Glenna Gordon is multi-talented American journalist based in Liberia.  She blogs under the name of Scarlet Lion.

This post was first published on her blog and was written in response to something I wrote on A Developing Story about the challenging relationship between photojounalism and human rights:

Part of the problem here is how NGOs think about photography.

Many of them think of it not as something that should happen regularly to document changes, continuity, or community, but something they want to spend a wad of cash on once or twice a year and use in big PR campaigns.

The latter model necessitates an international photographer to produce the kind of slick images – often on a very very tight time line where there’s no room for a learning curve – that the NGO wants. I think if NGOs used media more regularly, took photos, say, once a week, rather than once a year, they’d be able to give local photojournalists the kind of practice and experience they need to eventually take the slick photos. And they’d have surprising and wonderful results that are serendipitous in addition to the kind of images you need a skilled photographer to make.

Meanwhile, last week I trained a handful of local photographers with the support of UNICEF.

Going into this, I knew that there won’t be many opportunities for these guys to make a lot of money off of their photography anytime soon. A bit of training can help a lot, but without the fancy equipment or know how to get NGO contracts, most people won’t be knocking at their door. I hope that they can make better images for the newspapers they work for. There’s a local market that’s eager for images too – there aren’t a lot of postcards in Liberia, local magazines always need images, and businesses need product shots.

This is Bill E. Diggs. He did more with a point and shoot camera than I’ve seen lots of people do with a dSLR. He wants to do more – practice more, use different equipment, work more. But, he’s still going to college while already freelancing at a local paper. Like so many people in Liberia, he’s just gettin’ by.

teaching a photographer to fish, part two

This is a photo Bill took during the workshop. It’s pretty great, I think, and shows that Bill has a lot of potential. Later today, I’ll be teaching another workshop through UNICEF – this one for kids. Bill’s going to help me out and try out playing with UNICEF’s dSLR. I’m excited to see what kind of images he’ll make – and the kids too. Stay tuned.

Scarlett Lion

related posts

1. War photographer: a dangerous idolatry