© Heber Vega | The most important Story

Before I start I want to make a couple of things really clear. First off, I’m not trying to change your mind about the length of your assignments, but I want to give you another perspective/approach towards the time spent on your stories. This is not a post to tell you, “You are wrong and I’m right.” In fact, this does not apply to you if you are photographer not working on telling stories. On the other hand, if you are a photographer trying to tell stories of people, causes, organizations, NGOs, etc. this blog post may help you in the long run. You should consider this advice.

After that small explanation, I want to quote Ami Vitale and her perspective about this issue. (If you haven’t seen Ami’s work yet, you should stop reading now and go check out her site over here)

The following paragraph was extracted from Nikon World Magazine, Fall 2009.

Ami Vitale doesn’t report stories, she lives them. A few days, a week, even two weeks is simply not enough time. “I don’t feel comfortable working in places I don’t know well,” she said. “I think the better work comes when people know you and trust you, and also when you have a comfort level in a place.” Further on in the article she said, “It really takes a long time to understand what is going on and why it’s happening. I like to give myself that time.”

Why did I start with Ami’s quote? Because most of the photographers that I admire have taken the same approach as Ami when they tell stories. As this article said, “They don’t report stories, they live them.” Please, I’m not saying that if you aren’t able to “live” among your subjects, you cannot tell their stories. No, I’m far from saying that. But what I do want to share with you guys today, is that most of the great photographers/story-tellers that the world admires have gotten really cool photographs because they have invested time in telling their stories. Do you see the difference?

What I want to put in your mind is that there’s a different approach to telling stories. You don’t need to “rush” and get in this vicious circle of “Instant.” That’s how the world wants everything today, but most of the time that doesn’t help us to tell the stories that we love to photograph. In one word, what makes stories and photography so great by photographers such as Ami Vitale, is INTIMACY. They connect with their subject, they get close, and they make a big effort in trying to understand the whys, whats and hows. If you want to tell stories, want to do it well, and have an impact on your viewers, then you have to take in account the time you will spend on absorbing the story yourself. On the other hand, if you want an average type of story, then go and rush the whole thing!

How do you get to know the story well? By spending time with the subject. There are other great components, which are as important as time for telling great stories, but time is part of the foundation, in the way I see things.

Now that I hope my point is clear to you, I want to share some ideas for the future of your photography business. 1. At the moment I know a couple of great humanitarian/travel photographers who are taking this approach to telling stories. Check out Lane Davis’ work. He is on a nine-months-long assignment and is telling great stories from Africa. Check out www.totellastory.org. During the next few months, Lane will visit several places, which can be complicated if you only accept one assignment at the time. Let me put it in other words – if you really want to get busy working for several organizations at the same time, or visiting several places from one organization, then an approach like this is convenient. You spend less time going back home, spend less money in doing so, and you end up spending more time with your subjects.

2. What about living overseas? There are several great travel/humanitarian photographers, living abroad. Matt Brandon and Gavin Gough just to name a few. The quality of their work is fruitful, as they are spending a long time among their subjects, knowing their subject’s culture, festivals, ceremonies, places to visit that if you are only for a week are really difficult to find.

3. I know another great humanitarian photographer, that recently told me, “I spend so much time traveling to Africa, that now I’ve decided to establish my office over there, at least for 6-8 months every year. That way I will keep my clients in the States but then I will be free to cover all these stories that non-profits want me to shoot.”

In my case, I live in Iraq, although my reason for doing this wasn’t photography. Today after almost 7 years on the field, I have an edge, an advantage to telling stories of the people in this country. The other day I had only a couple of days to photograph some women from Prosperity Candle from Baghdad. With a photographer that did not know the place, that wouldn’t have been enough time to get the story, but because I pretty well know the situation over here, it was easier for me to get those moments out of those women.

I could go on with a list of advantages, as the language for example, and how that really “opens doors” in these countries. Language requires TIME to be acquired. Now, is your time to comment on this topic, to tell me your experiences, maybe your fears on long-term projects. As I said at the beginning, this is only an opinion, and you should keep doing what you think works best for your photography.

Last thing, when I tweeted yesterday about this blog post, Ben Hodson replied to me with this: “I think it depends on if you want to truly allow yourself to be impacted by the people and their stories?” So my question for you is: Are you allowing yourself to be impacted by people stories?

Have a great day.

NOTE: I got this email from Lane Davis, about his thoughts on this discussion, please read it!

“The biggest pro that comes from long assignments is when you are able to actually work on one story or project for a long period of time. This allows you to begin to know people. I’m never a fan of coming into a project and feeling rushed to get the images for the NGO. I like to get to know people. It allows for the real stories to slowly come out. I find people are sometimes hesitant of some guy with a big camera just coming in and taking pictures. If you can spend time and get to know the place, people, story, and culture it only helps your project in the long run.

The best example of this was a project in ethiopia. I met this lady the first day I arrived. Talked to her every day. But it wasn’t until my last day there, that I began to truly hear her story. What all had happened in her life. There I was listening to this woman tell me her story of her life as a refuge. I had talked with her everyday for a month and it wasn’t till I was about to leave that I started to know her story. That had huge implications to the story I had been working on. I wanted to stay longer.

Another advantage is cost. If i’m already in africa, it’s not as expensive to get to another project, verses going to the states and then coming back.

Side note: I’m really starting to rack my brain on what is a good length of time in a project. In this big project I’m visiting many small projects. some I’m there for a month, others only a few days. I prefer the longer ones any day. In fact i’m thinking like somewhere between 1-6 months depending on the need of the project. (audio, video, stills, writing, etc). I think a good couple months would be ideal. I like to just get to know people the first few days or longer. If I am only there for a week, I can’t afford that a lot of times.”