The Fulbright – National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship is a new component of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program that provides opportunities for U.S. citizens to participate in an academic year of overseas travel and digital storytelling in up to three countries on a globally significant social or environmental topic. This Fellowship is made possible through a partnership between the U.S. Department of State and the National Geographic Society.
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Ian Parry Scholarship
The Ian Parry Scholarship is an international photographic competition for young photographers who are either attending a full-time photographic course or are under 24. Entrants must submit a portfolio and a brief synopsis of a project they would undertake if they won the scholarship. The prize consists of £3,500 towards their chosen assignment £500 to those awarded Highly Commended and Commended, as well as a choice of Canon equipment, publication of the finalist’s work in The Sunday Times Magazine and admittance into the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass. Reportage by Getty Images adds the winer to their Emerging Talent Group and Save the Children offers one of the finalists an all expense paid assignment. Deadline is typically in August. Watch the Ian Parry Scholarship website for more details.
It Takes A Village to Protect a Rhino
I am thrilled to be starting my first crowd funding campaign with the new site, IndieVoices and I’m incredibly grateful to The Photo Society, for selecting it to be among the first that they launch. The New York Times ran an interview about this project. Read more about it here.
This is an important story I began with The Nature Conservancy about indigenous communities uniting to combat poaching in Northern Kenya. If this is an issue you support, please share this link. My stories will focus on the indigenous nomadic communities of Northern Kenya on the frontlines of the poaching wars and their efforts to preserve community cohesion, ultimately the best immunization against forces that threaten their wildlife and their way of life.
Commercial poaching organized by sophisticated heavily armed criminal networks and fueled by heavy demand from newly minted millionaires in emerging markets is devastating the amazing mega-fauna of the African plains. It is entirely possible, even likely, that if the current trajectory of death continues, rhinos, elephants and a host of lesser know plains animals will be functionally extinct in our lifetimes.
Much needed attention has been focused on the plight of wildlife and the conflict between heavily armed poacher and increasingly militarized wildlife rangers. However, the compelling story of indigenous communities caught in the cross-hairs of the poaching wars, and who may hold the key to saving Africa’s great animals, is largely untold.
The vast arid landscape of savannah, thorn-scrub and forested sky islands is populated by 14 indigenous semi-nomadic ethnicities– Bajun, Boni, Borana, Giriama, Maasai, Ntorobo, Njemps, Ormoa, Pokomo, Pokot, Rendillie, Samburu, Somali, and Turkana. Healthy populations of elephants including some massive tuskers roam this region while endangered black rhino, Grevy’s zebra and Hirola antelope hold on in globally significant numbers. But armed poachers taking advantage of the porous borders of Somalia, and South Sudan put wildlife and people at grave risk, increasing instability, inter-clan conflict, and lawlessness. While government and private conservation organizations fight to strengthen anti-poaching efforts, communal cohesion with and between communities is the fabric upon which conservation depend.
Twenty-six indigenous groups covering 2.5 million hectares of Northern Kenya have begun to lay down their guns, relying on dialogue rather than warfare to settle inter-tribal conflict and collectively manage wildlife within their lands. They are beginning to reap the benefits of their efforts as both conservation and tourism dollars flows into this extremely poor region. And by managing grazing jointly they can better safeguard against the unpredictability of drought and climate change. Poaching now threatens their recent successes and may rip apart fragile communities and permanently end a nomadic way of life.
Film for Ripple Effect Images
MediaStorm created a beautiful film about my work with Ripple Effect Images. Our aim is to tell the stories that empower women around the world. Watch it HERE.
For photographer Ami Vitale, the pivotal moment occurred in Guinea-Bissau.
It was the start of her career and she was visiting her sister in the Peace Corp. Vitale expected Africa to be filled with war, famine, plague or the other extreme, exotic safaris.
Living in West Africa for six months showed her not only “how the majority of people on the planet live their day-to-day life,” but that people were not as hopeless as the newspapers portrayed. There was “a great deal of joy there.”
It is a revelation that has guided Vitale through 80 countries and a 13-year career.
Her original desire to take “beautiful pictures” was transformed into a desire to do justice to people and their stories. As a photographer Vitale’s focus has centered on issues surrounding women, poverty and health. The common denominator to all of her stories, she realized, is nature, specifically climate change. And it’s women who bare the brunt of those changes.
But when a woman is offered the tools to improve her situation, she runs with the opportunity. She transforms communities. “It’s a ripple effect,” says Vitale.
It’s the desire to see change that led Ami Vitale to join Ripple Effect Images, a photography organization started by Annie Griffiths that shares imagery with other changemakers.
“We are telling the stories that are so important and get lost in the headlines,” says Vitale. “They are the key to connecting things and allowing people to get engaged and make a difference.”]
New work from Montana
Aspiring photographers often ask me where they might go to find the best stories. My answer is always the same – get to know your own backyard, what’s close at hand, rather than traveling around the world just to capture images of something foreign or exotic. My rationale is that if you can tell these stories of every day life and focus on what we have in common rather than the obvious differences, then you will succeed as a storyteller.
Ironically, I have rarely listened to my own advice and the past dozen years has seen me crisscross the globe playing witness to civil unrest, turmoil, and violence in over 85 countries. I broke my pattern in 2010 when I moved to Montana and have tried to base myself in this beautiful but austere landscape.
The images I am now able to create tell the story about our deep connection to land, the importance we place in stewardship, and a vanishing way of life in the American West. The folks whom I have got to know are remarkable in their fortitude, work ethics, and the neighborliness they exhibit everyday. It is not an easy story but one that requires patience and persistence to birth – and yet I believe it is as rewarding in the telling as the more sensational events I have had the opportunity to cover.
Check out this month’s Viewfinder in Orion magazine and the New Yorker lens blog to see some of my images from home.
National Geographic Channel in Sri Lanka
The cameras have been turned and I’m on a new National Geographic Channel tv show called “Mission Covershot” shot in Sri Lanka! The show captures the journey of eight photographers as they compete to get the perfect covershot and the chance of having their photo on the cover of National Geographic magazine. I had the pleasure of being a lead judge on an esteemed panel that included leading Indian director Nagesh Kukunoor and National Geographic Magazine Traveler photography editor Ashima Narain. The lovely and charismatic Shibani Dandekar joined us as the host of the show. I hope the series will not only be entertaining but also educate audiences and aspiring photographers about what it takes to make powerful photographs and stories. It may look easy to carry a camera and make beautiful images but there is a lot of hard work behind each photograph. And most of the time, working hard is much more important than raw talent. Millions of people can take nice pictures but you need to also have intelligence, ethics, sensitivity and know how treat people with respect. So tune in on the Nat Geo channel Monday nights at 10 pm from March 25. Click HERE to see a promo video.
Workshop in Sri Lanka August 9-18, 2013
Join renowned photojournalist Ami Vitale for an enlightening photography workshop on the island nation of Sri Lanka. She just finished a ten part TV series with National Geographic Channel that is currently airing in Asia. This summer she will lead a small and intimate workshop to “The Pearl of the Indian Ocean” with its abundant wildlife and ancient culture. During the trip, you will have the opportunity to photograph and get daily critiques from Ami as she guides you to take your passion for photography and make a difference in your life’s work. The workshop will focus on how to take strong still images and turn them into compelling stories that make a difference. CLICK HERE for a full itinerary.
One of the highlights of the trip will be exclusive photographic access to theKandy/Esala Festival. At this impressive festival, Buddhist traditions are performed in costumes with extravagant decorations and elegant detailing. In addition to front-row views for the festival processions, we will have private access to the dancers and performers as they prepare for the festivities.
We will also enjoy exclusiveaccess in the Pinnewala elephant orphanage. A conservation project for orphaned and injured elephants, it is the only shelter of its kind in the entire world. We will also visit Yala National Park, undoubtedly the best place to spot leopards in Asia, if not the world. We will meet locals, visit the centuries old Dutch Galle Fort and photograph the iconic stilt fisherman that Steve McCurry made famous.
If you are a photographer interested in how to create memorable photographic stories and multimedia presentations, make sure you attend Ami’s powerful and timely workshop. The location and knowledge gained will make this a once in a lifetime experience.
Montana Ranching, Redefined.
New IMAGES HERE:More and more, people want to know where their steak comes from and how it was raised. Spurred by growing concern over beef’s environmental impact and the long-term viability of their livelihood, a cohort of Montana ranchers is working to integrate ecological practices into livestock management.
Over the last year, I’ve been spending time with ranchers to understand what it means to ranch in this day and age. Is it possible that cows can be good for the landscape and ranching can still respect the animal, wild or domestic? The ranchers share a deep love of their livelihood and the land. Together, they work with The Nature Conservancy on an integrative conservation effort in the Centennial Valley, to preserve the integrity of the land in a way that benefits both people and wildlife.
The folks at Yellowstone Grassfed Beef believe that by mimicking the behaviors of wild herbivores, calving in the spring and intensely grazing an area for a brief period, before moving on—rangeland health will improve. These practices reveal a deeper story—one of layered realities and changing times. Resilience, inventiveness and adaptability are not foreign concepts to these ranchers, nor is living at the interface of wilderness. Yet, does the value of what they know and the work they do translate to the dinner plates of those they feed?
New Work from Turkey
I had the privilege to work on a book and exhibit project in Cappadocia, Turkey. It’s rare to have these kinds of opportunities, especially in today’s climate. I am grateful to Zaman for commissioning us, Selahattin Sevi who edited the project and photographer Kürşat Bayhan patiently guided me through Cappadocia. The book is gorgeous! Twenty-four of my favorite living photographers and I documented different aspects of life, culture and the beauty of Turkey. The exhibit and book includes the stunning work of Jane Evelyn Atwood, Bruno Barbey, Carolyn Drake, Nikos Economopoulos, Ed Kashi, Anthony Suau, Reza, Steve McCurry and so many other truly great photographers. There are also interviews of all the photographers online.
New Interview for PROOF magazine
See the full interview here: http://proofmsj.com/photojournalists/
Few can boast credentials such as this: seventy five plus countries covering civil unrest, poverty, violent conflict and social injustice; photographs exhibited all over the world and published in National Geographic, Adventure, Geo, Newsweek, Time, Smithsonian amongst other international magazines and news sources; global recognition including the Photographer of the Year International Award, the Lowell Thomas Award for Travel Journalism, Lucie awards, the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting, and the Magazine Photographer of the Year award by the National Press Photographers Association. As a career photojournalist, Ami Vitale, backed by her impressive work and awards, embodies the dynamism of journalism in today’s world.
And yet there is a deeply compassionate and humanitarian side to her work that is rare in an industry driven by headlines and increasingly hashtags. This is immediately apparent from many of her works that convey the subtle and surreal beauty of humanity that is often muted by mainstream media sensationalism. See for example her photographs of rickshaw pullers in India.
More recently, Ami has ventured into film-making. After getting her Masters at the University of Miami’s School of Communication, she has been working with Ripple Effect Images, an organization of scientists, writers, photographers and filmmakers on a mission to create powerful and persuasive stories illustrating the very specific problems women in developing countries face. Her most recent documentary, “Bangladesh: A Climate Trap,” centers upon an issue that has largely been ignored by most of the developed world, namely, climate change-driven migration in the world’s most impoverished countries.
You’ve travelled and lived in so many places, your work is incredible and covers a wide range of topics. Why do you do what you do—what drives and motivates you? What inspires you? And what do you ultimately hope your photographs will achieve?
I began my career covering some of the most horrific dramas that were playing out at that time. I went to the Balkans, Angola, Palestine and lesser known places like Kashmir, Gujarat in India or even places you may really never have heard of likeCasamance in West Africa. All of them were equally nasty and my reason for going was to show the au dience the brutality that was going on. You might expect me to say that the world is full of tortuous places and as journalists, our role is to expose those dark corners of the world. Yes there is a role for that, without a doubt, but I believe that we have a greater responsibility, an obligation, to also illuminate the things that unite us as human beings rather than simply emphasize our differences
How do you choose what type of topics and issues to cover? What prompted you to go into filmmaking and documentaries?
I lived in India for almost 6 years and nearly 4 of those years were spent primarily in Kashmir. It was not an assignment but after my first visit there, it captured my heart and each year I found ways to fund my work there. I received several grants and it became a very important piece of my life and my understanding of the world. I feel the only way to understand the complexities that exist in all of our cultures and conflicts is by staying for a long period of time. The problem with most mainstream media, as I see it, is the ephemeral nature of it. Journalists never stay long enough to show the multitude of viewpoints that exist. Parachuting in and then leaving is simply not an option to me. I think that only contributes to stereotyping and sensational coverage of these very complex histories and stories.
The medium I work in is changing and video is now playing a much bigger role in what we do. Cameras like the one I carry can shoot hd video and it can enhance our abilities as storytellers. This is already playing a big role in my future but I don’t think I would have had the courage to take the leap into shooting video without one small fib, to Nikon, when they called and asked if I knew anything about making videos. “Yes of course”, I replied instantly, knowing nothing about moving images or how to even operate the camera. I assumed I’d have time to learn before the shoot but was surprised when they sent the D300s camera only the night before my trip to India began. I frantically studied the manual on the 28 hour long journey and arrived terrified and wondering if I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. This is the film I made there, an homage to India.
If I had not had the opportunity, I probably never would have made the leap but I’m so grateful I did. In a time when media is struggling and searching for a new path, I’m finding that I am busier than ever telling meaningful stories in new ways for a variety of outlets.
Last year, I went back to school to study film and created my first documentary film which just premiered at the Jackson Hole Film Festival. I also am doing a variety of short films for new clients. It’s an exciting time to be a photographer and journalist and this new skill can create more opportunity for all of us. The old models of business are in crisis, but opportunities lie ahead. We must redefine ourselves as technologies create more opportunities.
As someone who has witnessed and documented so many social injustices, what are the major lessons or insights that you take away from your experiences?
We cannot afford to view the world through an optic of fear and hate because if we only tell stories through our own paradigm of values, we justify the existing divisions in our world. I truly believe that change will never happen unless we have empathy for those who have a different viewpoint than our own.
What advice can you give to aspiring journalists and photographers?
In the beginning of my career, I had a choice whether to take every assignment that came my way or to be thoughtful about the kinds of stories I worked on. I realized it was more important to build up a body of work rather than to make more money shooting assignments that I was not necessarily passionate about. Now I can look back, and see that it was important to take that risk. It allowed me to create a body of work and content that defined the issues and subjects that I cared about. Whether you’ve been in this one-year or ten years, I believe it’s very important to commit to one story or issue or place. There are a million great photographers and the technology is there to make everybody feel like a great photographer. However, the challenge is to be consistently good and to be able to reveal more than everyone else on the subject you are working on. I think many people mistake taking pictures of exotic and beautiful places as being committed but it’s not enough just to travel and take pretty images. You have to go deep and show something original and unexpected, something that teaches and surprises.
