Courtesy of (c) Lap Li<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHow do you fund your story?<\/em><\/strong> (Slide 21)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe two major options I gave were either getting a grant or my pairing up with an NGO. There are of course other ways, from personal savings, private investments and commissions from news outlets however for me personally, grants and partnerships with NGOs have been my most successful. They have also allowed be to spent long periods of time on these issues. If it’s a complex issue, you will need time to work on it and do it justice. Grants and working with NGOs allow you to do this.<\/p>\n
How do you distribute your story?<\/em><\/strong> (Slide 29)<\/p>\nI believe we are in a really exciting time at the moment in terms of the new ways in which we can distribute our work. Yes, old outlets have shrunk drastically but there are many new ways to get our stories out to new audiences. There are more opportunities now than ever before.<\/p>\n
Embracing social media is one way of reaching new audiences, as is producing work that is deliverable in a variety of mediums i.e. having the ability to produce still images, video, multimedia, audio and writing. Each has its place and possible outlets. Most can be combined. If you have the ability to do a number of these, then to possibilities for distribution are wide. You can still try traditional distribution such as magazine publication, print exhibitions, maybe a book but you can also embrace online videos and multimedia, viral marketing of those pieces through a unique website and blog, online photo galleries, multimedia installations. A combination of some, or all of the above!<\/p>\n
At the end of the workshop, we had an open Q&A session<\/em><\/strong>. One of the questions was; “Why do you do what you do i.e. covering these issues? What are you aims and how do you hope your images affect people?”<\/strong><\/em> It’s a question I have been asked by others, and asked of myself, a number of times. I thought would be useful to try to answer it here too.<\/p>\nI am a photographer and videographer. My skill (and that of other visual professionals) lies in my ability to visualise the world in a way most people do not normally do. My educational background focused on the sciences, especially in the biological sciences, so I have a natural interest in these issues. Many of these issues, I know, are difficult for many people to understand and visualise. I really hope that my photographic and video work can act as a bridge between some of the complex issues surrounding the environment and global climate change to help people understand them better. I hope the images can inspire contemplation, deeper understanding\u00a0and maybe action depending on the social group and age of the people that sees them. I am just one photographer trying to raise visual awareness of these issues. Change will not just come from me. It will come from the worlds of science, government, business, media and everyday people acting together. If my images can help people visualise the seriousness of the environmental issues we currently face and I am able to help them contextualize them too, through various visual media and educational speaking engagements, then I am playing my small part in trying to effect positive change in society.<\/p>\n
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That’s a quick summary of the major talking points of the presentation. I really hope that it was useful to the participants who were able to make it on the day. I also hope that it has been useful to you as you read this now, wherever in the world you may be. As ever, if you have any thoughts or feedback on the above points please feel free to post them below.<\/p>\n
<<Return to the Learning Zone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[slideshare id=5869543&doc=ucca-101123001230-phpapp01] <<Return to the Learning Zone\u00a0Last weekend, I was invited by Beijing based eco-group Greening the Beige to give a workshop at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. We had a great turnout, with many students and photography enthusiasts all keen to see images from my environmental work in China over the past few years and learn about some of the thought processes that go into tackling these realtively large issues. We had such a great discussion, so I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[37,71,42,28,39,52,50,51,70,41],"yoast_head":"\n
Visualising Issues \u2013 Slideshow and Notes from Environmental Workshop at UCCA - Sean Gallagher - Photographer & Filmmaker - Beijing, China<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n