Mani, 14yrs, wants to be a painter, likes photography but loves painting. Photography will remain a hobby for now !!

Vineetha, 18yrs, joining a leading Multi National Bank next week, photography will remain a hobby !!

Gayatri, 16yrs, wants to get into the fashion industry, wants to learn photography to do exactly that !!

Bhavani K, 17 yrs , Wants to be a lawyer , Wants to learn photography so that she can take pictures of crime and terrorists !!

Rekha, 17 yrs, wants to be a Montessori teacher, wants to become a good photographer and teach basics of photography as well some day !!

Meenakshi, 17yrs, Wants to be a professional photographer, joined classes to understand basics of photography and figure how she could pursue this full time. Will choose Arts for her degree.

Divya, 15yrs, wants to be an English teacher, wants to take up photography as a hobby

Swathi, 19yrs, Wants to learn accounts and be a bank manager but also wants to continue photography as a serious hobby

Pooja, 18yrs , interested in the hospitality industry, feels photography can contribute to the cause and wants to pursue photography as a serious hobby

Revathi, 17yrs, photography bug bit her a yr back, feels this workshop has made up her mind, wants to take up photography professionally

Bhavani, 16yrs, loves math and accounts, started taking pics a yr back and loved it …photography will be a serious hobby !!

Prem, 18yrs, wants to be a cricketer or a computer scientist, still figuring out what he wants to do… Photography will be a hobby for now !

So we have started on this very interesting journey and we cant wait to see the work of the 10 girls and 2 boys .. Have a look at the group below….

Here are some pictures from Week 1 where Samyukta took them through basics of photography and discussed students previous work…

Social change will not come from documentary photographs alone. This may seem like a statement that flies in the face of social documentary photographers working to affect change through their work, however it is an adage worth holding onto. Certainly the somewhat intangible relationship between change and photography is something I have found to be worth exploring both in my research and as an aspiring photographer.

This issue came up recently in a conversation with Bart J. Cannon, the executive director for Blue Earth, a non-profit organization dedicated to photography that makes a difference, who spoke candidly about his personal opinions on the social change potential of photography. The discussion was extremely enlightening.

Sarah Rennie: Does Blue Earth have a specific principle when it comes to the photographers and projects it supports?

Bart Cannon: Well our basic mission is social change. We are not a fine arts organization, we’re interested in documentary photography, specifically documentary photography, photojournalism, however you care to describe it, which is specifically for the purpose of creating a positive change in society. So we try to help projects that are covering under-reported issues, and issues that are important, and work with photographers who are dedicated to public education, helping people know about a problem, and to helping find avenues for solving it.

SR: Do you encourage associations between photographers and other organizations and groups?

BC: Well if the goal is social change there’s going to have to be an action step. So we want people to provide educational activities, which involve taking action. So, it’s not just simply throwing the images out there and telling the story, it’s, ok, well what do you do about it.

SR: Interesting. For so many it’s about getting the pictures out there.

BC: Humans are strongly visually motivated and sometimes just getting the image out there can make an enormous difference, but that’s not always enough. As long as it’s not something sensationalistic like thugs attacking civil rights marches in the 1960s. Sometimes it’s a little more esoteric. A photograph of an iceberg melting may not move people unless they understand the context. And then, OK, well what precisely can I do about it?

SR: Context is always an issue. What are some of the key components of a good project?

BC: We always tell people who are applying that there are various factors which come into play. Our ability to help, how it fits into our portfolio of projects… We don’t want to duplicate projects for example. And always the quality of the photographs is going to be key but the real issue is going to be the storytelling component and the practicality. You’d be surprised how many applications we get from people who say, “yeah I’m going to go down the amazon and I’m going to document all these issues – budget for $1000”. Well… how are you going to eat, where are you going to stay, how are you going to get down there? Then you have all these fabulous images, now what? Have you even thought about that?

We can’t always make everything go the way we want it to, but we definitely want our project photographers thinking about getting the word out, and what that actually means to the public.

SR: How important do you think it is that people interact with images. Does this promote change?

BC: Humans are primates and primates respond strongly to visual stimulus. That’s my own personal knee jerk response. People have a difficult time responding to something unless they can see it. So if you want to demonstrate the fact that the Amazon is disappearing show them a field of it burning – people get that, they understand it in simple visceral terms.  And sometimes on complex issues it helps to put things in very stark perspective like that.

SR: Is that enough or do we need to start pushing a bit more?

BC: I think that’s beyond my purview, that’s more of a political question. Not that I’m dodging politics, I’m a political scientist by training, but there’s only so much that we’re able to do. We aren’t able to organize or to engage in field work to get people lobbying to change laws or to boycott abusive corporations etc. That’s at the tactical level, which really has to be addressed on a very specific case-by-case basis.

SR: Which types of images do you think may work best to convey a message of change?

BC: There are lots of dramatic images out there that I’ve seen over the years but it really depends on the issue and the story. I tend to approach photographs not so much from an artistic perspective but more from a social scientist approach, which is documentation. So I think actually producing photographic evidence is very strong and useful in persuasion. So a dramatic image in itself isn’t sufficient, I want to see data.

If glaciers are melting, show me a washed out gully where the glacier used to be, that’s strong data that makes a difference.  Especially if you can show me what it used to look like before.

SR: When photographers submit to Blue Earth, do you want them to be telling you a story?

BC: That’s what project photography is about. If they’re not telling a story it’s not project photography and it’s not documentary. There’s got to be some sort of narrative there to tell people what this is. If you’re not telling a story, you start crossing into the line of fine art photography and it becomes an exercise in photographic technique, which is fine – it’s just not documentary photography. Particularly if your goal is not just to document, that is to take pictures of facts for shelving in an archive, but… if you’re trying to create change, you’ve got to be telling a story.

SR: My research focuses on the interaction between images and audience, and on images as a catalyst for change. Do you have any thoughts on this?

BC: It all comes again to the storytelling. You’ve got to have a compelling narrative in order to motivate change. It’s fine is somebody is emotionally moved by an image, it’s good if they learn something, but if you’re actually trying to do something concrete like reduce carbon emissions, you’ve got to have some kind of action plan, even if it’s as simple as writing a legislator to affect an upcoming vote on EPA regulations. It’s that concrete step that makes a difference. My personal background is that I was an activist in college, worked at a human rights organization for 12 years before coming to Blue Earth, so that’s my personal interest and maybe that’s my bias, but I’m not interested in enlightening the world. I’m interested in making it better. One comes before the other absolutely, but being moved by an image is not interesting to me, I want to know how that image is going to educate the audience and tell a narrative, which can give them an action step. So that’s probably not exactly the answer to your question, but that’s how I would personally approach it.

SR: That is really interesting in the sense that some of the photographers I’ve spoken to do not share that opinion. Once the photo is out, it’s out of their hands. Their job is to take the picture, and once it’s taken it’s up to the audience to move forward. But you are suggesting that it is up to the photographer?

BC: I would say so. I mean, if your job is to engage in photojournalism or social change photography, however you want to describe it, this implies you’re actually trying to make a difference. Images in and of themselves are wonderful but they are not doing anything – it’s the audience that’s going to do something and if you’re not out there poking the audience to do something then it’s not really serving your purpose as far as I can tell.  It serves as valuable archival, historical, evidence, which is valuable but that’s not creating change.

SR: Really interesting. So then, what is your idea of social change?

BC: I wouldn’t put it in general terms, it’s always specific.  Social change is stopping the factory from dumping the poisons in the water of that Texas town. That’s concrete positive change. Concrete positive change would be legislation passed by congress to have specific strengthened requirements for the use of toxic chemicals in water tables.  You know, very specific actions I think are what make a difference. If you want to have change at the very tactical, feet on the ground level, it’s not about changing the whole gestalt or the general attitude toward the earth, it’s about actually giving people solutions, or tactics, or steps they can take to improve things.

SR: So the photographs would be a visual cue, or a method for prodding people?

BC: I would say so. And related to that is documenting solutions. You can document a huge trash dump and accompany that with photographs of a green and effective recycling plant. Ok here’s a problem and here’s a step, it’s not insurmountable and awful and terrible, here are actual people working on the ground today attempting solutions. And I think that’s a key part of it too. So the image of the trash dump may be shocking and get people’s attention, and that’s marvelous, but we can also follow that up with additional images, or a narrative that will help people get involved.

SR: Great point. Thank you so much for this.

This conversation was part of an interview informing my research, which addresses a personal conviction that social change photography can have a significant social impact by questioning images’ effect on, and ability to affect, a diverse audience. If you have any thoughts on this topic, or on any of the issues raised in the above interview, I would love to hear from you.

The Ansel Adams Gallery and Blue Earth are proud to host an inspiring photo exhibit and lecture series featuring our dramatically changing planet titled “Changing Earth: Photographers Call to Action” opening September 19, 2009 at Mumm Napa Fine Art Photography Gallery and running through March 13, 2010.

The Blue Earth Alliance would like to extend an invitation to our friends to join us for a sparkling wine reception at Mumm Napa on September 19 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. marking the opening of the exhibit. The reception and ongoing exhibit are open to the public and offered at no charge.

The exhibit features works from a variety of acclaimed Blue Earth project photographers who document earth’s changing environment and the impact of those changes on society. Blue Earth photographers and projects in the exhibit include: Daniel Beltrá (Amazon: Forest at Risk), Benjamin Drummond & Sara Joy Steele (Facing Climate Change: Global Change. Local People), Stephen Harrison (Visualizing Earth), Anne Marie Musselman (Finding Trust/The Sarvey Wildlife Project), Camille Seaman (Melting Away ? The Last Iceberg), Florian Schulz (Freedom To Roam: Wildlife Corridors), John Trotter (No Agua, No Vida: The Thirsty Colorado River Delta), and Rebecca Norris Webb (The Glass Between Us: Reflections on Urban Creatures).

Mumm Napa Winery is located at 8445 Silverado Trail, Rutherford, CA 94573. Visitor center and fine art photography gallery hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily.

Lecture Schedule
Nov. 7th – Drummond/Steele, “Facing Climate Change”
Dec. 5th – Camille Seaman, “Connection and Purpose”
Feb. 6th – Stephen Harrison, “Visualizing Earth”
Mar. 6th – John Trotter, “The Future of the Colorado River”
TBD – Florian Schulz, “Freedom To Roam

Check out the Blue Earth Alliance website for further updates.