Jennifer L | Blue Wave Studio

When I was in high school, I volunteered quite a bit.  I volunteered because that was a common thing to do with friends especially through after-school clubs and of course, trying to fill up that transcript for college applications to convince the admissions committees that you were a well-rounded student worthy of being accepted.

Now that I’m out of college, I still have a desire to “do good”, but not in the same way. It’s one of the reasons why I choose to work for a non-profit and in education. I also try to find ways to volunteer in my free time here and there, although I wish I’m able to do more of it than I do now.

Three months ago, I attended a lecture given by National Geographic photographer, Raul Touzon, about his photography work in the Sudan. He was starting a 4 day photography workshop with the talk and I went because it touched upon two of the things I love – photography and travel.

I was moved by what he was doing with his photography and armed with one flash, he was able to capture such images that tells the story of its people and the Sudan, which has been assembled into a powerfully titled book called The Price of Peace, The Price of War.  He told stories about how he went with only one assistant and was able to get certain shots especially in a country where the people have not seen a camera before and also about having bodyguards hover over him. His work was for the UN and the following video is a gathering of his images:

Someone had continually asked him about gear and the technicals about lenses and his only reply was that he doesn’t pay attention to that kind of stuff. He shoots in JPEG, not RAW, and just takes the photographs. I’ve started to notice JPEG shooting as a pattern with some top quality photographers and how it tends to blow other photographers’ minds.

He will be returning to Sudan in the next years doing more photography work for the UN. Inspiring.

It got me thinking about photography as a platform to do good in the world and I started to wonder what kind of good I could do with my camera.

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