Make a Difference in the World With Our Art

Today’s topic is something quite important. I recently posted on my Instagram about this, and I want to extend the question further. What is the mission of your photography? You have to have something that you wake up in the morning and you ask, “What am I here to do? Why am I pointing my camera at the world?” That comes from your mission. Your camera is a tool, it’s a tool for creativity, but it’s really a tool for communication. We can use it as a tool to help people and make a difference, and to help others.

The Oxford Dictionary defines help as:

The action of helping someone do something or assistance.
Improve a situation or a problem; be of benefit.

Now, we have quite a few problems in the world today, don’t we? And we can use our tools of creativity to help improve some of these situations. The first way to do so is to communicate what we see through our lenses in order to raise awareness.

We’re going to help unite and promote this by introducing the hashtag #projectcreatepeace. I would like you guys to use this when you post your photography and art on Instagram or anywhere you put it.

Peace is the other side of war. We’re not going to just focus on peace, because sometimes you have to tell the story of what you’re trying to help people overcome. That is our role as photographers. We go out and we tell stories with our cameras, we’ll see some examples from our AYPClub community, when we get into the next post. But first I want you to think about this first example of Pablo Picasso in 1937.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937. Image via FacingHistory.org

Picasso moved to Paris from Spain and he was horrified by what was happening in 1937 to his home country, he was outraged by the reports of the Germans bombing civilians during the Spanish Civil War. He painted Guernica in response to the destruction of the town of the same name. He used his art to spread the message, and it has become a representation of ever every city that has been bombed since then. It’s moving how he depicted this horror. And it really did move people around the world, and it still does.

Herman Makarenko

Here’s an example of a Ukrainian conductor, Herman Makarenko. Markarenko belongs to a U.N. organization, Artists for Peace. They have many artists to promote different efforts of peace and understanding. On March 9th, 2022 he held a concert in Maiden Square, which is the main plaza of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. He held a concert, a way to give relief to the people that were there and to stand in solidarity.

Herman Makarenko in Maiden Square, Kyiv, Ukraine. Via Reuters.

This is another example of how you can use your art. It’s not just about the storytelling, but it’s also giving some relief. Can you imagine these people the night before had been in a safety shelter underground? But here he is, holding a fairly lively concert. Pretty powerful stuff because he’s using his art to help these people. Remember that definition of help that I gave you above. It’s giving some assistance to overcome a problem or a situation, and there certainly is a big situation there. This is how you make a difference in people’s lives.

Teru Kuwayama

One of the photographers I interviewed in 2009 is Teru Kuwayama. Teru said:

“A world history and a cautionary tale are written here in the fragments of past superpowers and in the faces of the descendants of history’s great empires.”

An ethnic Kyrgyz member of the Afghan border militia, on horseback, with AK47 and Afghan flag. Wakhan Corridor, Badakhshan province, Afghanistan. April 2005. Via Teru Kuwayama.

Kuwayama went to Mongolia and Afghanistan for a powerful series of photos. You can find the article here. Something interesting about Teru is that he photographs with toy cameras. This is because he doesn’t want to take expensive equipment in war areas that could be stolen or damaged. These are really amazing photographs telling the story of endless war. And he obviously had a mission here: his mission was to show this area that generation after generation had gone through war. And he’s picturing it here so people can see it. We at least know what’s happening and maybe we can do something about it, but we should also be informed. These images were filmed in probably 2005, but many of them could almost be from 100 hundred years ago, like the example above.

Watch the live stream based on this blog here.

Be sure to keep an eye on our blog as we will be coming out with a part 2 of this blog post where we will talk about how YOU can make a difference in the world with your own photography. And be sure to get started using #projectcreatepeace on your images about helping bring us to peace. Cover photo is by Gleb Garanich from Reuters.