HP and CARE bring uplifting images of women living in difficult conditions to life

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HP photographers document CARE's "I am Powerful" campaign to raise awareness of the role of women in impoverished countries.

In the fight against global poverty, a single image can be worth a thousand words — and a single woman can make a world of difference.

HP and the humanitarian organization CARE have joined efforts to document CARE's "I am Powerful" campaign through advanced digital image reproduction. The campaign's efforts are focused on helping women through community-based programs to improve education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. To capture the essence of the campaign, HP sent five teams of two photographers — one master photographer and one advanced student — to CARE projects in Angola, Cambodia, Egypt, India and Peru.

Valenda Campbell, senior photo editor at CARE views HP as a natural partner. "HP and CARE have a shared appreciation of the power of visual imagery," she said. "HP has demonstrated this appreciation through their product quality over the years, and CARE has demonstrated this with how we communicate about our work with a very strong presence of photography."

Coinciding with HP's September launch of a new family of large format printers for creative professionals — the HP Designjet Z2100 and Z3100 Photo Printer series — the project will use HP Vivera pigment inks to produce exquisite, museum-quality 8- and 12-color prints — which can resist fading for as long as 200 years.⁽¹⁾ The teams will also use the latest technologies in digital photography, digital printing, photo management software and design tools to bring CARE's images to life, including products from Adobe®, Hasselblad and GretagMacbeth/X-Rite. The images will be showcased in a variety of events and in CARE's annual report, website, press releases, brochures and presentations.

A stunning impression

"Our organization does see photography as one of our most valuable assets, and we use it everywhere," Campbell said. "Photographs transcend all language barriers." Nick Rabinowitz, web editor at CARE, said that having strong photography is key. "Photographs offer an immediate emotional engagement that is a lot quicker and more effective as a way of connecting with our audience than text might be."

After joining the photography teams in India, Rabinowitz witnessed firsthand how women are changing their lives and their communities through CARE-supported microfinance groups. Local women pooled their money and allowed individual women to take out loans at a fair interest rate — something these women have never had before. Rabinowitz said a lot of the women were able to lift their families out of poverty with the help of the loans. "In one group, the women told me, 'Before we were just housewives. Now we're shop owners and business women,'" he said.

"When it's successful, our photography immediately tells you something about CARE's work," Rabinowitz said. "The fact that we can show our subjects with dignity tells you something right away about how we view the people we work with."

The power to change

The "I am Powerful" campaign is a new, engaging way for CARE to present its work. The CARE team hopes that HP's images will encourage people to get involved with the organization, donate or simply start a dialogue about poverty around the world.

Campbell said HP's support will make it possible to gather and tell specific stories about these women — their struggles and their triumphs.

"We're able to show a great deal of success: how communities have improved their circumstances, how women have realized their latent potential and how they're empowered now," she said. "There's an uplifting feeling of possibility and progress."

Campbell said the HP/CARE partnership is already a success. "It's going to highlight some of the greatest strengths of both HP and CARE. They've been great to work with."

To learn more about CARE and its "I am Powerful" campaign, please visit http://www.care.org.

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