Location: Nigeria, Tanzania, Pakistan, Nepal
A look at UNICEF’s work in maternal health
The Challenge
UNICEF’s mission for Maternal and Child Health is that every birth should be healthy and safe. The reality is that it is not. Around the globe, births are often under unhygienic and challenging conditions, reducing the chance for a healthy birth. I visited Nepal, Pakistan, Nigeria and Tanzania, to see what UNICEF is doing in these countries to improve the situation around child birth.
The Approach
I adopted a "ground-level" documentary perspective, traveling to rural and peri-urban communities to capture the front lines of development. This is the usual approach when working with UNICEF, because the stories all have a human face. The photography balances between the support that UNICEF brings, and with the people behind the stories, highlighting the trust they have in care involved life-saving interventions.
By utilizing my signature atmospheric lighting and natural compositions, I aimed to move away from the "victimhood" tropes often seen in humanitarian media, instead presenting the people as active, empowered participants in their country’s progress.
The Impact
This body of work provided UNICEF with a versatile library a human stories for their outreach to individual donors.
By humanising the stories, the imagery provides a powerful "visual truth" that supports UNICEF’s continued presence in. These stories serve as evidence of the tangible returns on investment in human capital, illustrating how targeted interventions in health and schooling are building a more resilient future.
