Matt Powell Humanitarian Photography :: Blog

In response to the frequent question: ” Tell me how you got started?”  I’ve stepped out on a ledge & written “My Story“- a more in-depth look at how I got started in humanitarian photography.  You can read it here.

I’m looking forward to this:

PDNPulse: PDN Seeks Submissions For: The Concerned Photographer.

Art & Altruism.   That is my interest.  And Love, Light & Melody is an organization that is doing a fine job of combining the two.   “They use music and the arts to rebuild, restore, and bring healing to communities ravaged by extreme poverty.”  When I find an effort like this it reminds me of why I have been put here on earth, and it encourages me that I have much work left to do.  Visit their website here, or  watch this video to be inspired:

I’m very excited to announce- after far too many years of the same old site- that I have a new portfolio website coming out with a complete overhaul of images and design.  It’s not here yet- it’s in the final stages.  But here’s a taste of how it’s looking.  This blog will also get a re-design to match.  Expect to hear much more from me once I get all this stuff completed….

For some serious inspiration head over to the website of Joey L..   Navigate to Personal > Abyssinia,  & also check out his Holy Men gallery.  This is some of the best field portraiture I’ve ever seen.

Over on his blog he discusses his approach in taking these pictures.  He calls them “dignified portraits”. In quotes here:

“I define the way I photograph people as a “dignified portrait,” and certainly used this style in Ethiopia. I feel in order to present something about someone in a photograph, it must be done very carefully and with great respect. I feel the advent of point and shoot cameras and the ease of sharing photography every where in the world (even though I admit this is how I got started and how I survive) can limit ones view of how important an image really can be. The tools and methods I use are not as important as the mindset, but I feel they do well in getting my direction across in presenting the subject.

Most of my images are contrived and posed. I think it is wrong to assume this direction as less realistic than a photojournalistic approach. I believe that ‘purist photojournalism’ is a very strong form of communication, and has its place in the world, but it is not my calling. Every single image not captured by an eye undergoes some kind of process, be it light reacting to the film which renders color and tonality or a digital signal being reassembled and compressed. If you take snapshots wishing them to not look contrived, then they are contrived to be snapshots. Every single image ever taken is contrived in some way or another. No process is purer than another, and no color is a truer color. (I have never seen the world in black and white either. )”

- by Joey L.

By the way- this photographer is only 20 years old, and most of his work is in commercial & advertising.

PDN Magazine just published this killer article about newspaper photojournalists who are getting laid off and forming multimedia companies.  And they seem to be targeting primarily non-profits & NGO’s with their services.  This is what I’ve been waiting for and it points to some encouraging realities:

• Photojournalists ARE finding new and growing outlets for visual stories about social justice and social responsibility.
• BECAUSE of the decline of the traditional news media we ARE witnessing a renaissance of humanitarian & advocacy photojournalism- helping to return it to its’ roots.
• Thanks to print/video convergence, there ARE powerful new avenues for organizations to get their stories told, and for photographers to help them.

So check out these new companies.  And please let me know of others doing similar work.

• Weyo
• Story4
• Do1Thing