Ethical Photographic Storytelling
Course Dates
12th-13th July 2025
What is the programme?
This interactive residential workshop will help you to become a more ethical photographic storyteller. You will gain skills and confidence in creating better, and more ethical, images to visually enhance the stories you wish to share with others.
Who will benefit from this training?
Anyone wishing to share a story; about their ministry, the people they serve or the people they work with. Anyone wishing to create better images to enhance their storytelling in any form; on social media, newsletters, websites or in print. Anyone who wants to increase supporter engagement. Communication teams of mission agencies and NGOs.
Even if you’ve been photographing for many years, this workshop will help you to become more intentional in using photography for storytelling. The techniques learned in this workshop can readily be applied to videography.
Course Leader
Clive Thomas is a photographer, mentor and trainer who divides his time between All Nations and a large NGO in Nepal.
For more information, and to see a selection of Clive's photography, please visit https://clivethomas.photography
Training Content
Key areas we will explore:
Storytelling questions that images must address
Key images for photographic storytelling
How to critique images
Photographic/storytelling ethics
The issue of consent
Cultural considerations
Photographing people
Techniques for creating more interesting images
The importance of light
Getting the most from a smartphone camera
Putting it all into practice
Training method
The workshop will be fun and interactive; full of images, picture-making, discussion and critique. We will create images using only a smartphone, enabling us to concentrate on the storytelling and compositional aspects of photography rather than its technical details. We will focus on producing images that help to tell stories about people, their lives and their situation but the techniques learned in this workshop will be applicable to any photographs that you take with any camera.
How to prepare and what to bring along
All you need is a smartphone, a willingness to learn and clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty. A laptop/tablet will be helpful for putting together stories as we progress through the workshop. Please bring along five photographs that represent the type of story that you wish to share with others.
