What’s special about this particular project?

Meet Your Neighbours uses a very distinctive style of photography

to stop the viewer in their tracks. Each subject is photographed

in a backlit white field studio. This technique not only shows it in

great detail but reveals its translucent qualities too. Set against

a pure white background, each subject becomes a celebrity, an

individual rather than merely a member of an ecosystem. This is

specialised work that very few photographers are practiced in.

Meet Your Neighbours provides the materials for the set and a

training DVD to participating photographers.

Why get involved?

• Photography is the core component of any successful

conservation campaign: it can elicit an emotional response

from the viewer more effectively than words, especially if it is

good photography.

• This project provides the chance for your organisation to

acquire a royalty free collection of high quality photographs

that can be used for many years to come. Thanks to its

unique look (one that is appearing more regularly in National

Geographic) the photography will give your campaigns a

distinct appearance. The clarity and simplicity of the pictures

also makes them perfect for educational use.

• The focus of the project is on “local”. As such, the material is

perfect for the essential grass-roots public engagement work.

Back yard plants and animals are ambassadors for less wild

places.

• People often pay more attention to what’s on their own

doorstep when those outside their community express interest

in it. The Meet Your Neighbours project, through its website,

can provide an international platform for the local issues you

campaign on.

What is “Meet your neighbours”?

Meet Your Neighbours is a photographic project that aims to

connect people with the wildlife in their communities that is often

over-looked and undervalued. This matters because for many,

most people, these neighbourhood plants and animals are

usually their first, perhaps only, contact with wild nature. Without

this first hand experience, it is hard to build a concern for the

wider natural environment. The core message: “biodiversity

begins at home’.

F a c t S h e e t f o r N G O P a r t n e r s

Who is behind the project?

Meet Your Neighbours is run by Clay Bolt (US) and Niall

Benvie (Scotland). Both are long-standing professional outdoor

photographers with a passion for “the local” and Niall is a

founding fellow of the International League of Conservation

Photographers.

For full professional profiles please visit the links below:

• Clay: www.claybolt.com

• Niall: www.niallbenvie.com

The list of endorsing organisations, including the ILCP, is growing

and the project is part-funded by the Royal Zoological Society

of Scotland.

What is the coMMitMent?

ere’s how it works: you commission a partner

photographer to make the photographs and acquire

all-time rights (for your organisation’s use) to the

pictures that he or she shoots during the Meet Your Neighbours

commission. The form of payment for this commission is to

be agreed between the NGO and the photographer: while

Meet Your Neighbours strongly believes that the photographer

should receive proper financial remuneration, we realise that in

some parts of the world this may not be possible and ask each

partner to be creative in finding an arrangement that benefits

both. This may include accessing external funding through

your organisation’s usual channels: MYN places no restriction

on sponsorship deals with third parties and will cooperate in

acknowledging their assistance to participating photographers.

This sort of photography isn’t readily available and as such, its

value should be reflected in negotiations. Meet Your Neighbours

does not pay photographers.

We suggest close cooperation between NGO and photographer

so that you get coverage of all the species you need. For the

first three years after the commission is completed, Meet Your

Neighbours also has rights to the pictures too, after which they

revert to the photographer, as well as the NGO.