Refugee Development Center
People and Personalities
Good photography requires a genuine connection. For this project, the client and the agency wanted to do a photo campaign to fundraise for the Refugee Development Center. The creative direction included photographs of actual refugees that have settled here in Michigan. With the help of the client, we were able to reach out to a group of subjects and photograph them at my studio.
Most of the refugees spoke very little english. The Refugee Development Center provided an interpreter for the shoot day but in order to create genuine interactions I had to rely mostly on non verbal communication. This is a skill I have had to pick up while traveling because so much can be relayed with posture, body language, and expression. These subtle feelings between a subject and a photographer lead to comfortable expression.
As I look back on my work, this project always sticks out because so much had to go right in order to get genuine expressions out of our subjects. For that year’s Mid-Michigan ADDYs awards the agency won a Judes Choice Award and a Gold ADDY for this project.
Agency: Redhead Design Studio
Client: Refugee Development Center
Awards: Gold ADDY Award, ADDYs Judges Choice Award
