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Rodney Rascona

AUTO-Biography

Meet International Image maker Rodney Rascona

Social Causes
I have always wanted to give something back, to get involved on a higher level to be associated with something that didn’t have to do with the process of earning money via my image making ability for either for me or for a client. In this spirit, back in January 2000, on my computer one morning, I noticed a humanitarian organization called Food for the Hungry US/Food for the Hungry International was answering the need of those in the first of two earthquakes in Istanbul. I sent a quick email to the director, whose name was listed with the article, to say that I had stock images available from that part of the world, if they had a need for such things.



The Director of Communications responded and we arranged a meeting after she returned from Africa, some three weeks later. We hit it off well and I was given my first lesson in the work of a humanitarian organization that had a presence in 30 countries around the world with a 30-year experience. I learnt what they do, how they accomplish their goals and most importantly for me at the time, how I could help. In March, there was a call from the Vice President of Ethiopia. He asked all NGOs what they intended to do about the drought effected areas that was placing some 12 million people at risk of starvation and as FH was in Ethiopia for the past 15 years, they responded quickly to the call for action. I was asked if I could go to Ethiopia for them in two weeks. FH wanted a photographic essay on the conditions to help them ascertain how it is they could help..

For me, this is where it started. I agreed to go and for the next 2 weeks, I visited village after village through out Ethiopia reviewing the health of villagers and their rural communities from Eritrea down to the border with Somalia. The project managers needed to understand just what was required. I learned so much about subjects like agriculture, health care, sanitation and water and how all of it plays out in these remote villages. My experiences were not altogether pretty. It is very hard to see people in need, in great need, and only be able to offer polite assurances that something was being done to help. Before I left for Africa, I contacted a colleague of mine, David Burnett, a highly acclaimed photojournalist that I know and spoke with him on just how I should approach subjects in such dire circumstances. David suggested that I do my research and then place myself at the crossroads of where the story is and just make images from my gut. This is exactly what I did. I responded to the story, the people and their message, making sure not to get in the way, but make honest images and stay true. Even in poverty, people have dominion over their calamity, so you try to be humble and ask for permission and not just steal something that belongs to them.

No help and even fewer people to care about what happens to you. Dying was a daily event that went unnoticed and soon just became part of the landscape.

After producing images around the planet for all kinds of reasons, the one hour I spent along the Somali border that spring in a desolate little village called Denon, proved to be the most important work of my whole career. While I visited many regions in Ethiopia that first year and was introduced to hungry children with swollen bellies with little to eat, my lasting memory was from the dying children of Denon. It was here that the first signs of the developing famine were starting to take shape. I followed David Burnett’s advice and went to the story where the images were and a story that needed to be told. I was driven there along with a set of guards for protection and an interpreter so that I could bear witness to the effects of a famine. No food. No medicine. No water. No help and even fewer people to care about what happens to you. The dying was a daily event and soon just became part of the landscape.

After my first experience with humanitarian issues, I returned to my home in Arizona with more questions than answers and sat almost in shock and humbled silence for two weeks trying to figure out what to do with the images I just produced. Where I had been. What I had seen. What my role was to be. What I could do to help. It is one thing to shoot stock images for a commercial project and its quite another to have boxes and boxes of images that are part of peoples lives.

A smart communicator can place these images in the right hands so that you can play your part in society and make a useful contribution. So for a good part of the rest of the year, I sent set after set of images out to news bureaus around the world. Then, I remembered the BBC had a large role in spreading the news about the famine in 1982. You may recall Live Aid championed by Bob Geldorf then. I contacted the BBC online Editor with an offer to use my image set free of charge. They accepted my images and in fact, sent a senior correspondent to the region based on my work.

Overnight, the images were on the BBC online news site, seen by five million viewers daily. I also sent the images to ABC, the World Food Program, USAID and other organizations dealing with the unfolding famine at that time. Since this period in 2000, I have visited Ethiopia four times now, Kenya twice, Uganda, Romania, Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, Cambodia and I have just returned from the Congo about three months back. In late fall, I will travel to Asia to cover China, The Philippines, Myanmar, India, Bangladesh and Cambodia for a second time. Keep in mind that I am ‘not’ a photojournalist but an advertising photographer who wanted to make a difference, or at the very least, play a part as best I could for change. If you’re a Doctor, give your time to heal the sick. If you’re a Politician, do you’re part by helping to pass laws that will favour the work of NGOs around the world and if you’re a wealthy man or woman, spend some of that wealth on someone other than yourself. As a photographer, with a name, I have been able to assist Food for the Hungry International and other organizations by raising their image library to a professional level, which was something they really could not spend money to support.

Intro
Early interests
Car Specialist
Commercial Imagery
Creative challenges
Africa Attracts
Digital Enhancements
Personal schedules

You can find out more about his work by visiting his website www.rascona.com  |  www.rasconastock.com


In advertising not to be different is virtually suicidal.
— Bill Bernbach