Interview by David Walker

The photographers' collective NOOR was founded in Amsterdam in 2007 with a mission to pool resources and interests to produce, exhibit and promote both individual and group projects by  its members. Managing director Claudia Hinterseer recently spoke to PDN about a group project called “Consequences” that highlights the social impact of climate change in different parts of the world. The project was timed to coincide with the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen starting December 7.

PDN: How did the Consequences project come about?
Claudia Hinterseer: Since we started NOOR two years ago, we’ve always wanted to work together to tell an in-depth story widely. We wanted to work on a project that has impact, visibility, is current, and shows we can work as group and bring out an important issue in an extensive way. Last summer, we realized that the stories we spend time working on are connected to climate change. We thought this [Consequences project] was a good way of putting all of our strengths together.

PDN: How do you think the images might influence the outcome of the summit in Copenhagen?
C.H.: We want to influence the discussions by creating awareness, and by showing what’s going on in the world [because of climate change] right now. Not what’s going to happen, not in terms of abstracts, but what’s happening now.  We got a lot of publications on board to publicize the project, including publications that delegates will be reading on their way to the summit. Afterwards, we will to travel with the exhibit, and create an educational package for schools.

PDN: What about multimedia online? Are MediaStorm-style productions in the works?
C.H.: From every story, we’re creating a two to three minute multimedia product. There are a few that are already on the blog.

PDN: How were the individual stories selected?
C.H.: We talked about the causes and effects of climate change. A lot of the problems are created in the Western World, so we wanted at least two stories from North America. Europe had to be included, and Russia, because it’s a big polluter. We looked at geographical spreads, and [photographers’] interests, and we looked for balance, covering the entire issue and having people work on topics that were in certain ways close to them. For example, the fact that Yuri (Kozyrev) is Russian and traveled through Russia makes sense because he speaks the language, and has good contacts. Philip Blenkinsop went to Jharia (India) and Kolkata because he’s worked in Bangladesh previously and knew a lot of climate refugees go to Kolkata.
         
The point wasn’t to focus on nature, but to focus on how climate change affects people. For checking facts we approached several NGOs that are concerned about these issues, more or less to have them [vet] the topics. We felt we couldn’t make mistakes. For example, there is an island group in South Pacific that some organizations say are disappearing due to rising sea level, but some scientists say it’s because the islands are sinking. So we decided it didn’t fit our project, because the causes are not clear.

PDN: Some of these stories are a departure from the topics these photographers usually cover. Can you comment on that?
C.H.: Philip Blenkinsop has been working on environmental topics for years. But it’s true: for some of the photographers, it’s not completely down their street, as we say in Dutch. Nina Berman’s story on pine beetles is different from the [war veteran] work she’s done in the US, but at same time, she has always worked on the impacts of big issues on society. So the Consequences project connects from a social perspective to the type of work that she and others have been doing.

PDN: How did you fund travel and expenses for the photographers?
C.H.: Nikon Europe agreed to provide a fair amount of money that covered everybody’s travel and expenses. After that, we started approaching magazines and other editorial outlets interested in publishing the story, so we raised more money that way. And we approached different organizations about sponsoring project parts.

PDN: How did you pitch the idea to Nikon?
C.H. It was a long process. When we launched NOOR, we decided to have our home base in Amsterdam, which hosts the headquarters of a lot of NGOs, and the European headquarters of Nikon and Canon. Nikon approached us once for an editorial project they wanted to do. That started a relationship. One of our missions is to share knowledge, so we asked Nikon to support a workshop for [emerging documentary] photographers.  The first one was held in Lagos, Nigeria. Nikon financed that. We came to an agreement where they would help us fund a once-a-year educational project (the next will be in St. Petersburg) and a once-a-year big group project.

PDN: How did you target and solicit other sponsors, and how are they helping?
C.H.: We listed the kinds of things we wanted to realize. We thought it would be important to reach out to the decision makers. At the Copenhagen summit, the delegates, researchers, and scientists will be in a closed-off space. It is controlled by the UN, and the only NGO allowed access is Greenpeace. It was clear to us that Greenpeace was an organization to talk to. We arranged for them to host our exhibition right in front of the venue [where delegates will see it]. Of course, activists and demonstrators are also important to us, so we came up with idea of outdoor exhibition. A rough way of doing that is by putting up posters, so we asked OxFam International if they were interested in working with us by sponsoring the [poster] production and distribution. We approached various organizations about what we are doing, and luckily there are a lot of people who think it’s an important story.

PDN: Does NOOR expect to make money, lose money, or break even?
C.H.: We will make some money but see it absolutely as a branding campaign. What we really want to do is show the issues at stake and that we’re capable of doing projects like that at a really high level, and that the quality is really good, even though it was put together in a very limited amount of time. Next year we want to continue the project, focusing on what we can do about climate change. Hopefully, one day we will produce a book. We also want to connect to educational project we’re doing. So when we’re doing the [workshop] in St. Petersberg, all participants will get an assignment related to climate change. There are a lot of ways we want to go.

www.consequencesbynoor.com