MCC experiments with photo essays

In the last few years, Mennonite Central Committee has given more and more emphasis to visual forms of communication: calendars, annual report booklets filled with photographs, online photo gallery. The latest experiment? Photo essays.

“Family Stories” are a series of 12 booklets, packaged in groups of four, that give insights into the issues faced by people around the world and how MCC works with them. Each 24-page booklet contains a black and white photo essay along with a story.

“We wanted the photos to be a window into the world of these families . . . to capture some of the emotions of the situation and then draw the reader into reading more about it,” explains Mark Beach, MCC Communications Director. “The texts and images each stand alone; it’s almost like two parallel stories going on at the same time. There are some captions but in general the writing doesn’t tell what’s in the photographs.”

A writer and photographer were sent to each location for 10 to 14 days, collecting material for the booklets. The idea was to use a photojournalism style, rather than the portrait style used in previous MCC books like A Tin Roof and a Cow.

Back in Akron, staff posted the photos on the wall, choosing images that move the visual story along. Mark also took layouts of the first two booklets to a photojournalism seminar—then came home and redid them. The key, he says, is to learn how to develop a photo story, rather than using photos to depict a story.

Booklet sets are packaged in a box of handmade paper produced by the Bangladeshi women portrayed in one of the books. Two of the three sets are now available for purchase in Ten Thousand Villages stores.

“It’s risky,” Mark concedes, to expect people to buy information—and a bit of subtle promotion—like this, no matter how attractively packaged. “But at the end of the day, if people read it and learn something about the world . . . and see themselves in some of that story, then any risks we took were well worth while.”

Take a look at “Family Stories” online.