Visual Peacemaking

Farmer with conical hat walking between rice fields.

The International Guild of Visual Peacemakers – IGVP – officially launched to the public on Monday morning.

About a week ago, Matt Brandon wrote a post entitled “Tom Little, IGVP And The Need For Peace”. In it he briefly discussed why he is a part of the International Guild of Visual Peacemakers and made mention of one of IGVP‘s goals. Reading this got me thinking about the reasons why I too am a part of IGVP. I was fortunate enough to be invited to join as a beta-tester and so got the opportunity to see behind the scenes before it was officially launched.

IGVP is a community of visual communicators devoted to peacemaking and breaking down stereotypes. Globally and historically, conflict has often come about due to differences in ethnicity, religion and cultural identities., and a lot of that can be boiled down to misunderstandings and ignorance. Ignorance not in a negative sense, but simply a lack of knowledge and awareness. As long as people look to the differences between cultures, races, ethnicity’s and religions, mistrust, fear and conflict are natural responses. Conversely, seeing the similarities that exist can help instill compassion and peace.

Back in 1998, I returned from my first series of extended travel through Asia. As a person who has held values of peace and equality since childhood, all I saw during that journey were the similarities between different peoples. At day’s end, families and friends would gather over a meal, sharing stories of their day in a loving environment. Festivals, religious events and cultural celebrations would see a coming together of communities. Parents would work hard and sacrifice plenty in order to try to give their children as many opportunities as possible. At the essence of it all was a desire for peace, happiness, harmony and love, wishes that are universal in extent.

It would have been easy to focus on the differences instead. For most of the world, religion plays a very important role in life. For what it’s worth, I’m not religious and was raised in an environment without it, so even something like Christianity which is the predominant religion in the west is relatively unfamiliar to me. Yet coming from this athiest background, it was easy for me to see that all expressions of religion, no matter what God(s) was invoked, is a search for peace and comfort. The deity may be different and the rituals differ but to my eyes, the intentions and hopes are the same.

Over the years, I’ve had two separate stints working for major NGO’s in a full time fundraising capacity. In 1998, I worked for Greenpeace Australia and in 2002 for Amnesty International. On both occasions, something that was said in passing during that time has stuck with me. While at Greenpeace, one of the campaigners told me that Greenpeace’s most important job was “bearing witness”. Recording and documenting environmental abuses and bringing it to the attention of the general public and their governments. At Amnesty, raising awareness was the key. Showing the public evidence of human rights violations throughout the world gives them the opportunity to make a contribution that helps saves lives.

Those two concepts, of bearing witness and raising awareness, are ones that have become deeply ingrained in me. By being able to visit, live in and photograph other, often misunderstood, cultures and subcultures, I’m given the responsibility to share this with the world. I see this as one of the areas where IGVP can really benefit humanity.

As a photographer, particularly one in the travel and cultural fields, IGVP gives me the chance to work with and interact with other visual communicators who share the same or similar values. If you recognize any of these characteristics in yourself or share these values, I urge you to join IGVP today.

As a little extra incentive for you to join, I’m going to give something away. The guys at BlackRapid sent me a couple of their famed R-Straps to give as prizes on my blog. I’ve saved one of them, the RS-DR1 double strap to give to someone who joins IGVP. There are a couple of conditions first.

1) Join IGVP as a Standard or Premium member. This competition is not open to members with free accounts only.

2) Create a peacemaker profile on the IGVP site. Upload some content, add a bio, create a photo story.

3) In the comments section here, tell me why you’re joining IGVP? What does visual peacemaking mean to you? As well, leave a link to your IGVP profile. You can get an idea of what it could look like by taking a look at my profile here.

EDIT : The competition is now closed. You can still leave a comment but it won’t get counted towards the RS-DR1.

The winner of the Black Rapid RS-DR1 will be chosen based on both the comment here and the completeness of your IGVP profile. You have until midnight GMT Friday to get it done.

For an extra chance at winning, sport an IGVP banner on your own personal blog. Leave a link to that in the comments as well. The banner looks like the one below.

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