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/

45 years

While learning about missions in India, you are bound to hear about Mother Teresa. The Catholic nun moved to Calcutta, India in 1950 and spent the next 45 years ministering to poor, sick, orphaned, and dying people. She is known for all her good works to the people of India and it's easy to forget about the personal life she lived. By reading some things that she said, I really trust in the heart that she worked and gave out of. Here are two of my favorite quote from Mother Teresa:

"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."

"We can not do great things. We can only do little things with great love."

www.motherteresa.org