d often find myself asking “why didn’t I get more shots of this and from this other angle?”  Now, I over-shoot and I have far more images to choose from……and so does my client.