Job Opportunity

For the past 6 years I have been a full-time staff shooter for an international relief organization called Food For The Poor, which is based in Florida and works throughout the Caribbean and Central America. Our second photographer is leaving and we are planning to rehire the position in the new year. This is a wonderful opportunity for someone who wants to make a tangible difference in the world through their photography. After working in newspapers for 10 years I have found this work to be very fulfilling. And there is nothing like having all your travel expenses paid and getting health benefits to do something you love. I usually travel one or two weeks a month.

However, as idyllic as it sounds, this may not be the job for everyone: you must relocate to South Florida (Fort Lauderdale area), the pay is probably $35,000-$40,000, (but I don’t set the figure and experience will dictate), there will be all the restrictions of being a staff photographer (organization owns the copyrights, desk work, meetings, your best photos may not be used or they will be used in unflattering ways, i.e with type, blurred edges, etc., when not traveling the office hours are 8:30-5 and in the field you are on someone else’s dime so you don’t have complete freedom to do anything you want, but there is flexibility. And last but not least, this is a Christian organization and while religion is not forced upon you, it will be around you all the time. (I am not a religious person but have found it tolerable enough to stay 6 years in order to do the work I like to do.)

All that withstanding, there are other avenues for your work to be seen and I have been able to shoot long-term stories on the side of my regular work in the field. I currently have a distribution agreement with ZUMA for that work and have had some things published in newspapers like the Palm Beach Post. For the organization, most of your work will appear in direct mail, newsletters, annual reports, calendars and such.

Qualified candidates should have a college degree, a least a couple years experience in photojournalism, the ability to work well with a creative team of writers, designers and strategists. Having done some work abroad is preferred but not required. As a way to guage what sort of things you can do through this job, you can take a look at my personal website: http://www.documentaryvision.com/ And for some more recent work take a look at ZReportage where 4 of my stories have been featured in the last 6 months: http://www.zreportage.com/

If you are seriously interested please contact me for more information and application instructions.

Regards,

Ben Rusnak
benr@foodforthepoor.com

by Benjamin Rusnak at 2006-09-29 20:53:24 UTC (ed. Mar 12 2008 ) South Florida , United States | Bookmark | | Report spam→