March 1, 2015 | Read Time: 2 minutes
As one of the first female photographers to work for National Geographic, Annie Griffiths has traveled to the planet’s wildest and most remote corners, photographed in more than 150 countries, and witnessed firsthand the plight of poor women and girls in the developing world.
Too often she sees news organizations present these women as victims, focusing on topics like sex trafficking, female genital mutilation, and rape as a tool of war. Lost amid those lurid issues are broader ones, she says, like the impact of climate change on women, who suffer disproportionately in the wake of natural disasters.
Determined to change the focus—and eager to help steer more support to women and girls—Ms. Griffiths in 2010 started Ripple Effect Images, a nonprofit photo agency in Washington. The group recruits acclaimed female photojournalists, videographers, and writers who offer their skills pro bono to charities abroad that serve girls and women. As Ms. Griffiths puts it, her group produces “photographic evidence of success.”
Ripple creates films that groups can use to raise attention and money, plus plenty of photographs suitable for websites, brochures, and fundraising appeals. Those materials, Ms. Griffiths says, have helped nonprofits raise at least $1-million over the past four years.
Her organization shot a documentary for Pardada Pardadi Educational Society (at lower right), a program in Northern India that creates bank accounts for its female students. When the girls graduate, the money is theirs. Using the video in its fundraising, the nonprofit raised enough to expand into a modern facility that enrolls 1,300 students.
The dollars raised prove the nonprofit can help give people more than statistics in fundraising appeals. “When you can look into a girl’s eyes, into the reality of her life, how a mother is with her children, her girlfriends, it’s an instant bridge,” says Ms. Griffiths. “Hey, this person is not so different from me—and I can do something to make her life better.’ ”
