When we launched the Visual Story Lab website less than a month ago, all we knew was that we were addressing a need we had seen in our work promoting social change over the last fifteen years. Resource Media is a strategic communications firm, so it is our job to track trends in the science and practice of our craft. In our work in the field, we saw our partners wrestle with how to tell their stories. At the same time, we saw technology give birth to a new golden age of photography that allows the sharing of pictures in new and revolutionary ways.
So we knew the need we were seeing. What we didn’t know is how many of you were asking many of the same questions about how to use pictures to connect with audiences in new and powerful ways.
Now we know. Almost three thousand people have downloaded our guide “Seeing is Believing” in less than a month. You come from six continents and represent pretty much the full gamut of issues, from social justice to personal faith; from helping children to supporting seniors, from local community service to global health and poverty relief. This range of issues is particularly heartening to us. While our own bread and butter has been working with groups promoting conservation, public health and strong communities, we have learned through experience that real change happens when you bust the siloes between issues. Environment, equity, economic development, education and health are all interrelated. One can’t move forward in lasting ways without the others.
Visual Story Lab offers a wonderful opportunity for us to connect with one another through learning. We look forward to sharing stories about what is and isn’t working in visual communications on our website and as a regular feature in our newsletter. We will have plenty of our own experiences to share, but this learning community will really come alive in the coming months if we hear from you. We look forward to hearing about your successes and we will pass them along. We also look forward to hearing about obstacles you encounter in using pictures so we can help you and others overcome them.
We are humbled and excited to be in regular communication with so many new people doing so much good and important work in so many places. A thousand welcomes!