Every picture tells a story

Girls in Year 10 and 11 thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to listen to an interesting and inspiring talk from award winning photojournalist, Rick Findler, when he recently visited Pipers Corner.

Rick has been working in the news and press photography industry for seven years predominantly in the London area, but a keen interest in conflict photography has seen him travel to Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Burundi.

Rick’s work has regularly featured in leading publications such as The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Wall Street Journal and The Independent to name a few. In 2013 his work covering the Syrian civil war was widely recognised by the Picture Editors Guild Awards, Professional Photographer of the Year Awards and was exhibited in the National Theatre as part of the Press Photographers Year 2013 exhibition. His recent work from the Burundi unrest won especial acclaim.

One of the poems the girls are currently studying for their English Literature GCSE is Carol Ann Duffy’s “War Photographer”, which addresses the peculiar challenge faced by war photographers, whose job requires them to record terrible, horrific events without being able to help people directly. Rick’s talk certainly helped to bring the themes from the poem to life.

The girls were thoroughly absorbed by his stories about working in conflict zones and his presentation really helped them to gain a sense of how important it is that real life stories are heard and shared throughout the world to highlight injustice. It was an invaluable opportunity for our girls to hear first-hand about other parts of the world and the difficult decisions such a profession entails.