Photography News Issue 43

Photography News | Issue 43 | absolutephoto.com

19 Interview

Profile Vanessa Champion PhotoAid Global helps connect photographers and charities to raise awareness of human and animal rights, and environmental issues. We speak to founder and lead photographer Vanessa Champion to find out more…

Can you give us some background on PhotoAid Global and why it was launched?What are its aims? We celebrate photojournalism that inspires understanding and action through visual documentary, covering human and animal rights and environmental awareness. We offer three main services for charities and NGOs: photography and video; expertise and training; and opportunities to photographers to make adifference in theUKor abroad. Through our expertise we run educational programmes in the UK and on location, with photographers and local people, from the youngest child to the oldest grandmother! If you run talks or workshops you can invite us to speak to your club or group. We can give advice on how to monetise your photography, raise awareness of your cause, or just tell inspirational stories. PhotoAid is here to help advise if you’re travelling or thinking of supporting a charity or good cause with photography. PhotoAid Global helps broker photography trips with NGOs and travel organisations doing good in remote places around the world, offering unique, life-changing experiences and a lifeline to these smaller charities who are working at grassroots level. We don’t just work abroad – we also support local charities who desperately need promotional images. If you are a photographer andwant to support us, a charity in need of a photographer, or you just want to go on ourmailing list, please contact us. We can also help by organising exhibitions, printing, sales of prints, books and so forth. Tell us a bit about your role at PhotoAid Global I am founder and lead photographer. I’ve been a photographer for over 20 years, have run a gallery and art spaces, curated exhibitions, agented for artists and photographers and travelledalloverforcommercialwork. I often tag on extra days if I can, to see some of the country. I amalso director of Dragonfly Communications, a creative marketing agency. My journey has been an interesting one, a lot of it by the kindness of strangers. Leaving myself open to experiences and people has opened doors and the trust of some astonishing individuals and communities. Telling stories with your camera is such a compelling need. Like many photographers, I see stories all over the place. I set up PhotoAid Global to fuse the elements I see all the time: NGOs and good causes who need money, who have amazing assets in people and on-the-ground knowledge but are always looking for volunteers

Contact

www.photoaid.org.uk Email makeadifference@ photoaid.org.uk Twitter @photoaidglobal

I nstagram @photoaidglobal facebook.com/PhotoAidGlobal/

If you have old cameras; would like to be part of PhotoAid as a photographer, supporter or other capacity; or can donate time to fix up old cameras, do get in touch with Vanessa at PhotoAid makeadifference@photoaid.org.uk

How can our readers get involved? We are currently putting a call out for photographers to join us – professionals, amateurs, and keen hobbyists. Email us on makeadifference@photoaid.org.uk or fill in the formon ourwebsite, we then ping you back a questionnaire and go from there. We are looking to have a shop on our website, to be able to sell prints and other items – if anyone is a whizz at that and would like to donate their expertise to help us, we would be delighted to hear from them! Recycle your old cameras! If you have an old digital or film camera knocking around that you would like to donate, we refurbish them, giving themnew life in the hands of someone for whom photography is a lifeline, a means to feed themselves andget back on track, in the UK and abroad. We are also looking for technical experts who can help refurbish cameras, if anyone can donate their time and expertise we would love to hear from them! (WORKAID is kindly storing them for us.) Also, if photographers have used their photography to help a charity or good cause and would like to tell us about it, we feature some on our f8 online. F8 is a collection of interviews with photographers, journalists and travellers who are using photography tohelpmake adifference. It’s like kick- starting positive karma: you give a little and buckets of goodness come back. Thanks to everyone who is supporting us – it means a lot.

and fabulous photographers who want to put something back. Also business people who love photography and are at that point in their careers where they want tomake a difference (whether by travelling with us and having a life- changing experience, or supporting an exhibition or event). So that’s what we do: we bring everyone together. Can you tell us about some of your past projects and charities you’ve worked with? We have travelled as part of the PhotoAid Global mission from Nepal to Uganda, and provided lots of support in the UK. Our first project was with Born to be Beautiful, a UK charity that teaches beauty skills to women with no formal education, who have been beaten, raped and trafficked. This training enables the women to work and save money to put their children through school and protect themselves through independence. Since then we have shadowed a Rinpoche (religious teacher) in Nepal to support the monastery; donated prints for Alzheimer’s Research UK; travelled and visited nomadic communitiesinUgandawithPENHA (PastoralandEnvironmentalNetwork in the Horn of Africa) and curated the resultant exhibition at Calumet London who gave us the space for free; coached former Kampala street kids in photography (thanks to the generosity of FujifilmUK) during the solar eclipse; witnessed herds of cows move in eerie silence as the sun went down near Mbarara Uganda; and supporters; and

documented the freedom of children, former boy soldiers in Gulu, northern Uganda. Every time I’ve come home humbled, inspired, made friends and tried to help as I can. What projects are you currently working with? In the UK we support lots of small charities, those needing a photographer to cover awards ceremonies, matches or fundraising dinners and portraits, from local football teams to disability charities. We are heading out to Mumbai in April to document training given by Born to be Beautiful. They are heading out to Sierra Leone later in the year and we have a photographer accompanying them. We are organising an exhibition in theautumnofthisyeartosupportAna by Karma, a venture that supports Bhutanese weavers to sell their work. We are calling it Rainbows of Colour, and it's an exhibition of photographs taken by children in Bhutan. It is run by Quin SQ who, to raise funds, ran the first crowdfunding exercise in Hong Kong. We also recently partnered with WORKAID Since 1986, WORKAID has helped around 100,000 disadvantaged people to break the cycle of poverty through training, building better lives for themselves and their families. They are updating their website and we are teaching the admin staff how to frame, look for the light and story to tell. We are looking for photographers to come and join us in June to support a hospice portrait project in Hackney.

Leaving myself open to experiences has opened doors and the trust of some astonishing communities

photoaid.org.uk