One of the core photography activities of InHouse Design Studio is documentary photography. In Zambia this means working in two very different arenas: Non-Governmental Organisations/Civil Service Organisations (NGO/CSOs) (in co-operation with government) and local businesses.
Private Companies
For local businesses, having an image library can mean better advertising and better relationship with customers and investors. For example, an international bank hired InHouse Design to take client portraits. The photos showed small business owners at work with their small-business loan projects: a hairdresser, charcol seller, a vegetable stall, etc. The bank used the portraits to decorate their offices but also to celebrate and ‘show off’ the success of the business owners...success facilitated by them.
Alternatively, an image library can tell the story of their product, as with the case of “Alive and Kicking” where a factory visit showed off just what goes into turning a cow-hide into a football. While their doors are open for the general public to schedule a tour, few people actually have the time and energy to get down there during business hours and see for themselves.
The collection of photos from “Alive and Kicking” can be accessed night and day from any desk around the world. A client sitting in their cabin on Kodiak Island can see and learn just as easily as someone in an Adelaide high-rise. It’s the smell-vision they’re missing out on....but maybe missing the odour of the tannery where the football workshop is co-located with in the heat of summer isn’t such a bad thing!
(Links for Alive and Kicking:
The Making of a Football
The Alive and Kicking Prequel)
Alternatively, InHouse takes assignments to organise for advertisements and promotional materials -- more commercial photography than narrative portraiture than documentary photography. I'll make an argument another day for "Lunch Portraiture." Until then....
(Links for Alive and Kicking:
The Making of a Football
The Alive and Kicking Prequel)
Alternatively, InHouse takes assignments to organise for advertisements and promotional materials -- more commercial photography than narrative portraiture than documentary photography. I'll make an argument another day for "Lunch Portraiture." Until then....
 |
| If you weren't hungry before...you are halfway out the door to the Blue Moon Cafe, right? |
NGOs/CSOs
InHouse has worked with a number of international and local health-sector NGOs (e.g. Malaria Consortium, PATH/MACEPA, Broadreach Health Care, Roll Back Malaria Health Communications Partnership (HCP) and most recently Akros Research) to create image libraries and record field work activities. It’s part of our mission to “communicate science to the public.” With a background in arts, science and education I feel uniquely qualified for this mission. Each assignment is different but the general idea is to collect a library of images either for a specific project (e.g. photos that will be used directly or used for creating artwork for a specific project -- a flip chart, poster, brochure or presentation) or to build a collection of photos that can be used for future projects. These might be more generic images, i.e., photos of where the field work generally takes place (e.g. rural villages in Eastern Province, urban clinics in the Livingstone community, or the hospitals right in Lusaka.) They could be images of specific events (e.g. a community health fair, a meeting of chiefs, a concert or (for malaria) a bednet distribution. When an NGO hires InHouse Design Studio for such work, the NGO ‘owns’ the photos and can use when and how they see fit.
 |
| Community Health worker field training for Malaria Control/Test and Treat |
