Natalie Fobes: Trust & photographic subjects

At the Blue Earth Alliance's Collaborations for Cause conference, documentary photographer Natalie Fobes sat down with PhotoWings to offer inspirational stories from her career, as well as her insights into the photographic medium. No stranger to the power of photography to create change, she may be best remembered for her harrowing coverage of the Exxon Valdez disaster in the pages of National Geographic. Fobes founded the Blue Earth Alliance along with Phil Borges in 1996 to act as an aid for documentary photographers who seek to create positive change through their storytelling.

How does Natalie approach people in order to photograph them? She is keen to stay honest with the subjects about the use of the photographs and never deliberately intends to make others look bad, whether she was covering the Exxon Valdez spill or shooting stock photography. Natalie also relates a story about a special connection she had to a subject while working in Siberia.

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