Helping others: it’s never black and white

As part of the campaign for National Volunteer Week, I asked NZ Sculpture OnShore volunteers why they do it? This is me putting my money where my mouth is. Photo: Tom Gray, 2014. Shot on iPhone4, edited with Photo Editor by Aviary

It’s National Volunteer Week here in NZ, and as the marketing person at NZ Sculpture OnShore, I’m trying to leverage the event to sign up some new volunteers to help at this year’s exhibition.

Riffing off of some other recent social media campaigns involving people and simple signs, I decided to ask our volunteers why? Why do they give up their time to help at our event? Why do so many come back year after year? Why do some (like me) get involved in the management of the exhibition.

Answers on a sheet of paper, in a photograph to be shared on FaceBook, Twitter, our website, etc.

To get the ball rolling, and show people the kind of stuff I wanted, the boy-child and I did some test shots. His counts because he has volunteered (read persuaded by his mother) to do some design and photography work for us. Does the sense of coercion show?

The boy-child’s reason for helping out. Actually I think it was a toss-up between that and “I did it for the canapes and gelato.”
Photo: Su Leslie, 2014. Shot with iPhone4, edited with Photo Editor by Aviary.

My contribution to Sally’s Phoneography and Non-SLR Digital Devices Photo Challenge this week is not really an experiment in photography, but in the way the growth of phoneography and non-SLR devices have changed the way we create, process and deliver information.

Because I can reliably assume most of our volunteers have a smart phone and internet access, I can ask for participation in a campaign like this, and know that it’s not going to be a huge hassle for people to take part. And as we become more and more used to instant photography, it changes how we process information — text become image. Because of social media, I can share this text-as-image information with a huge audience.

These images were shot in colour and I had intended to share them in colour too; but having stripped away the distractions of my pink and green top, and the greens and reds of the artwork on the wall; I’m not so sure. Perhaps black and white is right for a campaign that about the sincerity of the words and the faces of those who have written them.

If you would like to see how other volunteers responded to the campaign, you can visit our FaceBook page or, Twitter feed. Volunteer Week runs until Saturday 21st, and I’ll be posting daily until then.

And if you would like to see how other bloggers have responded to Sally’s challenge, check these out:

http://pictograf.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-devices-photo-challenge-black-and-white-2/

http://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-devices-photo-challenge-black-white-texture/

http://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/34039/

http://completelydisappear.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/loneliness-within/

http://angelinem.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/phoneography-challenge-black-and-white-on-the-ferry/

http://piecesofstarlight.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/phoneography-black-and-white-monday-with-wires-and-a-cat/

http://decocraftsdigicrafts.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/phoneography-challenge-black-and-white/