Thursday 9 February 2012

Photography to change the world

Ever wondered how you can make a difference in the world today?  Even more specifically, how you can use photography (or any other skill/gift you have) to help people?

This question has been on my mind for a while now and while I've made some progress, I still haven't got very far.  To a certain extent that's ok but this blog post from John Keatley has given me some inspiration to look a bit harder and try and get some other people inspired to do the same!

John is an award winning portrait photographer from Seattle who has shot many household names in his own unique style, but last year decided to do something different and ended up in Liberia documenting communities that MiiR via Well Done Organization had installed clean water wells.  This year he is heading to the Philippines with Arts Aftercare to document their work with survivors of sexual slavery and the training of carers.  In doing so (and blogging about it) he's raising awareness for what is a massive and tragic issues in many parts of the world and hopefully inspiring more and more people to take action.

So what action are you going to take to change the world today?

I know the action that everyone take will be different, and so it should be, we are all different and will have different issues close to our heart.  On top of that we are all blessed with different skills, responsibilities, financial situations and personalities, but there's always something we can do if we have both the courage and humility to do it.