Earlier this year at Blue Earth Alliance’s Collaborations for Cause Conference, PhotoWings sat down with award-winning photojournalists and industry leaders to talk about the importance of collaboration. The group reflected on their wealth of experience producing dynamic and creative content, and how others can use the power of teamwork.

Featuring (in order of appearance):

Watch: Additional interviews and presentations from Collaborations for Cause

Amy Benson

Amy Benson is the co-owner of Nonfiction Media, a production company in Seattle. She has shot and edited over 25 short films telling the stories of nonprofits in the Pacific Northwest, Africa and Asia. Her personal documentary short Three: Impressions from the Struggle for Girls’ Education was the centerpiece of the UNIFEM Singapore film festival. Another short, Called to Shine, about Clarksdale, Mississippi’s only female preacher, premiered at the Langston Hughes film festival. Her very first short about the life in a local homeless encampment won awards from SIFF and The Seattle Times. She produced and directed her first feature film, Drawing the Tiger, in 2015. The film is a documentary project about a family in Nepal living on less than a dollar a day that wins the globalization jackpot: a charity scholarship for their daughter to go to school in the capital city. She promises to return to free her family from poverty, but ultimately does not. Drawing the Tiger is an intimate portrait of the price one family pays for their golden opportunity.

Daniel Beltrá

Born in Madrid, Spain, Daniel Beltrá is a photographer based in Seattle, Washington. Daniel is known for his large scale environmental photography, shot from the air. Over the past two decades, Beltrá’s work has taken him to all seven continents, including several expeditions to the Brazilian Amazon, the Arctic, the Southern Oceans and the Patagonian ice fields. For his work on the Gulf Oil Spill, in 2011 he received the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award and the Lucie Award for the International Photographer of the Year - Deeper Perspective. His SPILL photos toured the world independently and as part of the Prix Pictet exhibitions. In 2009, Beltrá received the prestigious Prince’s Rainforest Project award granted by Prince Charles. Other highlights include the BBVA Foundation award in 2013 and the inaugural “Global Vision Award” from the Pictures of the Year International in 2008. In 2007 and 2006 he received awards for his work in the Amazon from World Press Photo. Daniel’s work has been published by the most prominent international publications including The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, Le Monde, and El Pais, amongst many others. Daniel Beltrá is a fellow and board member of the prestigious International League of Conservation Photographers.

Jeff Cappella

Jeff Cappella is a communications professional with 15 years of experience in advocacy and campaign communications, including more than 6 years management level experience.  He is currently the Senior Program Director of Resource Media, a mission-driven nonprofit working to improve the health of people and the planet and to build a more just and equitable world by using sharp strategies and a clear roadmap to power and sustain change. A main project of Resource Media is the VisualStoryLab, an educational project that stems from the idea that it is not only important to teach how people tell stories in pursuit of social change, but why it matters.

Greg Constantine

Greg Constantine is a self-taught documentary photographer from the United States. After working years in jobs related to the music industry, he changed careers in 2002 and began working on long-term documentary projects. In 2005, he moved to Asia and began work on his long-term project, Nowhere People, which documents the struggles and plight of stateless communities around the world. Constantine has spent the past ten years documenting stateless communities from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Dominican Republic, Ukraine, Serbia, Italy, Holland, Iraq, Kuwait and Lebanon. His work has been recognized in Pictures of the Year International, NPPA Best of Photojournalism, the Human Rights Press Awards (Hong Kong), International Photography Awards, and the Harry Chapin Media Award for Photojournalism, among others. He is a two-time grant recipient of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, three-time grant recipient of the National Endowment for Democracy and the Oak Foundation. Since 2006, his work has also been supported through the non-profit fiscal sponsorship of Blue Earth Alliance. He has collaborated and has been commissioned to work on projects with international organizations such as: UNHCR, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Refugees International, Medecins Sans Frontieres, World Food Program and the Open Society Foundations. He is currently based in SE Asia.

Tim Greyhavens

Tim Greyhavens is the Executive Director of the Wilburforce Foundation, and oversees the administrative, financial and planning functions of the Foundation, including coordinating the work of six program areas. He also serves as program officer for Wilburforce's Conservation Law and Policy Program, focusing on National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and conservation voter campaigns. As part of his foundation work he has served on both the Management Board of the Environmental Grantmakers Association and on the Board of Directors of the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity. Recently he was one of four philanthropic leaders on the national Task Force to Shape the Partnership for America's Great Outdoors. Tim has been with Wilburforce since it was founded in 1991. Prior to that he worked for more than twenty years with wildlife protection and animal welfare organizations, including the International Snow Leopard Trust and the Humane Society of the United States. In addition to his foundation work he is an accomplished wildlife and nature photographer, and his images have been shown in galleries across North America.

Tom Kennedy

Tom Kennedy is an internationally-known visual journalist with extensive experience in print and online journalism, including positions as Managing Editor for Multimedia at The Washington Post and Director of Photography for the National Geographic Magazine. He has created, directed, and edited visual journalism projects that have earned Pulitzer Prizes, as well as EMMY, Peabody, and Edward R. Murrow awards. Currently, he is Executive Director for American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP). As the Managing Editor for Multimedia at washingtonpost.com, Kennedy conceptualized and developed its multimedia section, and created the first documentary video team to produce stories for a newspaper website. Prior to joining washingtonpost.com, Kennedy was the Director of Photography at the National Geographic Society for ten years. He directed the Photographic Division that produced all still photography for the Society, with the primary focus on National Geographic Magazine. While at the Philadelphia Inquirer as Deputy Graphics Director, Kennedy directed and edited two projects that earned Pulitzer Prizes for feature photography. Kennedy serves on the Board of Directors for the Eddie Adams Photo Workshop and has served previously on the Board of Advisors for The Knight Center for International Journalism within the School of Communication at the University of Miami, and the Board of Visitors for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He has also been an advisor to visual journalism programs at the University of North Texas and University of Florida. Kennedy graduated cum laude with a degree in journalism from the University of Florida.

Roger Ressmeyer

Roger Ressmeyer is a photographer, filmmaker, and CEO. Roger began his photography career as a rock n’ roll photographer and celebrity shooter before making the transition to science photographer and film stock agency executive. He has worked on assignment for Rolling Stone, Newsweek, LIFE, Time, Smithsonian, and National Geographic. He owned and operated the Starlight Photo Agency for 14 years until July 1995, when it, along with more than a half-million of his images, became the first major acquisition by Corbis, Bill Gates’ privately-owned image archive. Following this transition, Ressmeyer held senior management positions first at Corbis and then at Getty Images. In 2005, he again struck out on his own and founded Science Faction, a leading photo agency that focused on technology and space-related images. In 2012, Science Faction was acquired by SuperStock, clearing the way for Ressmeyer to start a film project he’s been planning since 1989. His deep passion for science and spirituality is the fuel behind Ressmeyer’s latest venture, the Visions of Tomorrow Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational foundation focused on building awareness for scientific and spiritual solutions that address the world’s biggest problems. For the foundation he is working on a new documentary feature film, currently in pre-production, that will bring together the world’s leading scientists, engineers and spiritual leaders to explore solutions to some of our planet’s biggest challenges – from climate change to inequality and war.

Louie Schwartzberg 

Louie Schwartzberg is an award-winning producer, director and cinematographer whose notable career spans more than three decades. Louie is credited by many with pioneering the contemporary stock footage industry by founding Energy Film Library, a global company, which was acquired by Getty Images in 1997. His recent theatrical releases include the 3D IMAX film “Mysteries of the Unseen World” with National Geographic, narrated by Forest Whitaker, and “Wings of Life,” a feature-length documentary for Disneynature, narrated by Meryl Streep. One of Louie's most recent projects is on Visual Healing, a program designed to enhance, improve and inspire the built environment by bringing full sensory solutions to the $2 trillion wellness and eco-lifestyle marketplaces. He was recognized as one of the “Top 70 Cinematographers” for the On Film Kodak Salute Series. Schwartzberg was also recently honored and humbled to receive the NAAPC Pollinator Protector award.

Scott Squire

Scott is a lifelong photographer with a master’s degree in journalism (UC Berkeley). His work on a homeless children living in Bucharest earned him the Dorothea Lange Fellowship and the Susan Meiselas Fellowship from UC Berkeley, and his photo essay on Cairo street café culture was featured on PBS’s Frontline World website. His first book, Edges of Bounty (2009, Heyday Press), is a fine art documentary photo essay on small scale, independent food production in the Central Valley of California. His first feature film was Drawing the Tiger, where he served as Producer, Director, and Director of Photography. The film is a documentary project about a family in Nepal living on less than a dollar a day that wins the globalization jackpot: a charity scholarship for their daughter to go to school in the capital city. She promises to return to free her family from poverty, but ultimately does not. Drawing the Tiger is an intimate portrait of the price one family pays for their golden opportunity.

Sara Terry

Sarah Terry is an award-winning documentary photographer, filmmaker, and journalist. She is a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow in Photography and a member of IATSE Local 600. She is the founder and artistic director of The Aftermath Project, a grant-making, educational non-profit founded on the premise that “War is Only Half the Story.” In addition to this work, Sarah is a teacher, focusing on the aftermath of war and visual literacy. She has given lectures at The Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles and TedXNashville, as well as teaching The Community Storytelling Project at Venice Arts.

Alasdair Turner

Alasdair Turner is a photographer, AMGA-certified rock guide, and mountaineer. Born in Scotland, Alasdair grew up in a family of farmers and engineers, and initially chose chemistry (University of Oregon) as his field before becoming a photographer. Most recently, Alasdair devoted his career to and found his home in Antarctica, engaging science as an ambassador to the natural world. His project documenting the McMurdo Sound Region of Antarctica is “intended to emotionally and scientifically engage citizens of every nation about why this place and the incredible science that is being conducted there matters. It will give life to and investigate the science of the region from the earliest expeditions to today’s ongoing research.”

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