Future directions of professional photographers: A case study of changing hats between journalism and humanitarian photography

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the professional values of self-employed photographers and other communication professionals who have worked for both journalism and humanitarian nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). These professionals face the current changes in the media work environment and expand their reach to different fields to find new work opportunities. The study focuses on the photographers’ motivations and professional values in addition to NGO–journalism relations. The findings show that pushing factors in the journalistic field, along with pulling factors in NGO work, motivate photographers to choose advocacy work. When photographers change from photojournalism to NGO photography, they must adhere to new professional values and ethics that mix with their existing values and which may occasionally contradict with photojournalistic working methods or the marketing and fundraising images at the NGOs, causing ethical dilemmas. Finally, photographers with a photojournalism background help NGOs gain news media publicity, yet they are rarely able to change the news agenda.