Volunteering as a Photographer for NGOs Abroad

I still get emails every few days related to the article on volunteering as a photographer abroad that I wrote over a decade ago for Transitions Abroad. So much of the article is rather outdated - I was toting around boxes filled with rolls of Fuji Press 400, for instance - but a lot is still relevant. I quickly answered an email tonight asking for a few more tips and here was my quick stream of consciousness response (for others who might be interested):

Best piece of advice I can give you is try to work around the central office and connect with the communications officer in the region you’re planning on going to. If you tell the folks out in the field that you’ll be in country for certain dates and that you’d love to volunteer you likely won’t face the same kind of bureaucracy that you’d otherwise find. If you do organize through a central HQ, try to arrange an in-person meeting and offer to shoot an event gratis for them stateside first to prove that you’re genuinely interested in their work and not just for the access you’ll get by working with them. Also, do some research on local NGOs in the area you want to visit beforehand and try arranging something with them. Make sure you’ve got a website that shows similar work to what you’d like to do abroad - and if all you’ve got are food shots or pics of your dog, then go abroad whether anyone accepts your offer to volunteer or not and try and get the shots on your own. Just go, don’t worry about whether anyone has said yes yet, try and work things out when you get there - be persistent, proactive and in-person.

You can read the original article here: http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0309/volunteering_for_an_ngo.shtml

To anyone going abroad to volunteer in photo or video, let me know how it goes (or went) for you! I’d love to start building a community around this topic.