Not Just A Photograph
- Thom Pierce
- 6 hours ago
- 6 min read
Creating powerful campaigns requires a variety of expertise, usually on a limited budget. I've developed a skillset to provide value when capacity is tight, without compromising on quality.
On Capacity
I learnt a long time ago that most of the organisations that I wanted to collaborate with were stretched really thin. Everyone is too busy and there is never enough funding.
Over the years I have continuously defined and developed my offering - making human-centred photographic campaigns. I regularly update my toolkit of skills so that I can create work that has an impact even when capacity is tight.
Don't get me wrong, I want to work with the best and lean on the expertise of others. I want an endless budget and a huge team, all working towards a shared vision. But I understand the world I am working in and I never want an important campaign to fall short because of budget constraints.
A Growing Toolkit
I started out simply as a portrait photographer but that got me searching for meaning in my work. Meaning got me asking questions of people, and that meant I had to write well, because there was so much more that needed to be said. Writing meant that I needed to interview people and that got me filming the interviews. When I needed somewhere to show the work to the world, I learnt how to build websites. And on it goes...
It's a long journey from portrait photographer to where I am now but the skills that I have developed allow me to offer more, taking the scope of my work further without having to employ a team, maximising the available budget.
There's rarely the money to employ a photographer, writer, editor, camera man, sound engineer, audio editor, web designer , exhibition curator, book designer, advocacy strategist etc. so necessity drove me to learn how to do a lot more than just take photographs.
I don't claim to be the best at everything I do but I have built proficiency in the skills that I need, and I know my limits. I'm not going to pretend that I can do it all myself but for a wide reaching advocacy campaign with photography at it's core, I have much to offer.
What I Do:
Conceptualise, Create & Curate.
CONCEPTUALISE
I am passionate about creating advocacy campaigns that have purpose and form and, through many years of experience, I have an understanding of how to achieve this.
When devising advocacy projects I focus on two important considerations:
The Subjects - the people who's stories need to be told.
The Audience - the people who need to hear the stories.
The campaign is simply a conduit between the two.
It needs to communicate, via the path of least resistance, a complete and compelling argument for engagement, and provide a tangible action that takes as little effort as possible.
The campaign itself must be memorable, original, forward thinking and fit for purpose. It must be immediately powerful, accessible and universally understandable.
I see each campaign as being made up of three parts...
The Framework
The set of rules that we set for ourselves that ensure we have a complete project, representing the whole story. In devising the framework, we have to understand the subjects stories and the details of the issues we are communicating.
A solid structure, that considers the big picture, helps to create a narrative that develops, with each story building on, and adding to, the one before; to keep the audience interested and engaged.
Most importantly, the framework lets us know where the project begins and ends.
For The Price of Gold there were 56 miners who were the named plaintiffs in the class action (representing hundreds of thousands of others). This gave me a solid parameter to work within. The framework of the project was clear, which gave the completed body of work cohesion, power, and, importantly, it defined when the project was complete.
The Content
The raw materials that we create. For me the content is photography, writing, audio and video interviews. For others it may be different.
The way I make the content is informed by the framework and the advocacy strategy. It needs to be made in a way that is ethical and respectful towards the subjects whilst at the same time collecting everything that is needed to create the advocacy.
The Advocacy
Our primary audience should be the people whose engagement can make a difference to the issues that we are showcasing, so our advocacy strategy needs to be formed around the following questions:
Who do we need to engage?
Where do we engage them? (both virtual and IRL)
What do we want them to know?
What do we want them to do?
Once we know the answers to these questions we can create a considered strategy that will inform how we make the content, and how we disseminate it for maximum engagement with the target audience.
For Postcards From Xolobeni we realised that we needed to engage the Department of Mineral Resources in South Africa, putting pressure on them not to give a mining license to an overseas organisation. We wanted to publicly confront them in a way that they could not dismiss, and we needed them to "hear" the voices of the real people that their decisions could negatively impact.
I created a series of postcards depicting the people of Xolobeni living off the land, and the people in each picture wrote a personal message to the department about their lives. These postcards were printed multiple times and sent, one-by-one, to the department. The postcards were also made into giant placards and marched to the department where they were presented with a petition against the mining.
CREATE
Photography is my main focus. I am an award-winning portrait photographer and have been exhibited and published globally. My style is recognisable and always aims to bring the subject to the forefront, placing them in a scene that tells a deeper story. My work, I think, speaks for itself. All of my work can be viewed on my website, with an overview available on the portfolio page.
Writing started out of necessity but has developed to become something that others value. I write simply but effectively, accessibly and powerfully. My aim is always to give a voice and make complicated subjects understandable without diminishing them. For examples of my written work see articles in The Guardian and Daily Maverick.
Video interviews can do a lot to forefront the subject so I often film interviews or simple pieces to camera, it depends on the needs of the project. With film being an ever more important part of social media, I find that short interviews and b-roll footage can go a long way to fleshing out the campaign.
Websites have always been an important way for me to showcase my work over the years. They are permanent platforms for advocacy campaigns to live on for years after the work is finished and a fundamental tool in audience engagement. I have been designing and building simple but effective websites for myself and my collaborating partners for many years.
CURATE
The beauty of photography and writing is that, once the work is made, there are so many ways that it can be put out into the world. In fact, the immediacy of a single photograph can be so powerful that it can be used for years to come without losing it's relevance.
The curation of the campaign is all about the audience. Using our advocacy strategy as our guidelines we can package the content in multiple ways to reach audiences all over the world.
My experience includes creating formal exhibitions, immersive installations, websites, books, magazine articles, photo stories, media packs, banners for the sides of buildings, billboards, pop up exhibitions, social media content and much much more.
Value For Money
I measure the success of my work not by how much I earn or how many followers I have, but by the impact that it makes. A project is a failure if it gets put in a drawer and never reaches anyone, regardless of how much I make.
I need to make money. Like many people, I have a family that relies on me but I want the money that I charge to be worth the value that I bring. That value is measured in impact and the impact that I can make is directly related to the skillset that I can offer.
I realised a long time ago that I have an ability to tell other peoples stories in a way that gets them attention. This developed into a deep-seated responsibility to be a mouth piece for people who don't have a voice, and I take that responsibility seriously.
I can give you all the powerful portraits in the world but if we don't have the means to put them in front of the right people, then all the hard work is wasted. So, when budgets are tight, I do as much as I can myself.