My “Who & Why” Journey
A couple of years after the “Arab Spring” (2011), my photography changed. I moved from Morocco where I was running a mountain tourism company, to the UK where I did a MSc in Post-Conflict Development. I stopped guiding and started working in the humanitarian NGO sector, initially in Sudan, then Iraq, then Afghanistan.
Food distribution in West Mosul after ISIS
Photographing mountains, pretty much exclusively, quickly became a thing of the past. Now my context was war, displaced people and misery. One in which I was initially reticent about taking photos as it just didn’t “feel right”.
However the longer I worked in these contexts, the more at ease I was in connecting with the individuals and families we (the NGO) were serving, hearing their stories, and then asking if I could take their photograph. If they were ok with that, I then tried (if technically possible) to share this photo with them, but more often than not, this didn’t happen.
Why take a photo anyway you might ask? A number of reasons I guess. One was that taking a photograph seemed to embed the conversation and mutual connection. Another was that people seemed to genuinely enjoy having their photo taken, and indeed onlookers would then want their photo taken…
All that for context.
Fast forward to today - well not this specific Friday - but you know what I mean(!).
I have been struggling with the question - or identity - as to how I describe myself within a photography context. I visit the Alps regularly through maintaining A Little Cabin in the Alps. I take photos of mountains and landscapes. I also travel outside of Europe where I do street portrait photography (far easier than in Europe I find). Wandering around Amsterdam, I take the occasional street photo.
So what am I? A landscape photographer? A mountain photographer? Street? Street Portraits?
On my Instagram account, you can see this clearly. One days it’s a snow-covered mountain, the next a photograph of someone I engaged with on the streets.
Until - yes I know🫣 - I thought why not ask ChatGPT referencing my website for background and how best I could tweak it to reflect what I do.
In a stroke, it (he / they?) came up with this:
The current story is:
“I have photographed mountains, travelled, worked with NGOs, and came back to photography.”
The stronger story could be:
“I spent years in demanding environments where I learned that behind every location there are human stories. Photography became the way I explore and share those stories.”
That moves you from:
photographer who has travelled
to:
storyteller who uses photography
In an attempt to represent this Who answer, I’ve been working on My Story and Work[ing] Together.
Next up is the Why.
Why do you take photos? Would love to hear more about this from you. You can leave a comment below.
