Images That Matter
Using Photography To Connect The World
words and images by Brandon Plain
There are times in a photographer’s life when their art and their conscience wrestle. In the midst of turmoil, poverty, riots, drought, it’s beyond difficult and questionable to make photos of people in the pit of plight.
There is a balance between lowering the camera thereby allowing individuals dignity and being able to capture an image to which viewers can relate and be encouraged to react.
Africa is rich and Africa is poor. It exists in extremes and there is no way to encapsulate the continent in a single image. A photo of an emaciated child in Sudan is as real and true as a photo of the jagged metal of the Nigerian coast line scattered with oil wealth and skyscrapers.
The purpose of my photography is to create a bridge of understanding, images that turn apathy into empathy. It is important that the human race understand that we all want the same simple pleasure out of life, to experience love more than we experience suffering.
When I started Artists for Advocacy International it was for the sole purpose of showing that the artist’s heart is greater than their hands. It allowed me the space to not have to compete with other photographers.
What if you allowed your talent to compete against poverty, thirst, and hunger?
Photography is a vehicle that allows the heart to travel when the body cannot. It is an eye with wings. It has been said that “a picture is worth a thousand words” but I like to think that a photo fans a thousand flames.
It is through responsible imaging that we feel without touching, fall in love without peace and parachute. Opening our hearts to neighborhoods we are told to keep out of and to go to regions of the world that have been neglected.
Photography, if approached properly, can be for those who feel!
Photography is, I believe, for people who not only ask “why”, but also say “no more” — for those who feel the call to have their talent reap more than applause.
1. Can You Turn a Photo Into Bread?
You can and it’s not as difficult as you may think.
My first Kenya trip, I had an inexpensive entry-level DSLR. It’s not the camera that makes the difference, it is the spirit and intent of the photographer.
I got off of the plane and started firing off more photographs than breaths. Wrong approach! My inexperience was showing. I wasn’t making good photos and the people who I was taking photos of were not receptive.
There must be a partnership of patience with the people you are photographing. The recipe for respect isn’t difficult to acquire if you accept that you are a guest. If you wouldn’t want someone shoving a camera down your throat, why would you do it to someone else?
2. Spend Time with the People You Photograph
Be a part of their lives, if just for a few minutes. They might not understand your purpose. If you don’t, go away, get one, then come back to make images.
Talk to your subjects, shake hands, hang out. Most people love the fact that you want to take their photo. Show them the photo. Use a polaroid so they can have an image as well. The more you do this the better the experience will be for everyone.
The beautiful woman above and I spent a lot of time together. She is deaf. I’ve never seen anyone communicate so strongly with her or his eyes; there was never a time we were not in full understanding.
One day, as we were leaving the village, she joined us in the van to travel with us. I more than enjoyed her, I loved her.
3. Make Photos That Fully Reflect Your Experience
Don’t think solely about what will resonate back home. Shoot because it touched you personally. The art of a photograph isn’t about angles and aperture; it’s about the embodying the moment you took it.
4. Don’t Use the Saddest Photo
When you are using photography for humanitarian reasons and hoping to inspire (distant) others, it’s important that you don’t use the saddest picture you made.
I assure you, in some of the most impoverished places I have visited, people had the highest sense of jubilance and joy. That deserves our respect.
5. Don’t Be Selfish!
Make sure when you are advocating for your cause that your art reflects the cause and the work involved. People will respect you for it. If you are a show-and-tell photographer, make sure you are telling the whole story — the good, bad, and the ugly.
I have photographs I would never share publicly because I believe they invoke stereotypes that aren’t necessarily true. I encourage you to have a high level of integrity when you put someone’s child in a 24x36 matte frame.
Your art was given to you, so give back.
6. Think Big and Commit to Practical Steps
The photo of the foot above, is why I take photographs. My goal in the near future is to start building a clinic in rural Uganda with basic medical care. Access to first-aid, feminine hygiene products, fever reducers and HIV testing is the goal.
When you show someone your work, allow them to feel it. Make full use of your role as a bridge between your subjects and audiences who can connect, or help. Photography can be in the service of others and it can fulfill others’ needs.
Once you begin to give …
… you will be surprised how much is given back
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I maintain four other spaces on Medium with my photography. Please check these out as well! Here are two:
