I Different Look at Things

The other day I listened to a podcast interview from one of the photojournalists that I follow, Esther Havens. She is a brilliant photographer, wise innovator, and overall amazing person. She had some interesting things to say about how she selects the people that she actually works for and how she choses to portray issues in the world.
To me, the most amazing thing that she talked about was how she actually works to tell stories. Often times photographers go out looking for "that shot," the Pulitzer Prize winners, the tear-jerker of a starving kid. The problem with so many of the pictures is that yeah, there's a starving kid but do you even know their name? Their story? Did you do anything about their situation? If you just snapped a picture to make someone feel bad about the way they live their life in excess, are you really fixing anything? People are only motivated by guilt for so long. They are not going to really invest in an organization or ministry because of guilt. They might give some money when they see a sad image but to really communicate the stories, you have to go beyond that snapshot image. This concept of choosing to see the good that is happening and telling stories of hopeful life-change has rocked the way that I want to take pictures. I don't want you just to see the terrible statistics of billions of people that are living life without Jesus, the millions of people in the slave trade today, the thousands of child laborers, I want to help you see what people are actually doing to change those things.

I chose hope.

http://www.thedigitaltrekker.com/2011/05/depth-of-field-esther-havens/