An eye-opener is the best theme any campaign can have in the interest of the society. The “it is about you too” kind of feeling a campaign can generate makes it the gold that a creative professional can bring and share with the world.
Photography has a very strong role in such campaigns as images speak louder and clearer than words. They act as a wakeup call to every individual who looks at it. Photography training courses are responsible to introduce a socially relevant angle to the art of photography. This urges students to use it as a strong tool to send a message to the people.
Across the world, there are many photographers who put their observation, commitment, and creativity together to project society’s best and worst affairs to inspire and make amends. Photography courses pass on the thought to students that social commitment is not a courtesy but a responsibility for a photographer.
Photography campaigns take many forms, from a simple photo series to creatively edited images with captions that manifest as thought-provoking. Either of these needs a photographer’s genuine commitment to the cause, an attribute photography students inculcate right from their time at a photography school.
A look at some of the Indian campaigns will prove to be quite inspiring for a photography aficionado.
Courtesy: Mudra Group, India & Bangalore Traffic Police
Road Safety Campaign – Mudra Group
This campaign is awesomely creative and impactful. The Mudra Group created this campaign for the Bangalore Traffic Police to create awareness about one of the most rampant menaces on the road, talking/texting on the phone while driving.
Checking the facts, one cannot help but be concerned by the fact that over 5000 people die each year in the country due to accidents on the road that happen due to distractions. Talking or texting while behind the wheels is a major reason for such distraction.
The sheer gore of spilled blood coming from the receiver of the phone clearly shows the intensity of the situation. A great imagery, sensitively portrayed seals the message intensely in the viewer’s mind.
Courtesy: Chhanv.org
Acid Attack Victims Campaign
For a victim of social evil to come back into mainstream life with determination rather than shame is a challenge very less taken. This is truest for acid attack victims who are disfigured for life by the despicable act by criminal-minded people.
Laxmi, an acid victim herself at the age of 15 at the hands of a jilted man, took up the challenge of not only coming back to the society unveiled but standing up and creating a platform for acid-attack victims. She helped them to come out of their societal confinements and live life with pride and zeal.
Her NGO Foundation “Chhanv” (http://chhanv.org) stands tall to propagate a campaign against the otherwise largely neglected social vice of acid attacks. Her cafe called “Sheroes Hangout” in Agra is a place for acid-attack victims to come, meet and find support to carry on with their lives with pride.
Her Women’s Day Calendar 2016-17 featured photographs of acid attack victims, called “Sheroes”, actively indulged in different activities with confidence and determination.
www.instagram.com/sujatroghosh
Cow Mask Campaign – Sujatro Ghosh
The increasingly horrible plight of women in the country facing an escalating threat of molestations and rapes is a shameful reality that is yet to be redressed. It was in this scenario that a campaign was started and ardently executed to save and protect cows. The gist of the situation suggested to many that cows are more secure and valued in the country than women.
Sujatro Ghosh, an Indian photographer, started off a campaign with women in each frame wearing a cow’s mask while doing various day-to-day activities like commuting and attending classes. The theme of the pictures reflected the simple, highly propagated “cows over women” mentality and sarcastically presented the need for women’s safety to be given far more importance than it presently is getting.
In a world where a lot is compromised over a lack of sense and conscience, only a strong medium like photography can bring back the much-needed attention to matters to be addressed. As a reputed photography institute in Hyderabad, Hamstech makes sure that its students take from their course the feeling of social responsibility which they can express through their photographs. Their photography classes are delivered to make them not just expert photographers but responsible ones at that too.
At the base of every social campaign, lies the feeling of commitment to give what is really valuable to the society. Whenever photography has partaken in social campaigns, it has left indelible impressions in the psyche of people who get invaluable messages to live by.